About Purpose is about your purpose.
Aim: Identify and articulate your purpose.
Arm: Shape yourself around your purpose.
Act: Achieve your purpose.
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Group Facilitation
Bob Ryan, About Purpose, Inc. ©1998
Almost everyone has to facilitate a group at one time or another. You have two choices. You can approach the task with fear and trembling, unfounded confidence or plain boredom, OR, you can be in control of the situation from the start. This is where good group facilitation skills come in.
About Purpose, Inc. has been providing meeting design and facilitation for over 19 years and we'd like to share those skills with you.
Getting Ready: Remember the 5 "P's"
It's important to prepare for any group meeting if you want it to result in measurable outcomes. Either take the following steps yourself, or with a few key people who will be in the meeting.
1. Write down the Purpose of the meeting in clear, outcome related terms. What will be different as a result of this meeting?
2. Decide who the Participants will be. Remember, you want to have the right people there and not drag everybody in just because there's a meeting. The participant list should depend on the outcome you're trying to accomplish.
3. Focus on the logistical Preparations. Choose a place that supports the purpose of the meeting. What are your needs? To break into smaller groups? Equipment, writing space, refreshments? Access to electronic support such as fax, e-mail, internet access, etc.? Did you consider the difficulty of finding the place and parking their cars?
4. Next, Publicize the meeting. Let the participants know the purpose, why you're inviting them, when and where it will be, and what they should be prepared to do or present.
5. Finally, plan out the meeting Process. What needs to happen among the participants in order for the outcome to be accomplished? How can you design an agenda to support that? Don't be afraid to think creatively here. People appreciate a fresh approach to problem solving.
So, today's the actual meeting. There are a few techniques that will help it run smoothly and accomplish its outcomes.
1. Make and stick to an agenda. "Go with the flow" does not make for a successful meeting. Even skilled facilitators insist on following the agenda. Their skill lies in knowing how to work the group within the agenda so it flows smoothly.
2. Appoint a record keeper. If you can, bring in an outsider so that all participants can stay involved.
3. Use well-thought out questions to generate group discussion around the topic. Plan your questions in advance so that they are open-ended. (i.e. They require more than a yes/no type answer). Order the questions either from the general to the specific, or the opposite.
4. Insist on respectful, interactive discussion. Monitor the group so that everyone gets a chance to talk. If you know you have highly introverted people in the group, design your meeting so that you seek their input before the event and present it during the meeting.
5. Try to engage both right and left brained styles in the meeting. Roughly, that means creative, active, hands-on styles and introspective, critical-thinking styles.
6. Summarize progress at various points during the meeting. Your job is to continue "seeing the big picture." The participants get easily lost in the trees. Let them know what's been done and what there is left to do.
7. Evaluate the meeting. Informally, this can be three quick questions about process, outcome and logistics with people holding up 5 fingers for "great" and 1 finger for "poor." More formally, you can prepare a written questionnaire. Keep it short and focus most on the outcome.
8. Communicate the results of your meeting as soon as possible after the event. List actions to be taken, by whom and by when. Thank the participants in writing, if possible.
Good facilitation makes everyone's time more effective.
Call or e-mail us (About Purpose, Inc.) to design and facilitate those events when you really want to make an impact.