The Fast Facilitator

76 Facilitator Activities and Interventions Covering Essential Skills, Group Processes and Creative Techniques

Anthony Landale, Mica Douglas

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Topic: Business
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351889810
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

When you take on responsibility for other people you need a framework to understand and address how they think, feel and behave. Facilitation provides that framework. It doesn't offer you proscriptive solutions; instead it uses, proven principles and practice to enable you to get the best out of each of the people with whom you are working. As a facilitator, you also need to be able to adapt your style and approach to the situation you are in. This requires good self-awareness and a solid understanding of your role and responsibilities. Once this is in place you can then start to facilitate teams, coach colleagues and train groups effectively. In Anthony Landale and Mica Douglas's The Fast Facilitator, the authors have established a format based around both the core skills that facilitators need to develop as well as the issues they will have to face at work. It is divided into three parts - Essential Facilitation, Groups and Team Facilitation and Creative Facilitation - offering material to suit all facilitators whatever their level of expertise. The manual will help you develop your own understanding of facilitation as well as providing interventions and activities that you can use with others. It includes: ¢ Theoretical insights and models to help you understand the dynamics of people management; ¢ Activities, exercises, games and practice sessions which managers or trainers can use with their groups to build skills around work issues; ¢ Coaching ideas and techniques for managers who may want extra guidance when working one-to-one with team members; and ¢ A wealth of techniques, reading sources, inspirational ideas and practical exercises for the facilitator's own self-development. The Fast Facilitator illustrates the competencies that practising facilitators need to develop and shows just how this distinctive approach can make a real difference to the way people operate and the outcomes that can be achieved in organizations.

PART ONE
Essential facilitation

1.1 What is facilitation?

Have you ever wished you had been taught differently? Have you ever sat through meetings where nobody listened, where nobody talked or where the agenda was hijacked? Have you ever been in a team where people didn’t get on and where, consequently, morale was low and performance was suffering?

In these and many other situations – both one to one and in groups – the skills of facilitation can be applied to great effect. As organizations look for ways in which they can help their managers, trainers and consultants to become more effective so facilitation is becoming recognized as a core business skill.

Facilitation is about how something gets done rather than what you do. In this sense it is about the process as well as the task. The iceberg model shown below illustrates this difference. The top of the iceberg shows what is clear to all – the projects in which we are involved, the tasks we take on, the procedures that we abide by. It is what is conscious and visible. The submerged part of the iceberg, in contrast, contains our subconscious processes, which include our feelings, relationships, beliefs, fears and prejudices. These processes aren’t visible but they are vital.

The facultative manager, team leader or consultant needs to keep both the task and process in mind – they cannot be separated. The business objective is to achieve the goal or performance that has been set but unless the process is addressed along the way the chances are that the objective may never be reached.

An example of this situation in practice is where there is a conflict within a team. Every team will be made up of people with different personalities, skills, ambitions and views. The effective facilitator will be looking at ways to harness this diversity, but that is easier said than done. We have surely all been in teams where simmering resentment or frustration has been evident – but how many managers address these issues? And if they don’t address them, what happens? Most conflicts don’t just go away. It is up to the facilitator to be aware of these dynamics, to highlight them and help the participants involved to address them.

There is no set script for how the facilitator should address problems such as conflict. At times they may have to re-establish clear boundaries and contracts; at other times they may decide to find solutions in partnership with the individuals concerned. The way they decide to work is also open. They may decide to work on a one-to-one basis outside the team or group, work with the individual within the team context or treat the conflict as a ‘whole group’ issue. Effective facilitation is about seeing what is required and finding ways that highlight or help resolve the issues at hand.

Teaching managers and front line-staff to facilitate is especially appropriate in the current working environment where empowerment is such a strong theme. Facilitation has a strong theoretical base and provides the necessary techniques to help managers move from command and control styles of management to the interdependent reality that is essential in modern organizations.

This does not make it a softly-softly approach to management. On the contrary, facilitation can be extremely tough. It may require you to say things to people that they don’t want to hear, it may require you to challenge unproductive or inappropriate behaviour and it will certainly require from you the capacity to handle the full range of emotions from delight to distress and from anger through to open appreciation. At the same time you will need to be able to plan, to structure, to be creative and to be authentic. This is what makes it such an exciting area of development and through this manual we will explore all the key issues, helping you to build up your skills and giving you activities that will help with self-awareness and which you can use directly with the teams and groups that you run.

