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Facilitation at its Best!
Lavanya Gupta, Instructional Designer, The Business Workshop

How many times have you come out of a meeting feeling like you could have said a lot more, but didn’t get a chance to express and explore your ideas? Have you ever felt like communication was only one way and that you just could not come up with any ideas during brainstorming? Have you suffered through meetings where co-workers seem more interested in persuading the group about their point of view rather than using the group as a medium for finding the best solution?

Well, first things first...you are not alone. The situations described above are everyday situations, which most people face at their jobs and take as part of the deal. Fortunately there is a solution and an answer to the problem, and the answer lies in good facilitation skills. Whether it is a team leader, and HR person, a supervisor or a co-worker, nominating a skilled facilitator is a great way to ensure smooth and productive meetings where everyone can leave feeling charged! This leads us to a basic question- How exactly does a good facilitator help?

A good facilitator can get a group to use a creative problem solving process rather than a content driven process. This means that a group is free to concentrate on finding the best solution rather than on who is leading the group. Often times, this gives all team members a chance to contribute to the group without feeling intimidated by their supervisors and/or the more vocal of the lot.

A good facilitator can ensure that the entire group is moved and changed by the end of the interaction. This means that people can leave the room feeling like they have contributed and been educated about a certain topic or aspect. They also leave feeling that the group solution is more powerful than any one individual coming up with the answer. This wins over participants leaving the room unchanged with a load of static information.

Something which is imperative to a good facilitator is the willingness for him or her to let go of trying to lead the group and concentrate on achieving the group goals instead. This means that, a good facilitator may not be the one with the ideas, but rather the one with the ability to include all ideas and get the group to assess each idea positively and with an open mind.

A rather tough job for a facilitator is to deal with disruptive or dominating personalities within a group. This can be hard even for a skilled facilitator because it is important not to put the person down, but to concentrate on what needs to be achieved. For this, a facilitator will need to be able to get the group back on track so as to minimise the loss of time and the loss of ideas.

These are only some of the benefits of having a skilled facilitator work with a team. Today large organisations regularly include facilitation as a basic means of achieving goals. Not only does it speed up the process, but it gives the ‘not so bold’ participants a chance to be heard and to contribute. So the next time you walk out of a meeting feeling frustrated, consider suggesting facilitation to your boss. Or better still, consider learning about and developing some of your own facilitation skills!

-Graphic done By Sophiya