Facilitators’ Community

It has been my experience that structuring an engagement properly may be one of the most critical steps in the facilitation process. I include:

• Identifying the ‘real’ client
• Contracting with the client re: deliverables, participants, methodology, the client’s role, etc.
• Defining milestones and ‘done-ness’ criteria
• How, by whom, does the contract get changed
• Fees and contingencies

Share with us your perspective on structuring a facilitation agreement and any ‘lessons learned’.

Here’s a link to Whiteboards That Work which addresses the ‘front end’ of the process.

Too many facilitators utilize the same exercises and tools in doing their work. The result is that the participants are often weary and skeptical of approaches which they’ve used with mixed success in the past. I estimate that 50% of the work I do requires creating an approach/method virtually from scratch. What has been your experience and how do you go about fitting the methodology to the client engagement?

I found an interesting comment on Design For Civilized Society on when and how to choose a methodology.

There is an ‘art’ to designing the structure and flow of meetings. Share with us some of the techniques you typically use in starting meetings, how you ‘position’ yourself, the client and the participants. Are there specific exercises/tools you use at the beginning of a ‘gig’ or meeting? If so, how do you decide when to use what?

Since many of my clients are physicians, you might want to check out this site: Daring Doctors

I believe that a large part of a facilitator’s skillset is the ability to manage the room; by this I mean:

1. To anticipate where the participants will be at the start, middle and end of each session including the areas of potential conflict;
2. To continuously ‘read’ the room for signs of confusion, conflict or consensus;
3. To help the participants see how they’re culture, norms, behaviors, assumptions and understanding are shaping the outcomes of their work;
4. To minimize the potential that a small number of participants will ‘hijack’ the meeting and drive the group to their limited agenda and to deal with such behavior if/when it presents itself.

Part of the work is being clear on how ‘you’ filter and interpret what’s going on in the room. One of my favorite resources, professionally and personally, is “Byron Katie.

What have you learned or what questions do you have amount managing the room?

Share with us the ‘tools’ of your trade. What exercises, methodologies, approaches, etc., do you use and why? When do you not use a particular tool?

In choosing a methodology, I am strong advocate of engaging participants ‘visually’. Check out this website for a fascinating treatment of the topic and then share your use of Tools and Methods here.

As a subtopic, share with us any tools or methods that you’ve found effective in distance or teleconferenced meetings.  I found a lot of pointers on the Virtual Events blog including a number of blogs on Virtual Events.

I think of this topic somewhat like ‘chaos theory’.  My ‘theory’ is that you can count on even a well-designed and implemented facilitation gig to run into barriers from time to time.  This is due primarily to the fact that, if the work is truly transformative, there is bound to be resistance from the participants, the sponsors, the client and ‘the organization’.

Although we may not know exactly where the issues will be, that shouldn’t stop us from planning ahead to deal with them.  The primary opportunity to do this is during the structuring of the engagement.  If we’ve structured the engagement properly, we can then more effectively deal with challenges.

Tell us about your experiences in dealing with issues during ‘gigs’ and how you’ve handled them.