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Facilitation Skills 

Facilitation is often referred to as the new cornerstone of management philosophy. With its focus on fairness and creating an easy decision making, facilitation can make any organization make better decisions. This workshop will give participants an understanding of what facilitation is all about, as well as some tools that they can use to facilitate small meetings.

Managers who fail to learn facilitation skills are getting buried. Their traditional “direct control” approach to managing just does not work when there is so much to do and so little time to do it     Richard Weaver & John Farrell

What is Facilitation
Facilitation is a manner of handling group meetings in a way that takes the focus away from just one leader, and instead distributes leadership to all members of the group. There is premium on democracy, group involvement and cooperation. The focus is not just on getting things done, but also in feeling good about it.
Consultant Dave Sibbet defines facilitation as “the art of leading people through processes towards agreed-upon objectives in a manner that encourages participation, ownership and creativity from all involved.”
Facilitation is often contrasted with presentation, which is delivering information or decisions to a group. Facilitation is group-centered while presentation is leader-centered. For this reason, facilitation is incompatible with an autocratic management style.

Example of the difference between facilitation and presentation:
FACILITATION: “How do you think the company can solve this problem? Any ideas?”
PRESENTATION: “This is how we will solve the problem…”

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
• Define facilitation and identify its purpose and benefits.
• Clarify the role and focus of a facilitator.
• Differentiate between process and content in the context of a group discussion.
• Provide tips in choosing and preparing for facilitation.
• Identify a facilitator’s role when managing groups in each of Tuckman and Jensen’s stages of group development: forming, storming, norming and performing.
• Identify ways a facilitator can help a group reach a consensus: from encouraging participation to choosing a solution.
• Provide guidelines in dealing with disruptions, dysfunctions and difficult people in groups.
• Define what interventions are, when they are appropriate and how to implement them.

Facilitation Skills Course Outline:

Module One: Getting Started
Icebreaker - Ground rules - The parking lot - Workshop objectives - Action plans and evaluation forms
Module Two: Understanding Facilitation
What is Facilitation? - What is a Facilitator? - When is Facilitation Appropriate?
Module Three: Process vs. Content
About Process - About Content - A Facilitator's Focus
Module Four: Laying the Groundwork
Choosing a Facilitated Approach - Planning for a Facilitated Meeting - Collecting Data
Module Five: Tuckman and Jensen's Model of Team Development
Stage One: Forming - Stage Two: Storming - Stage Three: Norming - Stage Four: Performing
Module Six: Building Consensus
Encouraging Participation - Gathering Information - Presenting Information - Synthesizing and Summarizing
Module Seven: Reaching a Decision Point
Identifying the Options - Creating a Short List - Choosing a Solution - Using the Multi-Option Technique
Module Eight: Dealing with Difficult People
Addressing Disruptions - Common Types of Difficult People and How to Handle Them - Helping the Group Resolve Issues on Their Own
Module Nine: Addressing Group Dysfunction
Using Ground Rules to Prevent Dysfunction - Restating and Reframing Issues - Getting People Back on Track
Module Ten: About Intervention
Why Intervention May Be Necessary - When to Intervene - Levels of Intervention
Module Eleven: Intervention Techniques
Using Your Processes - Boomerang it Back - ICE It: Identity, Check for agreement, Evaluate how to Resolve
Module Twelve: Wrapping Up
Words from the Wise - Review of Parking Lot - Lessons Learned - Completion of Action Plans and Evaluations