1. Facilitating Effective Meetings
February 4, 2014

2. Facilitating Effective Meetings*
Know effective meeting guidelines
Be able to use facilitation strategies
Understand and practice influencing the Five States of Mind
Understand the Seven Norms of Collaboration
Understand Five Conditions for a Success Meeting
Objectives

3. Effective Meeting Guidelines
Transfer of information and generation of ideas should be interactive
If transfer of information is one way, use
Structure meeting with an agenda
Prepare participants before the meeting
Know facilitation strategies
Know the Five Conditions for Successful Meetings
Ensure everyone knows next steps

4. Facilitation Strategies
How to facilitate productive conversations to accomplish meeting outcomes.

5. Facilitation Strategy
# 1
Understand and influence the
Five States of Mind!

6. Five States of Mind From State of Mind Toward
An external locus of control
Efficacy
An internal locus of control
Narrow, egocentric view
Flexibility
Broader and alternative perspectives
Vagueness and imprecision
Craftsmanship
Specificity and elegance
Lack of awareness of self
Consciousness
Self awareness
Isolation and separateness
Interdependence
Concern for the greater common good

7. Mediate States of Mind Moving others to a beneficial State of Mind
Empathy – Express empathy by matching intonation and describe feeling
Content – Accurately reflect content
Goal – State the goal trying to be achieved
Action – How to achieve goal

8. Efficacy Model and Practice Model Practice*
Model
“Kids are not like they used to be! They do not listen to instruction.”
“You are frustrated with the behavior of you students (empathy) because they do not pay attention (content). You would like them to pay attention to your instruction (goal). And you are searching for strategies to have them engaged (action).”
Practice
“My staff is negative about our new program. They do not want to change.”
Efficacy

9. Facilitation Strategy
# 2
Use the Seven Norms of Collaboration!

10. Seven Norms of Collaboration
Pausing
Paraphrasing
Probing
Putting ideas on the table
Paying attention to self and others
Presuming positive presuppositions
Pursuing a balance between advocacy and inquiry

11. Pausing
Pausing before responding or asking a question allows time for thinking and enhances dialogue, discussion and decision- making.

12. Paraphrasing
An effective paraphrase expresses empathy by reflecting feeling and message.
I am listening
I understand you (or trying to)
I care
Stems for clarity
You’re suggesting
As you
So, you
You’re thinking
Am I understanding you to
You’re feeling as if
You’re wondering
You’re wanting

13. Paraphrasing Model and Practice Model Practice*
Model
Practice
What do you think are some of the biggest problems you might face in facilitating a group?
Paraphrasing

14. Probing
Open ended probes or inquiries increases the clarity and precision of the groups thinking.
Please say more about
I’m curious about
I’d like to hear more about
Then you are saying

15. Putting Ideas on the Table
Ideas are the heart of a meaningful dialogue.
Here is one idea
One thought I have is
Here is a possible approach
Defer judgment of ideas
Advocate
Inquire

16. Pay Attention to Self and Others
Each group member is conscious of self and others.
What she/he is saying
How it is said
How others are responding

17. Presuming Positive Presuppositions
Assuming that others intentions are positive promotes and facilitates meaningful dialogue and limits unintentional negatives.

18. Pursuing a Balance: Advocacy and Inquiry
Assists the group to become a learning organization.
Balance between advocating a position and inquiring about one’s own and other’s positions.

19. Facilitation Strategy
# 3
Use your Voice effectively!

20. Your sincerity and credibility, in part, is judged by your voice.
Vary the elements of sound for emphasis
Vary volume
Refine pitch
Alter rhythm and tempo
Convey emotional expression for meaning
Intonation conveys meaning
I didn’t take that book! (not me)
I didn’t take that book! (another one)
I didn’t take that book! (borrowed) *
Voice

21. Five Conditions for Successful Meetings

22. Five Conditions for Successful Meetings
One Process
One Content
Balanced Participation
Protection from Attack
Understanding and Agreement on Roles

23. One Process One process at a time: Generating ideas (brainstorming)
Analyzing
Selecting
Prioritizing
Advocating

24. One Content One content at a time: Relevancy Check
Tell us more about how this applies.
Help us understand how____ relates to _____.
Let me make a note of that and we will address it at another time.

25. Balanced Participation
Make it safe to speak
Build relationships
Develop communication skills
Advocate for ideas
Inquire about ideas
Provide opportunities and use strategies for all members to share ideas, advocacy and inquiry.

26. Protection from Attack
Safety – Members know that they will not be attacked
Make it safe for diversity
Develop ways to share diverse points of view
I would like to share another point of view
I see it differently
Let’s think about this from another perspective

27. Understand and Agree on Roles
Six Meeting Roles
Facilitator
Recorder
Chairperson
Group Member
Group Coach
Consultant

28. Facilitator Role Remains neutral Clarifies role with group
Focuses group energy
Keeps group on task
Directs processes
Encourages everyone to participate
Protects members and ideas from attack
Contributes to agenda planning
Elicits clarity regarding meeting follow-up

29. Recorder Role Remains neutral Supports facilitator Records basic ideas
Uses participant’s language
Asks group for corrections
Asks group what not to record
Writes legibly
Uses color and ideographs

30. Member Role Initiates Seeks information/opinions
Gives information/opinions
Clarifies, probes and elaborates
Advocates and Inquires
Monitors self
Summarizes

31. Practice Facilitating a Group Groups of 3 or 4
Set norms (roles, idea generation)
Facilitator group in discussion
How can we improve the culture of our school?
One process, one content, balance, protect
Mediate States of Mind
Paraphrase, probe, ideas, advocate, inquire
Reflect on practice *
Practice

32. Close a Meeting with These Questions
Who will do what by when?
Who will communicate informally and formally to whom?
What will be communicated regarding decisions at today’s meeting?
What are next steps?
Under what conditions would you be tempted to deviate from these communication agreements that we just made?

33. Final Thoughts
Meeting success is influenced more by the collaborative norms of the group than by the knowledge and skills of the group’s facilitator.
The power of the group to produce results is rooted in the quality of the relationships between participants.
In high performing groups the five states of mind are the self organizing values for every group and every meeting.

34. Outcome to an Effective Meeting