1. Introduction to Group Facilitation
Learning Objectives:
Discuss the foundations for facilitators
Understand the facilitator role
Understand the difference between content & process
Plan and focus meeting objectives and lead participative, effectively managed meetings
Understand the stages of group development
Apply some of our learning with your own examples
Presented by:
L. Melanie Chase, M.P.A.
CDPHE/Office of Local Liaison

2. Foundations for Facilitators
Communication Skills
Focus on Self-Awareness and Development
Change Management
Performance/ Quality Improvement Principles
Group Development Knowledge
Coaching Skills
Content and Process Understanding
Facilitator
Role Clarity: Facilitator & Leader
Meeting Management Principles

3. Focus of This Session 4 Facilitator 2 1 3 Communication Skills
Focus on Self-Awareness and Development
Change Management
Performance/ Quality Improvement Principles
Group Development Knowledge 4
Coaching Skills
Content and Process Understanding
Facilitator 2
Role Clarity: Facilitator & Leader
Meeting Management Principles 1 3

4. Role Clarity: Facilitator & Leader
The facilitator role is to focus on:
group process, not task or content; balance between two ideal
staying neutral and problem-solving without exercising decision-making authority
removing internal or external obstacles so that the group can function efficiently—suggesting structure and method for focusing group energy
using group decision making to gain full commitment
helping the group to establish procedures for handling quick decisions
encouraging full participation and a climate of risk-taking and creative problem solving
creating the structure that increases the likelihood objectives will be accomplished and that people participate
The work or job of facilitator is essentially to:
Get all group members to use the same approach, at the same time, on the same issue, and to keep them there until the group has accomplished what it set out to do, or until the group wants to change direction.
The art of the facilitator is to:
Flow with the group, serve the group, surface their best to help them realize their mission and goals.
Be focused, patient, supportive, yet not attached to outcome—let the group decide the outcomes it desires.
Know which technique or tool will meet the group to support the task.

5. Content and Process Understanding
What the facilitator does to manage group process:
Guides the group to help it get its work done
Somewhat of a traffic cop to provide rules and norms for the group and monitor the group’s compliance (keep the meeting in functioning order)
Builds consensus
Coaches others’ decisions
Empowers others
Teaches/trains others
Listens to others
Asks questions
Uses different facilitation tools
Focuses the group on the objectives or content
Process: how the group relates, solves problems, handles conflict, makes decisions, participates.
Task or content: what the group is discussing, working on, doing.
Examples:
Process:
Content:

6. Content and Process Understanding
For the examples below, check whether it is a CONTENT or a PROCESS.
Brainstorming done during a problem-solving session
Small group discussion
Use of a flip chart
Discussing the learning from an example
Information on a new regulation
Status report on a new implementation
Statement of the problem to be solved with specific criteria
CONTENT
PROCESS

7. Meeting Management Principles
Skills the facilitator needs for effective meeting management:
Designing, planning and focusing meetings
Encouraging participation
Recording people’s ideas
Managing the group process
Organizing, connecting and summarizing data
Bringing a group to consensus and closure

8. Meeting Management Principles
Essential Tools for Designing, Planning and Focusing Meetings:
Agendas: provide a concrete guide for the meeting, a means to manage group dynamics and keep the focus. Elements to include depending upon the group’s needs:
- Agenda item
- Objective for each agenda item
- Expected outcome for each agenda item
- Time allotted
Ground Rules: establish group agreements that the facilitator and group members can use as basis for working together and for evaluating group functioning during and/or after the meeting
Parking Lot: provides a placeholder for issues that surface in discussions that are slightly off task/topic to be addressed later
Action Items/Next Steps: serves as a summary sheet for the meeting

9. Meeting Management Principles
Skills the facilitator needs for effective meeting management:
Designing, planning and focusing meetings
Set a clear agenda
Clarify objectives and time allotted
Plan the meeting flow
Clarify expectations and outcomes
Include specific outcome from each agenda item if the group is not very manageable
Work in small groups to increase public accountabilities
Encouraging participation
Ask open ended questions
Phrase requests to encourage a response
Ask for specifics or clarification
Be nonjudgmental and respectful
Avoid interjecting own ideas while facilitating

