The Facilitator's Fieldbook

Tom Justice, David Jamieson, David W. Jamieson

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9780814420119
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

An invaluable guide that provides you with the comprehensive tools and knowledge you need to help your teams--and, ultimately, your organization--succeed.

The completely revised third edition of this longtime go-to resource for novice and experienced facilitators provides new team-building exercises as well as updated information on virtual meetings, mediation, strategic planning, and much more.

Loaded with procedures, checklists, guidelines, samples, and templates,  The Facilitator's Fieldbook covers all the key areas of successful team management, including:

• establishing ground rules
• planning meetings and agendas,
• brainstorming,
• resolving conflict,
• making decisions,
• and helping groups optimize their time.

You'll also gain tips on maintaining the tone and flow of meetings, and will learn to determine when to delegate projects to individuals rather than assembling a group. Collaborative projects have become an increasingly prevalent feature of modern business strategies and workplace dynamics. But intentional, strategic facilitation is essential to making sure these groups and teams are effective.

Section II

PHASE II

Working With
the Group

Overview

Facilitator Resources

Overview

Social Advance depends as much upon the process through which it is secured as upon the result itself.—JANE ADDAMS

To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first.—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

In the hands of vicious men, a mob will do anything.

But under good leaders, it’s quite a different story.—EURIPIDES, 498 B.C.

This section covers the second phase of facilitation: designing and managing the actual work with the group. Generally, the facilitator designs the sessions ahead of time and focuses on managing the process during the session. However, designs often need to be modified as work is conducted with the group; a process or structure might need to be eliminated or shortened or an alternative substituted. Section II will help you, the facilitator, with both the design and management dimensions of the group work.

Good, effective facilitation in this phase should produce the following outcomes:

1. Meeting purposes and outcomes are achieved.

2. Participants worked well together.

3. Participants are satisfied with their progress.

4. Meeting designs are effectively implemented.

5. The facilitation capacity of the group is enhanced.

6. Next steps are clear.

7. Effective group task and maintenance behaviors are observed.

THE SEVEN PRIMARY TASKS

In working with the group, you need to focus on seven primary tasks:

1. Creating a foundation for working together

2. Managing data generation

3. Managing analysis and interpretation of the data

4. Managing decision making

5. Managing group dynamics

6. Evaluating group process and progress

7. Closing group sessions

Task 1: Creating a Foundation for Working Together

It is essential to form a solid foundation for the way that group members work together. To do so, you must ensure that fundamental needs of the members, and the group as a whole, are met. Foremost among those needs for members are the following:

To feel safe and trust others enough to be open and fully participating.

To feel there is a meaningful reason for their presence and that they are included.

To accept the facilitator’s role and agree to follow the ground rules for the group’s success.

To take ownership, early on, of the work to be done and establish their commitment to the outcomes and processes.

To agree on group norms for how they work and interact together.

To work as equals and accept the equality role set.

The start-up processes and structures are critical to meeting such needs and thus to creating a good foundation. For example, openings set the session’s tone (light, heavy, firm) and establish who will speak, what they will speak about, and what order they will speak in. Openings can also involve getting acquainted, recognizing each member’s importance to the group, and sharing information that encourages trust and equality.

When it is desirable that members operate with equal influence (as in the case of most task groups), you should start the meeting with an inclusion activity. The activity should get everyone participating in a similar way during the first few minutes of the meeting, thereby shaping the norm state of equity.

Group members also need to discuss, clarify, or modify the charter; take ownership of it; and put themselves into the task (e.g., committing their interest, energy, enthusiasm, resources). Reviewing the agenda and design with the group, and obtaining their acceptance, goes a long way toward building trust, ownership, and commitment; it is part of “contracting” with the group.

Another initial activity that helps create a safe environment and encourages inclusion is collaborative work on the group’s operating principles. If any critical issues—inclusion, ownership, commitment, safety, and support for purposes, outcomes, and process design—are not dealt with early on, then some members may not participate fully or at all; they may lose interest in the task at hand or may grow tense and anxious.

Planning and problem-solving group work requires that group members work as equals if the group is to operate with maximum intelligence. The fundamental facilitation tool that achieves and maintains a role set of equality is the “inclusion activity.” An inclusion activity is any activity that meets two criteria: 1) each individual member must take the directed action, and 2) all members in the group must successfully complete the activity per the directions. Inclusion activities are usually short and may or may not be connected to the work agenda. Inclusion activities are most often conducted at the very beginning of each work session, and repeated as necessary, to maintain the cohesive role set of equality.

FOR MORE HELP, SEE FACILITATOR RESOURCES:

Section I

“Setting Group Norms”

Section II

“Inclusion Activities”

Task 2: Managing Data Generation

In all group work, there are data requirements that must be met, such as:

Obtaining and sharing information

Generating, organizing, and integrating data

Consolidating or prioritizing data

Displaying data

Data management activities may need to be used repeatedly, leading to analysis, conclusions, decisions, or recommendations. Therefore, in facilitation work, it is essential to have a repertoire of methods for generating, displaying, and manipulating data. It is also important to design and facilitate the session in a way that ensures the following:

Everyone’s information gets included.

Information sharing is complete but not laborious.

Data generated is meaningful and v...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Section I—Phase I: Preparation
• Section II—Phase II: Working with the Group
• Section III—Phase III: Implementation
• Section IV—Large-Group Methods
• Section V—Facilitating in a Virtual World
• Section VI—Using the Facilitator’s Fieldbook as a Training Tool
• Index