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training resources facilitating groups
Tips For Facilitating Groups
Facilitating groups is an important management skill that can really help a group achieve their goals, helping organisations to respond effectively to changing requirements and environments. The role of the facilitator is therefore to help the group make progress and find their own solution in the easiest and most effective way. Here are ten tips with practical facilitation techniques that will help you enhance your effectiveness at facilitating groups:
- 1. Mentally and physically prepare yourself as the facilitator: to get the best out of any group facilitation you undertake. Visualising yourself effectively facilitating the group before you start will ensure a successful outcome for both you and the group. Being in a positive state of mind and well rested will also help. Taking along your 'facilitator tool kit' with everything you are likely need for the group will ensure you are prepared for any needed change in working methodology.
- 2. Create the right environment: with plenty of space, informal seating, natural day light and tables at the side of the room for small group working where needed, as well as ensuring sufficient time has been arranged with the participants to achieve their goals.
- 3. Ensure the expected outcome/s or objectives are clear: by reviewing these with the group at the beginning of the meeting if established in advance of the meeting; or by establishing these with the group at the time.
- 4. Establish expectations: through your preferred method such as asking the expectations the participants have of you and each other, asking them to list their hopes and concerns of the meeting; or helping them to set their own 'ground rules' whilst working together i.e. acceptable behaviours.
- 5. Energise the group throughout the meeting: through their initial introductions, ice breaker, energisers when energy levels get low, regularly changing the activity, changing participant roles, moving participants around the room where physically able and focusing their discussion with questions, statements, summaries and reflections of what you have heard or observed from the group whilst remaining neutral.
- 6. Manage participation: whilst appreciating participant's communication styles may vary along with their quantity of verbal contributions. Draw out the quieter participants through small group work, asking a 'safe' question or establishing their opinion once the topic has been initially debated. Allocate different roles to the high frequency or noisy contributors such as minute taker, time keeper, or writing on the flipchart. Ensure group work has a balance of participants with different communication styles.
- 7. Adjust your facilitation style: to meet the needs of the group at different development stages. For example, a directive style of facilitation works well at the beginning of a meeting when the expectations of a new group meeting for the first time are usually for someone to take charge and take them in the right direction. However, after time when the group has settled down working effectively together, a more suggestive or consultative facilitation style would be more appropriate.
- 8. Provide a variety of group working methods: to keep the levels of engagement within the group, support different learning and communication styles, and help the group achieve the best results from the meeting. Group working methods could include but not exclusive to brainstorming/mind raining or metaplanning (individual note pads on a flipchart placed into similar categories by the participants) to generate ideas, decision making techniques, and action planning, capturing information on the flipchart or white board, small group activities and holding a group review to check progress.
- 9. Recognise and reinforce supportive behaviours and responses: that help the group to build on each other's ideas and suggestions through your comments, questions and reflections of the group dynamics. Challenge any repetitive negative statements or behaviours either through moving the focus away from the person, changing activities (to change their mental 'state'), reflecting their statement back to them as a question e.g. "it always happens?" or asking the group for their view on the situation and then moving the group on.
- 10. Evaluate the group's success: either through individual or group feedback, reviewing and drawing out responsibility for the action points. Initial evaluation is always helpful at the end of the meeting, followed up with a review of how the group has progressed after an agreed period of time.
To facilitate effectively, the facilitator needs to focus all of their energy and commitment to the group they are working with at the time and help the group in the most appropriate and relevant way which could involve challenging some of the group thinking or what is not being said through supportive questioning.
Above all, the most effective facilitator is one who quickly establishes and builds trust with the group through their honesty and transparency in their communications. They do not necessarily have the answer for the group they are facilitating but they hold the belief that the answer lies within the group (or their network) and uses group working methods that bring these answers and solutions out.
We hope these useful facilitation techniques for facilitating groups prove useful in improving the effectiveness and productivity of your meetings.
Enjoyable, good pace, energy. Met the needs of the group. Kim focussed some of the activities to the task we were about to embark on which really helped the group - not just an off the shelf course.
Ann Nardechia
Hillingdon Borough Council