10. Meeting Management Principles
Skills the facilitator needs for effective meeting management (cont.):
Recording people’s ideas
Use visual aids
Managing the group process
- Set structure
- Summarize and bridge
- Mirror back to the group
Get the group unstuck
Organizing, connecting and summarizing
Bringing a group to consensus & closure
Ask specific open ended questions
Recap agreements, next steps

11. Meeting Management Principles
Encouraging participation
Techniques include:
Open-ended questions
Encouraging a response
Acknowledging and praising
Asking for specifics
Redirecting questions/comments
Directing to nonverbal people
Encouraging different points of view
Paraphrasing
Avoid stating own opinion (group may tend to agree with it and not own the decision)
Refer to what others have said
Addressing dominant people

12. Meeting Management Principles
Encouraging participation
For the descriptions below, match to the technique from the previous page.
1. Ask ______________________.
“What is your reaction to X? What alternatives do we have? Why do you think this is occurring?”
2. Phrase requests to ___________________________.
“Describe the process you used. Can you explain the difference between X and Y?”
3. _________________ and _______________ contributions by participants.
“Thanks. Good idea. That’s interesting.”
4. Ask _________________________.
“Could you give us an example?” Could you take that idea a bit further?”
5. _________________________ to other members of the group.
“What do the rest of you think about that?” “Let’s discuss that as a whole group.”
6. Encourage _____________________.
“Bill, do you have any reaction to what John just said?” “Maria, we haven’t heard from you yet.”

13. Meeting Management Principles
Encouraging participation
For the descriptions below, match to the technique from the previous page.
7. Ask for and encourage ____________________________________________.
“Is there something we haven’t thought of?” Can anyone think of a way this wouldn’t work?”
8. ________________ for clarify and participation.
“Carla, if I understand you correctly, you’re saying…” “Did you mean?”
9. Avoid ________________________ while facilitating (or at least reserve it until you get enough participation)
Be silent.
10. ______________ to contributions others have made.
“That sounds like what John said earlier.” “You’ll remember Susan said.”
11. _________________________.
“Bill, you bring up some good points.” “Let’s hear from some of the others.”
“We’re not going to solve this all today, Bill.” “Let’s focus on step 1.” “What are some other thoughts about ___________?”
“Bill, please, if we were just going to meet to discuss this with you, we would not have invited all these people together today (more of a last resort), don’t you agree?”

14. Stages of Group/Team Development
Bruce Tuckman (1965) developed a 4-stage model of group development.  He labelled the stages:
Forming: The group comes together and gets to initially know one other and form as a group.
2. Storming: A chaotic vying for leadership and challenging, testing and refining of group processes
3. Norming: Eventually agreement is reached on how the group operates (norming)
4. Performing: The group practices its craft and becomes effective in meeting its objectives

15. Stages of Group/Team Development: Group Focus
1. Forming: The group comes together and gets to initially know one other and form as a group.
Group Focus:
Follow directions, assess the situation
2. Storming: A chaotic vying for leadership and challenging and refining of group processes
React, request feedback, test out dialogue, relationships, boundaries
3. Norming: Eventually agreement is reached on how the group operates (norming)
Participate when requested in planning, directing, controlling, critical thinking; engagement with others
4. Performing: The group practices its craft and becomes effective in meeting its objectives
Take responsibility for establishing planning, direction and control

16. Stages of Group/Team Development: Facilitator Focus
1. Forming: The group comes together and gets to initially know one other and form as a group.
Facilitator Focus:
Leadership, structure, procedures; build consensus around goals
PURPOSE & GOALS
2. Storming: A chaotic vying for leadership and challenging and refining of group processes
Manage conflict, affirm leadership, authority, ground rules, agreements; clarify roles/responsibilities, establish decision making, conflict resolution processes, etc.
ACCOUNTABILITIES, ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES, PRACTICES/PROCESSES
3. Norming: Eventually agreement is reached on how the group operates (norming)
Giving and receiving feedback, establishing productivity and self-regulation for the group
REINFORCING LEARNING, REFLECTION, SHARING, EVALUATION OF EFFECTIVENESS, CELEBRATION OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS/MEANINGFUL RITUAL
4. Performing: The group practices its craft and becomes effective in meeting its objectives
Releasing self-managing and facilitating responsibility to the group

