The Large Group Facilitator's Manual

A Collection of Tools for Understanding, Planning and Running Large Group Events

Kerry Napuk, Eddie Palmer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351887113
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Vocational Education

Most organizations are adept at using small groups - witness the widespread use of teams. Yet, how do you work with 20 to 500 people at a time? How would you involve all stakeholders in a critical issue or the organization's future? How can you generate contributions, consensus and commitment from the bottom up? People want to contribute but often are frustrated through a lack of opportunity or means. Large Group Processes allow people to participate over things that matter to them. Participation leads to commitment and commitment to ownership. Working with large groups is relatively new, but these processes are proving very effective with positive outcomes. Audiences can be customized with stakeholders who might be inside or outside the organization, such as employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, the general public and any other interested parties. Applications are wide-ranging, touching on almost every aspect of organizational life. The Large Group Facilitator's Manual offers you a blueprint for planning, preparing, running and reporting successful large group events. The authors walk you through six different processes from concept to step-by-step facilitation with sample invitations, checklists and even scripts. It is the first facilitator's guide to cover so many processes with such detailed instructions.

PART THREE

Appendices: A step-by-step guide to large group processes

Appendix 1: Planning checklist for Open Space

Once you have discussed with the sponsor(s) who should plan the event, you should sit down with the Planning Team to discuss the following key points:

Purpose

Q. What is the sponsor trying to achieve?

Desired outcomes

Q. What does the sponsor want to happen?

Theme

The theme needs to be big enough to challenge people, and wide enough for people to raise their burning issues.

Q. What are the participants there to discuss?

Q. What key question are people being asked to work on?

Target audience

Audiences can be internal (all from within one organization) or external (from different organizations, possibly doing various things) or mixed (internal and external). If the sponsor were a company, an internal audience would be employees and managers; an external one would be customers and suppliers, and mixed might be people from both groups. The objective is to get ‘the whole system in one room’.

1. Q. Who needs to be there to work on the question?
2. Q. Who should be there to learn about the issues and decide what to do about them?

Target numbers

If you want a given number of participants, you need to invite at least twice, if not three times, the number wanted. Moreover, you need to follow up invitees by telephone or e-mail, reminding them of the event and seeking confirmations. The number of people for a successful event should be between 20 and 500. A few events have had over 1000 participants.

Q. How can you get the right number of people to attend?

Date

Q. What is the best month and day of the week for an event?

Q. How much lead time should we allow for invitations? (Remember that some people will have very busy diaries.)

Venue

The venue is very important for a number of reasons: size, transportation, parking, light, space, catering and so on.

Q. Is the location central if people have to travel long distances?

Q. Is the community room large enough for everyone to comfortably sit in one or more circles?

Q. Is there one clear Community Wall large enough to post all the flipchart outputs from groups?

Q. Is there sound equipment and two wireless microphones?

Q. Are there enough breakout spaces for groups? You will need 10 spaces for every 100 people, including a flipchart and ten chairs per space.

Q. Can we get everyone – community and breakout spaces – in one room? This is the optimum arrangement.

Q. Is there enough airflow in the rooms?

Q. Are the rooms warm enough?

Q. Are there enough toilets?

Q. Is there access for disabled people?

Timetable

Events can be held from three hours to three days. If a sponsor wants a one-day event, it can be structured from six to eight hours. The one-day format for Open Space depends on the number of issue and action sessions and the type of closing the sponsor chooses. Please see ‘Open Space’, pages 40–41 for sample timetables.

Q. What timetable should be devised for the length of event?

Language

If the sponsor wishes the event to be conducted in a language other than English, the facilitator can compress facilitation to about 25 minutes of English for the first day and 15 minutes for additional days. It is useful for the facilitator who speaks English to meet with the translator and review the script for the event (please see Appendix 4) and take soundings with the translator at various points during the day.

Appendix 2: Writing the invitation to Open Space

Once you agree a theme, the next step is to draft an invitation. Invitations are best when brief. Accordingly, we recommend no more than one A4 page, including a tear-off registration sheet. However, if the sponsor insists on a different or longer invitation, let the sponsor prevail.

You want to say just enough to interest people and get them to attend, but not enough for them to start raising expectations and preparing fixed positions. Remember that Open Space is a learning opportunity for people from diverse backgrounds with different views to discuss issues that matter to them. In order to learn, you need an open mind.

You will see the tone and balance we are striking in the draft sample invitation overleaf.

OPEN SPACE ON COMMUNITY PLANNING

There have been many reports in the press about future development in our city. Almost every day we near about different plans being proposed. At the same time, nobody seems to bother with the concerns of residents.

Against this background, a number of interested people and organizations are sponsoring an Open Space Conference to explore the following theme: What are the issues for residents in community planning? And what can we do about them?

What really is going on with recent developments? How will already stretched services and infrastructure cope? What will happen to congestion and parking? Why are decisions being made behind closed doors? Who is listening to residents? Think of these and other questions, and bring your burning issues around community planning to the Open Space event on Saturday 5 October 2003 at City Conference Centre, 120 Robertson Blvd, Springtown. Dialogue begins promptly at 10.00 a.m. and ends at 5.00 p.m. including refreshments and a light lunch.

Open Space was developed in 1985 to bring people together to explore a common theme through co-creating and just being there. It is simple and effective, and needs no advance preparation. Open Space is fully participatory, there are no talking heads, believing participants are the real experts. Just arrive with an open mind and the burning issues you want to see resolved around community planning.

‘We should all be concerned about the future, because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there’ C.F. Kettering

Yes, I would like to attend the Open Space event on 5 October 2003 at City Conference Centre, 120 Robertson Blvd, from 10.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.

_____________________________________________

NAME: ______________________________________

ADDRESS: ___________________________________

CONTACT DETAILS: __________________________

Telephone / e-mail: ______________________________

Please return this completed slip to John Smith, The Community Planning ...