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Facilitation

An effective Approach for Team Leaders

Peter Pfeiffer, PhD, PMP, CKM

peter.pfeiffer@mpprio.com.br

2014

This is the property of the Project Management Institute and may not be reproduced or disseminated without the expressed written permission of PMI.

Agenda

• Why do we need facilitators if we have leaders?

• How does Facilitation work? Does it work at all?

• “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”, Right?

• Are you ready to accept the challenges and facilitate anyway?

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Leader and Facilitator

Focus on Task Focus on Process

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Why do we need Facilitation?

Groups are generally far more complex than we imagine.

Individual backgrounds can vary a lot.

Interpersonal relationships interfere.

Human communication is an extremely complex process.

Sharing goals and objectives is not trivial.

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1. Absence of team identity.

2. Difficulty making decisions.

3. Poor communication.

4. Inability to resolve conflicts.

5. Lack of participation.

6. Lack of creativity.

7. Groupthink.

8. Ineffective leadership.

Problems that teams encounter frequently

Source: Harvard Business Review

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Communication

The Key Elements of the Facilitation

Teamwork

Visualization

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Frequency of the Use of Senses

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Visualization

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Advantages of Visualization

A common center of attention is created.

The contributions are registered and don’t get lost.

Visualized declarations facilitate a similar interpretation.

The author has to choose between information more or less relevant.

Discussions become more objective and shorter.

Participation in discussions and searching solution improves substantially.

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Manage the process

How can the management process be

improved to achieve better results?

Choose the appropriate approach

Which is the best approach to

deal with the task?

Help to comprehend the task

What are the tasks to be accomplished?

Facilitate to produce

Tasks = What we do

Process = How we do it

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This is the property of the Project Management Institute and may not be reproduced or disseminated without the expressed written permission of PMI.

Le

vels

of

so

cia

l B

eh

avi

or

Love

Joy

Sadness

Hate

Sympathy

Affection

Hope

Status

Ambition

Desires

Values

Fear

Shame

Insecurity

Mistrust

Rejection

Antipathy

Hidden rules Taboos

Anxiety

Technical level

Psycho-social level

Resources

Concepts

Deadlines

Materials

Hierarchy Tasks

Rules and norms

Proceedings

Objective Information

Ideas

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To understand the dynamics, one needs to dive deeper!

This is the property of the Project Management Institute and may not be reproduced or disseminated without the expressed written permission of PMI.

Le

vels

of

so

cia

l B

eh

avi

or

Love

Joy

Sadness

Hate

Sympathy

Affection

Hope

Status

Ambition

Desires

Values

Fear

Shame

Insecurity

Mistrust

Rejection

Antipathy

Hidden rules Taboos

Anxiety

Technical level

Psycho-social level

Resources

Concepts

Deadlines

Materials

Hierarchy Tasks

Rules and norms

Proceedings

Objective Information

Ideas

Preparation (clarify purpose, issues, facts, participants, expected outcomes)

Define Setting (create appropriate atmosphere, select room, chairs, tables, define breaks)

Define Approach (select tools and techniques, dynamics, equipment and materials)

Prepare Agenda (explicit purpose, expected results, define duration)

Prepare yourself for the Event

Documentation (register what happened)

Follow-up (share results, indicate next steps)

Important steps to facilitate an event:

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Process Formats

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Event Setting

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The Facilitator’s Challenges

Beyond the knowledge and skills of facilitation techniques, the greatest challenges are related to people, their characteristics, behaviors and attitudes.

To deal with these challenges there is no technological solution available. There is no hardware nor software available to explore the lower part of the iceberg.

What we need is “peopleware”!

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Deal with different personalities

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Guarantee efficient communication

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Create a common vision

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Motivate people

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Deal with conflicts

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Keep focused

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Bui

ld

com

mitm

ent

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Deal with time

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Maintain the balance

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Thank you for your attention!