17. Additional Information Follows

18. What to Look for in Effective Groups
All members participate but in different and complementary ways.
Members do not ignore seriously intended contributions.
Members check to make sure they know what a speaker means before they agree or disagree with a contribution.
Each member speaks only for her/himself and lets others speak for themselves.
The group senses any difficulty in getting work done and tries to figure out why.
The group accepts responsibility for what it does.
The group brings conflict into the open and deals with it.
The group holds its own by working together to honor its agreements and practices.
Adapted from the Heartland Center publication “Building Local Leadership”

19. Tips to Jump Start Group Effectiveness
Plans (Accountabilities):
Document plans, deliverables, update and keep them accessible
Keep the focus with follow-up, coaching, direction and acknowledgement
Purpose (Goals):
Document and adopt charter, governing documents, mission, vision statements
Clarify roles, responsibilities
Discuss individual hopes for contributions
Establish collective measures of success
Process (Practices):
Outline key group processes:
Decision-making
Meeting management/agenda setting
Conflict resolution practices
Learning, reflection, sharing
Evaluation of effectiveness
Celebration of accomplishments/meaningful ritual
Other processes to achieve purpose and plans, as appropriate
Principles (Relationships):
Discuss values and embed them as guiding principles for working relationships, i.e. teamwork, shared leadership, active listening, mutual respect for ideas, nothing is personal
Establish written ground rules/meeting principles
For more information on facilitation: see the International Association of Facilitators at

20. Stages of Facilitation
Being outside the task or content is ideal for a facilitator. This is simply because it is difficult to separate your own fabulous thinking from the objectivity required to facilitate a group. When asked to facilitate and yet still participate, it makes it difficult to focus the group and share your own ideas. For example, how do you contribute your own ideas, then maintain objectivity to make sure they are absolutely on focus? It may be easier to see someone else’s ideas as less on focus than your own. Therein lies the challenge, and potentially, the disservice to the group.
When serving as facilitator, keep in mind the various stages:
1. Contracting/start-up: assessing meeting needs/objectives, managing expectations
2. Planning and design: managing structure for the meeting
3. Delivery: using tools and guiding the process
4. Closure and evaluation: focusing on results, summarizing and evaluating meeting/group effectiveness

21. Essential Tools Facilitator Tools Normative Brainstorming:
Explain purpose and process
Clarify the question or topic to be brainstormed
Set a time limit
Individually write down ideas
In group, share ideas
Use: Good all-purpose technique for generating options or alternatives.
Response Rounds:
Give the group members a task / question to work on individually
Ask members to respond one at a time
Record responses
Repeat until all responses are exhausted
Summarize each round of responses, as appropriate
Use: Good to use if you anticipate a moderately high level of conflict will exist when the group discusses a particular topic. Also, good when the majority of group members share the same general opinion, or when quieter members are being pushed out of the discussion.
Buzz Groups:
Divide into subgroups of 2 – 5 people
Provide a clear question or task and set a time limit
Ask subgroup to self-assign a spokesperson and recorder
Each subgroup reports out to the whole group
Post subgroup’s work or record when whole group reconvenes
Optional: whole group can analyze trends, pick out commonalities, pick out uncommon items, circle favorite one, two, etc.
Use: Useful in situations that would benefit from small group discussion and creative energy. Good way to keep a group stimulated because you get to talk more in subgroups.
Silent Reflection:
In silence, ask members to think about their response to a stated question or suggestion for two minutes
Have members write down responses without discussion
Ask for comments one at a time at random, or a round of responses from the circle, etc.
Use: This allows for reflective thinkers to be put on equal basis with the extroverted thinkers and allows for some peaceful silence to follow what might have been a chaotic moment in the group.

