This section covers activities and topics related to the meeting itself.
Start your facilitation experience by reading Kinsley’s “Art of Facilitation.” He describe the role of the facilitator as follows:
The best facilitators are positive, energetic, assertive, and respectful. They work well with a wide variety of people and are well organized. They’re willing to manage the group process and the flow of information without taking over or manipulating the group’s decisions. They ensure that all the members of a group fully participate and share in decisions, generating group commitment to the results...A smooth group process is your first priority. Your interest in influencing the outcome becomes secondary.
GATHER identifies twelve qualities of a good facilitator:
The following techniques are a good place to start, but as mentioned before, practice is the best way to solidify these skills and develop a unique facilitation style. The more your practice, the quicker you’ll find your groove and be able to share your techniques with your colleagues. There is always room for improvement.
Kinsley’s key facilitator techniques:
GATHER’s Facilitation Fundamentals:
See the attached for further detail.
In setting ground rules, you establish a social contract with your participants and build a constructive environment in which work can be done. These rules can also enable complex issues to be confronted and challenging work to be completed in a comfortable, collaborative setting.
Identify two to five rules before the meeting or actively engage participants to set rules at the beginning of the meeting -- actively engaging participants may help contribute to their sense of ownership in the workshop process. Regardless of how you set the rules, make sure you gain participant agreement at the beginning of the meeting and post the rules in a visible location for easy reference.
There is no standard package of rules: you will find that certain rules are more effective than others depending upon the meeting objectives. The following list will help you start thinking about the rules, but you should tailor to your specific needs.
Set up the room in a way that is conducive to discussion. Aim for everyone to be able to have eye contact with everyone else. The following are the best styles for collaborative meetings -- the last thing you want is an auditorium or classroom style setting that suggests that your participants are there to hear a lecture.
In addition to the physical set-up, prepare the following:
It is vital to record not only the major findings of the charrette but details from each breakout and plenary session, novel ideas, interesting comments, etc. Detailed notes and photos of Post-its and flip-charts will be used to create summary notes for participants following the meeting.
Assign at least one facilitator to take notes during plenary sessions and make sure each facilitator is aware of their responsibility to document the work their group produces during breakout sessions. You can create a template for structured recording of particular break out activities, which may speed-up the post-meeting data collection and organization.
If the budget allows, videographers, photographers, or even cartoonists documenting the meeting in real-time can provide unique and beneficial artifacts.
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