Activity 1 Different strokes for different folks

Facilitator intent

There is a great difference between a facilitator, a trainer and a coach and it is important to differentiate between them. Some of the qualities overlap, but the table below is intended to help participants get a handle on some of the differences in style and approach. Use it either as an introductory map from which to facilitate a general discussion or give it to the participants to reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses in the areas indicated. Note: This table is a only general representation of the main differences, for example, the flexible facilitator can also instruct and coach and vice versa.

	Facilitator or facultative manager	Trainer	Coach
The core approach	Task and process-orientated focus. Agrees working contract with group. Uses models, theory, insights and activities to ensure understanding. Identifies process issues to achieve task or objectives. Establishes, maintains and manages a valuing culture.	Content-focused delivery. Typically presentation-led with activities used to reinforce message. The role of the trainer is to pass on knowledge or information.	Performance focused. Driven by the agenda of the coachee. Will focus on their goals and issues. The coach will clarify current situation with and agree actions with them.
The main intent	To serve the individual or team flexibly. To establish working contracts. To model effective behaviour. To ensure effective working practice.	To lead the group. To carry learning agenda. To impart skill/knowledge.	To raise personal awareness of issues. To establish personal responsibility in tackling those issues.
Core qualities	Self-awareness. Empathy. Good intent. Confidence. Open-mindedness. Clarity. Discernment. Playfulness. Intuition. Flexibility.	Clarity. Structure. Confidence. Credibility. Knowledge.	Self-awareness. Perception. Interest. Attentiveness. Empathy. Confidence. Credibility. Structure.
Core skills	Listening. Speaking. Questioning. Culture setting. Challenging. Valuing. Observing. Containing.	Structuring. Presenting. Checking understanding.	Observing. Listening. Questioning. Challenging. Empathy. Goal setting.
When to use	When you want full participation. When you want empowerment. When you want better teamworking. When you want new perspective. When you need change.	When you need to instruct. When you need to inform. When you need compliance.	When you want to support. When you want to empower. When you want to value. When you want to motivate.

Differentiators between a facilitator, a trainer and a coach

Activity 2 Open space

Facilitator intent

The intention here is to highlight the importance of process as part of every task. Process involves the part of the iceberg that is under water (see model in theory section) and we all have plenty of process which we bring with us to every team or group. The question is, are we aware of our process and what happens to it in team scenarios?

1. Place a piece of flipchart paper in the centre of the team/group.
2. Ask each participant to consider for a moment and to identify:
   1. a) a symbol for themselves in the team or group – for example, the participant might think that they are best represented by a star, a lightning flash or a hand.
   2. b) a word for the contribution they can make in the team – for example ‘insight’.
   3. c) the position they are taking/will take in the team or group. (3 minutes)
3. Ask the participants to draw their symbol and write down their word onto the blank piece of paper in any form that they like. It is important that everyone contributes within a five minute time limit.
4. Once this is completed, ask the team or group to discuss the task. Some of the questions you might want to put up on a flipchart for them to reflect on could be:
   • What did they notice during the task?
   • Who did they notice during the task?
   • How did they feel during the task?
   • Did they enjoy it, dislike it or feel neutral about the task?
   • What do they see on the paper?
   • Would they like to change what they’ve done? Why? (10 minutes)
5. As facilitator, you will have observed the ‘process’ of the team or group yourself; offers and discuss feedback on your observations:
   • Who started first and who was last to contribute?
   • Who took the central position and who stayed on the sidelines?
   • Who took most space on the paper and who least?
   • Who teamed up with others and who stayed alone? (10 minutes)

Depending on what stage the team or group is at, how ready they are to share personal information or how willing and able you feel they are to look at themselves as a team, you may want to ‘drop’ some observations into the team discussion such as ‘I was interested to see how long it took people to make their contributions; some of you were quite fast, others appeared happier to wait

This sort of intervention is neutral, but can bring a focus and depth to the discussions. See what happens to such an observation. Is it picked up? Don’t worry if it goes nowhere, it might take some time for the team or group to consider their response. On the other hand, it might lead to immediate results and comment. Don’t feel the need to explain – this type of intervention is called a process observation. Let the team or group do with it what they will and be unattached to the outcome.

6. Finish the activity by sticking up the flipchart paper on the wall, valuing any inputs from the participants and asking them to keep in mind the contribution that they have identified they will be making to the group process.

Coaching on the facilitation process

As a coach you can help to raise awareness about facilitation as a practical approach for the coachee to use in business situations. Consider with your coachee times and occasions when a facilitative approach might be appropriate, for example if they are chairing a meeting or if they are in a consultative role with a client. It is important that they understand the context wit...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Key issues: quick guide
• Introduction
• Part One: Essential facilitation
• Part Two: Group and team facilitation
• Part Three: Creative facilitation