10 TIPS FOR SUCCESSFUL FACILITATION -
GO FOR RESULTS!

by Jane Sanders

As 2008 speeds toward its second quarter, executives’ minds are whirling with ongoing and newly hatched problems and opportunities. In many cases, their minds are spinning and groaning simultaneously.

Groans be gone! Skilled managers of any size company, department or team can facilitate a productive and effective meeting, walking out with specific goals and action plans addressed and achieved. Below are 10 tips to help managers facilitate more successfully.

To further ensure success, if possible, use a professional facilitator for your problem solving, brainstorming, and Best Practices sessions, and team-building and strategic planning meetings/retreats. This strategy ensures objective and expert work, sends a message to the group that the meeting is of considerable importance, significantly diffuses any potential conflict and contentious tone, and helps both plan and achieve desired goals and objectives. A professional facilitator can also help set realistic expectations for the group relevant to process, tone, purpose, and behavior.

10 Tips for More Effective Facilitation

1. Identify clear objectives. What specifically do you want to leave the meeting with? An action plan for achieving fiscal year 2008 goals? An employee recognition program? More productive work processes? Cost-saving ideas? Customer service ideas? Organized sharing of best practices? Solutions to a specific problem? Guided feedback on selected issues? Be very specific and clear about exactly what you want to accomplish in the meeting.
    

2. Plan the agenda. Determine activities to accomplish your objectives, and the time required for each. Include time for opening comments, instructions, breaks, lunch, etc. Don’t schedule too tightly, as meeting segments and activities often take longer than estimated, especially debriefing and discussion of small group activities.
    

3. Establish and post ground rules. Effective ground rules communicate a professional tone and set appropriate expectations. They can include timeliness (begin and end at the announced times, including breaks, regardless of late arrivals), participation (encourage participants to contribute and ask questions), respect for others, commitment to the meeting’s objectives, open-mindedness, no rejection of ideas, no side-talking, confidentiality, trust, a volunteer spirit, taking notes, no cell phones or pagers, etc.
    

4. Use effective facilitation skills. Choose a credible, objective facilitator, someone experienced with facilitation, and preferably with no attachment to outcomes. As recommended above an outside professional facilitator may be your best choice. Suggested facilitation skills include but are not limited to: Be friendly and sensitive but focused, firm, non-judgmental, committed to results, knowledgeable about group dynamics, and aware of time parameters. Reduce first-offense side-talking by walking over and standing next to the distracted offenders. Be a little more direct with repeat offenders - remind the group (not the offender specifically) that they have a lot to accomplish in little time and they need everyone’s attention and contribution in order to get the best results. If the tone becomes contentious or aggressive, remind the group of its commitment to the objectives, thank the participant for his/her involvement and passion, respond to the issue to the degree appropriate for the situation, then move attention to another volunteer or question. Watch time closely and stay on track.
    

5. Create a name. Assuming enough time in the session and several activities to be completed by small groups, ask them (see Tips #7,8) to take 5-10 minutes and brainstorm a name for their team to help establish a bond, commonality, and commitment. This tip is small but mighty. Small group names also generate ownership, camaraderie, and a little friendly competition.
    

6. Use warm-up and creativity exercises. These activities help the group focus on matters at hand, work together more effectively, think outside the box, and have fun. Appropriate exercises are described in training books/guides available from most large bookstore chains or online.
    

7. Employ the small-group approach. Meetings consisting of more than 5-6 participants should split into small groups of 4-6 to maximize everyone’s involvement and help ensure a variety of solutions. Depending on the number of objectives to tackle, and the time available, either both groups can work on the same things concurrently, or one group can address 2 goals and the other group the remaining goals.
    

8. Manage the small groups. For every activity, first determine a leader for each small group. Then assign the specific goal and parameters, and monitor the time. For example, parameters for an action plan include specific action steps, by whom (this is why the volunteer spirit is an important ground rule), by what date, resources needed, and milestones to measure progress. Each group records and reports their findings, and then the entire group determines the best course of action, usually a combination of all small groups’ suggestions. Keep in mind that consensus by the entire group of each team’s findings often takes more time that the brainstorming itself. Remember that complete consensus is not always possible.
    

9. Schedule and assign next steps. Determine who will do what specific action step by what date. The facilitator should summarize and distribute all findings to the entire group. It is vital to schedule regular follow-up meetings to maintain momentum and ensure plans or solutions are being implemented appropriately.
    

10. Close with a wrap-up activity. End the meeting or retreat with a ‘warm-fuzzy’ exercise to further bond the group, reinforce findings, and disband on a positive note. One such activity, “Share A Thought”, involves participants writing a response per facilitator instructions on a separate sheet of paper. For example, “the best thing about working here is…” or, “an important thing I learned today is…” Everyone wads their papers up and throws them across the room, then picks one up. Volunteers share the thoughts written on the paper they picked up.

Meetings are notoriously unproductive! Break away from average results and facilitate a high-energy, fun, very successful session. Preparation of this nature is critical to continued success, teamwork and growth. Don’t fall into the comfortable yet high-risk lull of just taking what comes…plan now and follow these steps to help ensure the future vitality and success of your department, team, off-site, or planning session.

Jane Sanders, president of GenderSmart^® Solutions, is a consultant, speaker, trainer, and facilitator located in Malibu, CA. Combining an MBA with several group psychology courses and over 30 years of successful business experience, Jane uses expertise in meeting facilitation, teamwork, motivation, planning, sales, marketing, and creativity enhancement. Jane teaches facilitation and as a consultant, effectively facilitates groups, teams, and meetings of various lengths, agendas, and industries. She is a gender issues and communications expert who often uses facilitation as one of her tools to achieve clients’ objectives. Reach Jane toll-free at 877-343-2150, or email her at jane@janesanders.com  Jane’s website is http://www.janesanders.com.

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