Facilitation is about making it easier for groups of people to understand each other's
point of view.
So sit back for a few moments and put aside responding to those urgent emails, as we share
some of the good stuff with you and highlight the poor practices you ought to be on the
lookout for... ...and may your business meetings be forever
improved.
The best facilitators carefully assess the needs of those in the meeting...
...They treat participants equally and work hard to stay neutral in all discussions...
A good facilitator knows how to use a wide range of process tools -- but they'll have
to be a story for another day, as there're just too many to review in this short video.
Getting back to best practices...
...A good facilitator creates an open and trusting atmosphere and helps participants
understand why they're there...
...They listen intently in order to fully understand what's being said -- and when speaking
themselves, use simple, direct language...
...Good facilitators work to make participants the centre of attention and take notes that
accurately reflect what participants mean...
Contrast this with some traits of bad facilitators.
These are the things to watch out for and avoid in your own business meetings whenever
possible.
Poor facilitators want to be the centre of attention.
They don't really bother checking in with the participants and seeing whether they have
any concerns.
They often fail to listen and end up losing track of key ideas...
...They also tend to be overly passive on process and let things amble on...
Ever been in a meeting like that?
Why you end up asking yourself, "Just what is going on here?", "Why are we doing all
this?"
You raise your concern and the facilitator puts you down?
Yep -- right there is another trait of bad facilitators.
They put people down and get defensive -- often about some relatively minor process issue.
Meetings run by these facilitators often end up being dominated by the team leader, or
some other strong voice.
Poor facilitators take poor notes.
Poor notes lead to poor decisions -- often based on what wasn't said.
In fact poor facilitators can be so preoccupied with making their poor notes that they fail
to check how the meeting is going and seem to be totally oblivious as to when to take
a break.
The very worst facilitators tend to push ahead with an irrelevant agenda, having no alternative
approaches to offer -- and criminally -- let discussions ramble on and on... and on and
on... without proper closure...
...Which is of course, a complete waste of everybody's time, so don't go there.
Good facilitators are willing to champion ideas they don't personally favour and find
ways of concluding meetings on an optimistic note.
In their concluding remarks good facilitators make sure their meetings end with clear steps
for the next meeting, ensuring that everybody is up to speed and understands what they have
to do.
So there you have it, a quick resume of the best and worst facilitator practices...
...What to do and what not to do.
Active Presence offers comprehensive facilitation skills training that will help you communicate
better in a team environment, and finish those complex projects on-time, within budget.
Have a look at the resource library on our website and download the free documents on
this subject today.