Facilitation

Facilitation

Objectives

• Understand and explain facilitation

• Practice facilitating a group and giving feedback

on how to improve as a facilitator

Facilitation

• Facilitation is an important skill of leadership. It

is a social skill needed most often needed when

a group has to come to a consensus on a given

topic or have some form of two-way

communication.

What is a ‘Facilitator?’

• A guide, not a participant

• Uses open-ended questions to:

– Bring out creativity and insight

– Develop agreements

– Get to root of disagreements

• Objectively reveals differences in the group’s

understanding and provides a basis for resolution

What is a ‘Facilitator?’

• Assumes that every participant has an important

perspective to contribute

• Encourages naturally quiet people to participate and

naturally dominant people to listen

• Promotes clarity by enabling participants to contribute

their ideas

• Refrains from giving answers

Which hat might this person wear?

Blue Hat

With Blue Hat thinking you:

Think about thinking

“Chair” the discussion/meetings

Direct activity into Green Hat thinking

when running into difficulties because

ideas are running dry

Ask for Black Hat thinking, etc when

contingency plans are needed, they will

Note: Blue Hat thinking stands for process

control

Key Facilitation Skills

1. Managing the Context:

Communicate clearly why the group is meeting and where

the group is meeting. Establish good expectations for the

meeting.

2. Designing:

Think about and decide what format the meeting will take

and how to make the meeting interesting, e.g. some small

groups, some one-on-one discussion, etc.

Key Facilitation Skills

3. Conducting:

Facilitate the actual meeting with attention to all the

different facilitator skills identified here below.

4. Participating:

Clarify for yourself and others when you are contributing to

the discussion and when you are facilitating.

Key Facilitation Skills

5. Apprehending:

Notice what is going on in the group – non-verbal signals,

who is participating and who is not, what is going on just

beneath the surface that no one is talking about.

6. Diagnosing:

Decide if the meeting is moving in the right direction or

not, whether or not it is accomplishing the stated goals.

Key Facilitation Skills

7. Intervening:

Initiate action to get the group back on the right track;

address individual group members who may be disrupting

progress.

8. Closing:

Bring meetings to an effective conclusion, determine

what the important steps are, and who is responsible to

accomplish key tasks. Next meeting is clearly determined.

Key Facilitation Skills

Facilitation Practice

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Facilitation Practice (Write 3-5 Needs Statements)

A need statement describes the user’s need(s) and what the expected

results are. This formula can be used to articulate the need:

Formula: [User] seeks to [describe the need] in order to

[describe the desired result].

Examples:

1. [The crèche owner] seeks to [make the crèche financially sustainable] in order to

[pay the salaries of her staff].

2. [The 12-year old girl] seeks to [lead a healthy life and get an education] in order to

[start a family when she is ready].

3. [Thandi] seeks to [break out of the cycle of poverty] in order to [enable future

generations of her family to lead a decent and prosperous life].