Facilitation

What is Facilitation?

Very simply put, facilitation is helping a group to accomplish its goals. There are a wide range of perspectives about the ideal nature and values of facilitation, much as there are a wide range of perspectives about the ideal nature and values of leadership. For example, some facilitators may believe that facilitation should always be highly democratic in nature and that anything other than democratic is not facilitation at all. Others may believe that facilitation can be quite directive, particularly depending on the particular stage of development of the group. (Source: Free Management Library)

10 Tips for Good Meeting Design (Source: Facilitate.com)

1. A good meeting requires good planning.
2. Three essential ingredients to designing an effective meeting:  substance of the meeting: the objectives and desired outcomes; who needs to be there and what do they bring; select the right collaboration tools.
3. Set measures of success for your meeting.
4. Identify who needs to be at which meeting. Invite the minimum number of people needed to accomplish your objectives.
5. The 4 "P"s: Purpose, People, Process and Progress.
6. Establish responsibilities of the meeting owner.
7. Establish responsibilities with meeting participants.
8. Use pre-meeting activities and instructions to ready participants for a focused agenda.
9. Consider how to handle the discussion for each item on the agenda.
10. Consider post-meeting collaboration as part of your meeting plan.

Online Tools, How-to Guides and Practical Resources

The Community Toolbox
www.ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/chapter_1016.htm
The Community Toolbox offers "how to tools" sections in simple and user-friendly language to explain different tasks necessary for community health development (though they can be applied to any community organization), including facilitation. The chapter on facilitation includes the following topics: Conducting Effective Meetings, Developing Facilitation Skills, Capturing What People Say: Tips for Recording a Meeting, and Techniques for Leading Group Discussions.  Each section includes a description of the task, advantages of doing it, step-by-step guidelines, examples, checklists of points to review, and training materials.

Basic Facilitation Skills
www.uiowa.edu/~cqi/2002BasicFacilitationPrimer.pdf#search=%22basics%20of%20facilitation%22
This primer published by The Human Leadership and Development Division of the American Society for Quality and other groups, gives a wonderful overview of facilitation essentials.  Topics include What is a Facilitator, Preparation and Planning, Meeting Focus and Data Management.

Facilitation (Face-to-Face and Online)
www.managementhelp.org/grp_skll/facltate/facltate.htm#anchor214170
This comprehensive resource from the Free Management Library provides an A – Z of facilitation.  Sections include: Learning about Facilitation, Facilitating in Face-to-Face Groups, Facilitating Online Groups (Virtual Communities), Facilitation Library and National Organizations that Include a Focus on Facilitation.

Facilitator Toolkit
www.facilitate.com/support/facilitator-toolkit/index.html
This virtual toolkit from www.facilitate.com provides tips, blog entries, white papers, and other references on effective facilitation.
 
Tightly Organized Agendas Lead To Fruitful Meetings
www.interactionassociates.com/content/investors-business-daily-taps-ia-expertise-about-meetings
This article from Investors Business Daily describes how to design an agenda to maximize meeting success.

Learn More about Facilitation

Facilitating With Ease! A Step-By-Step Guidebook
www.amazon.com/Facilitating-Ease-CD-Facilitators-Consultants/dp/0787977292/ref=pd_sim_b_3
Bens, Ingrid. 2000. This book with customizable Worksheets on a CD-ROM contains easy-to-follow instructions, techniques and hands-on tools that have been used to teach thousands of team leaders, consultants, supervisors and beginning managers how to facilitate with ease. Complete with worksheets on CD-ROM that can be customized to fit personal needs, it is a complete facilitation workshop in take-home form.

The Skilled Facilitator: A Comprehensive Resource for Consultants, Facilitators, Managers, Trainers, and Coaches
www.amazon.com/Skilled-Facilitator-Comprehensive-Consultants-Facilitators/dp/0787947237/ref=pd_sim_b_6
Schwarz, Roger.  2002. This thoroughly revised edition provides the essential materials for facilitators and includes simple but effective ground rules for group interaction.  Filled with illustrative examples, the book contains proven techniques for starting meetings on the right foot and ending them positively and decisively.

The Skilled Facilitator Fieldbook: Tips, Tools, and Tested Methods for Consultants, Facilitators, Managers, Trainers, and Coaches
www.amazon.com/Skilled-Facilitator-Fieldbook-Consultants-Facilitators/dp/0787964948/ref=pd_sim_b_2
Schwarz, Roger; Davidson, Anne; Carlson, Peg; McKinney, Sue. 2005. The Skilled Facilitator Fieldbook is based on the same proven principles outlined in Schwarz’s groundbreaking book.  The book spans the full scope of the successful Skilled Facilitator approach and includes information on how to get started and guidance for integrating the approach within existing organizational structures and processes.

Great Meetings! How to Facilitate Like a Pro
www.amazon.com/Great-Meetings-How-Facilitate Like/dp/0965835405/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263189078&sr=8-1
Kelsey, Dee and Plumb, Pam. 2003. This book is designed to help you understand the various preparation and design steps that will assist you in planning effective meetings. It provides a wide variety of facilitation tools and techniques for managing meetings well.

The Art of Facilitation: How to Create Group Synergy
www.amazon.com/Art-Facilitation-Essentials-Meetings-Creating/dp/0470467924/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263189211&sr=1-2
Hunter, Dale, et al. 2007. This book is a training resource for facilitators and enables group members to understand group facilitation and to take on this role themselves. This book provides access to the source of group empowerment and shows how to create group synergy. Insights, tools and resources are included to help a group work easily and more effectively together.

© Public Health Institute, Center for Civic Partnerships 2010

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