Building Your Facilitation Skills

Driving Meetings

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Presentation materials and audio will be posted at www.cacollegepathways.org

Introduction

Today’s Panel

Michelle Magee

Karrie Tam

About Harder+Company

Harder+Company Community Research is a comprehensive social research and planning firm with offices in San Francisco, Davis, San Diego, and Los Angeles, California. Our mission is to help our clients achieve social impact through quality research, strategy, and organizational development services.

www.harderco.com

Second webinar of a two-part series from the John Burton Foundation California College Pathway’s project to strengthen your network

Today we will focus on facilitating meetings

An effective meeting facilitator supports a group to do their best thinking

Purpose & Overview

By the end of the webinar, you will…

Understand how to effectively facilitate meetings

Learn how to manage a group

Gain concrete strategies on facilitation during each stage of group behavior

Have a ready-to-use guide and tools to put into practice

Building Your Facilitation Skills

Recap from Last Webinar:Role of the Facilitator

participant

note taker

time keeper

facilitator

Team Roles

Role of a Facilitator

Draws out opinions and ideas

Focuses on the how and what

Helps the group stay on topic

Supports full participation

Summarizes discussions and conversations

Brings closure to the meeting with an end result or action

Maintains neutrality

The facilitator...

Managing the Group

Stages of Convergent and Divergent Thinking

Team Behavior

divergent

create choices

gro

an

zo

ne

convergent

make choices

Types of Divergent Thinking Generating alternatives Free-for-all open discussion Gathering diverse points of

view Unpacking the logic of a

problem

Types of Convergent Thinking Evaluating alternatives Summarizing key points Sorting ideas into

categories Arriving at general

conclusions

Divergent Thinking

Examples of Team Behavior

Convergent Thinking

Brainstorm

Use active listening

Draw out opinions

Support full participation

Divergent Thinking: Strategies for

Getting Ideas Out

Brainstorming Best Practices

Everyone should agree on the question or issue being brainstormed

Don’t spend too long brainstorming; 10-15 min should work well

Never criticize ideas

Write every idea on a flip chart; make sure the words are visible to everyone at the same time to avoid misunderstandings and remind others of new ideas

Leave explanations and clarifications until later

Brainstorming Strategies

Round Robin

Brainstorming Strategies

Allow participants 5-10

min to write ideas.

Have participants share their ideas,

moving one-by-one around the group.

1 2

Team Idea Map

Brainstorming Strategies

Give the group a well-defined topic and have participants brainstorm

individually for 5-10 min.

Ask participants to share their ideas in random order. As

ideas are put forward, chart them on a large “idea map.”

1 2

Allow participants to consider the map and think about new ideas that have emerged or

associations between them. The group can then prioritize and/or take action on emerging ideas.

3

Sticky Notes

Brainstorming Tool

Allow participants to write ideas on a sticky note.

Then, have participants cluster their ideas in the middle of the

table or on a wall.

1 2

The group is then allowed to pull out one or more ideas for inspiration. With these notes, the

team members can create new ideas and variations, or piggyback on existing ideas.

3

Active Listening

Encouraging: Convey interest by using non-committal words with a positive tone

“I see...” “Tell me more...” “That’s interesting...”

Restating: Help the speaker grasp the facts by putting it in your own words

“If I understand, your situation is...” “In other words...”

Reflecting: Let the speaker know you understand by empathizing with the speaker’s basic feelings

“So you feel that...” “You were pretty disturbed about...”

Summarizing: Pull important ideas, facts, etc. together by restating and reflecting major ideas and feelings

“These seem to be the key ideas...” “If I understand you, you feel this way about this situation...”

Techniques

Use ground rules

Accept, deal, defer

Take a break

Use body language

Stop the meeting

Use encouraging language

Groan Zone: Strategies for Managing

Conflict and Difficult People

Parking Lot

When the conversation goes off track:

Designate a chart labeled “Parking Lot” to “park” ideas

When the conversation gets off topic, briefly stop the meeting and write the off-topic idea on the chart

Before ending the meeting, return to the “Parking Lot” list and decide as a group how to address the ideas

Ground Rules

When a group member dominates the conversation:

A simple ground rule is to establish that “Everyone participates: share the floor”

This sets up the expectation that you want to balance participation

Enforce this ground rule during the meeting

Accept, Deal, Defer

When a group member is confrontational:

Accept that what they are saying is true; don’t ignore it

Deal with it right there by spending some time on the issue

Defer it to the group for a decision about what to do

Take a Break/Discuss Later

When a group member is confrontational:

When less confrontational tactics haven’t worked, you can deal with this issue outside the room, at a naturally-occurring break in the action

Use Body Language

When a group member has side conversations:

Make eye contact

Smile (or don’t smile)

Change your seating/standing position

Stop the Meeting

When a group member has side conversations:

Comment that it is difficult for you to hear the main discussion or concentrate on the topic

Check in with the group

Example: “I sense we are losing people’s attention and interest, can we do a check-in to see where people are on this topic?”

Use Encouraging LanguageWhen group members are not

participating:

Ask open-ended questions and language to engage group members and encourage follow-up questions

Example: “Could you please tell us more about...?”

Example: That’s interesting, what do others think about...”

Example: Go on, we’d love to hear more...”

Generate a list of options

Agree on criteria

Vote

Summarize and rate areas of agreement

Convergent Thinking:Strategies for Setting Priorities and Making

Decisions

Priority Setting

Narrow down and prioritize decisions:

1) Generate a list of options

2) Have the group agree on criteria for selecting and eliminating options

3) Identify each option and have members vote by writing down the number of the item or placing a sticker next to it

4) The options with the most votes are then prioritized for further discussion

5) When eliminating ideas, it is good to check the group for strong opinions to the contrary

Decision Making

Structured discussions:

1) Help members agree on criteria for selecting options

2) Have members take turns expressing their opinion without discussion

3) Summarize the areas of agreement and have the group discuss areas of disagreement

4) Stop the group at various points to see how close they are to consensus

5) The facilitator may want to use straw polls in between, continuing the discussion until it reaches an appropriate level of agreement

Closing the Meeting

Closing the Meeting

Tips:

Review the meeting results

Confirm any key agreements

Identify next steps

Determine when a follow-up meeting will be held, setting a date, time and location

Evaluate the meeting through a feedback form or ask participants to quickly identify what they liked most, what they liked least, and what they would do to improve it

Congratulate the group on a job well done!

Ready-to-Use Tools and Guide

Tools are available for download at

www.cacollegepathways.org

/resources

Questions?