22. Essential Tools Facilitator Tools (cont.) Force Field Analysis:
Explain purpose and process
Explain goal or problem statement
Groups members list factors or forces that help or hinder stated goal
Use: Useful when group has a need to prioritize where they will put their energies.
Prioritizing:
Prioritizing a List:
Define criteria:
Need
Enthusiasm
Ease (opportunity for success)
Visibility
Align each item on the list with criteria
Option that meets the most criteria is first priority, etc.
Success Matrix:
Define criteria
Align each option with criteria
Option that meets the most criteria is first priority
Use: Good for weighing several alternative options. The option that meets the most criteria should be the first to try.
Problem Solving:
Collect/share relevant information
Identify and test assumptions
Identify significant opportunities (symptoms)
Define the problem
Identify root causes
Establish criteria for evaluating solutions
Generate solutions
Evaluate solutions
Select best solution
Pilot best solution
Monitor, evaluate pilot
Revise solution (if needed) and implement.
SEVERAL OTHER IN-DEPTH PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESSES DESCRIBED IN:
The Memory Jogger, published by Goal/QPC, Salem, NH.

23. Essential Tools Facilitator Tools (cont.) Decision Making:
Autocratic: one person decides
Fastest
Good in crisis
Less likely to be wisest decision
Les likely to be accepted unless survival is at stake
Consultative: autocratic with advice from others
Fast
More ideas and information
Takes more time
Less chance of acceptance and commitment by others
Minority: expert, or those with vested interest
Decision by “experts”
Faster than whole group
All points of view not necessarily heard
Not necessarily representative
Majority: voting
Can be used with any size group
Most people know this process
Win/lose mentality
Lack of commitment by losers
Issues become personalized
Consensus: a formal process that develops a decision that is best for the group and organization
Better decision
Based on common principles and values
All opinions aired
Promotes synthesis of ideas
Elicits more commitment
Requires mature members
Progress can be blocked by one person
Best in small groups…difficult in large groups
Can end up operating on lowest common denominator
Unanimity: everyone totally agrees
Most comfortable
Almost impossible to achieve with more than two people
Action Planning:
Explain purpose and process
Group participants by interest or by items needing to be completed. Have each person/group identify:
What needs to be done
Who needs to do it
When it needs to be done
Document the what, who and when
Have each person/group present their plan and integrate feedback
SOURCE: Equinox Consullting.

24. Essential Intervention Skills
Facilitator Interventions:
Six broad types:
Task: includes any question, observation or suggestion directed toward a subject under discussion.
“Does that suggestion relate to our focus during this time of clarifying direction? Should we put that on the parking lot for later?”
Process: includes any suggested method or approach directed toward how a group is to achieve a task(s).
“Let’s brainstorm a list, then evaluate collectively based on the selection criteria. “
Within the person: includes any comments or questions directed to one person.
“Sally, you seem really elated whenever the group moves back to task.”
Between the people: includes any comments or questions directed to one person about another person or group member.
“Carla and Bill, I suspect your disagreement over this issue has some history to it, and the rest of us are not privy to it.”
Group: includes comments or suggestions directed to the group as a whole.
“The level of energy in the group today is strikingly low.”
Use of Self: expressing own feelings or views as observations to the group as trial balloons as long as they are not punishing or blaming.
“I am feeling as though I’m dragging here, is it only me?”
Adapted from:
Reddy, W. B. Intervention Skills (1994)

25. Essentials Group Decision-Making Methods
Autocratic: one person decides
Consultative: autocratic with advice from others
Minority: expert, or those with vested interest
Majority: voting
Consensus: a formal process that develops a decision that is best for the group or organization
Unanimity: everyone totally agrees

26. Other Resources Websites:
American Society for Quality
Institute of Cultural Affairs and
International Association of Facilitators
Resources for Facilitators: (A complete online library for nonprofits and for profits)
Books:
Bacon, T. R. (1996). High Impact Facilitation.
Linkemer, B. (1987). How To Run A Meeting. New York: AMACOM
Reddy, W. B. (1994) Intervention Skills: Process Consultation for Small Groups and Teams. San Diego: Pfeiffer & Company.