Facilitation Skills

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Facilitation Skills
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What is a facilitator?

• Literally means making things easy
• A person who helps a group or team to
• achieve results in interactive events
• by using a range of skills and methods
• to bring the best out in people as they work
  together
• focuses on the process of how

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What a facilitator is NOT

• participant in the team
• team leader
• team organiser/administrator,
• negotiator on the teams behalf,
• servant who simply does the bidding of the team
• expert trainer

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Role Conductor
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Role Impartial Helper

• belonging to no political coalition within an
  organisation
• being seen as having no stake in the outcomes

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Facilitators Role Overview

• cope with uncertainty
• use power of credibility to help address issues
• be calm in times of emotion
• support and counsel others

• be understandable
• mobilise energy
• surface difficult issues and help others to do so
• take themselves less seriously
• empathise

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Group processesintervening

• model appropriate behaviour
• ensure involvement
• enable understanding
• keep a task-related focus
• push for action outcomes
• manage time
• ensure that a record is created

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Interpersonal Skills/Basic Facilitation Skills

• listening
• questioning

• language
• communication
• 
  using
• 
  feedback
• conflict handling

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Ten Commandments of Effective Listening

• 1. Stop talking
• 2. Put your people at ease
• 3. Show you want to listen
• 4. Remove distractions
• 5. Empathise

• 6. Have patience
• 7. Hold your temper
• 8. Dont argue or
• criticise
• 9. Ask questions
• 10. STOP TALKING

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Questioning

• Use O P E N to probe
• Who, why, what, when, how?
• Use CLOSED (yes/no answers)
• to redirect/ summarise
• Are you saying that?

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Questioning

• Use YOU questions
• How do you see this?
• What are your priorities?
• How important is ...... to you?
• Tell me more about ......?
• What if.......Why........How......?

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Using Feedback

• Help participants to think through
• these questions
• 1. What did you do well?
• 2. What could you have done
• even better?
• 3. What prevented you from doing
• even better whats the plan to
• do even better in the future?

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Conflict Handling

• identify points of agreement
• reformulate contributions to highlight common
  ideas
• encourage people to build on others ideas
• test for false consensus
• test consensus for relevance/motivation

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The Facilitraining Rainbow

• 1. How much interaction does the facilitator
  have with participants?
• 2. How much does the facilitator contribute to
  the content/outcome of the session?

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The Facilitraining Rainbow
Socratic direction
HIGH
facilitating discussion
I n t e r a c t I o n
teaching
demonstrating
brainstorming
process monitoring
presenting
Contribution to Content
HIGH
LOW
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Cross-Cultural Dynamics

• Variable language skills
• Recognition of cultural differences without
  reinforcing stereotypes
• Different cultural norms about politeness and
  communication style ie interruption
  argumentativeness
• Awareness of perceived status differences between
  cultures
• Loyalty towards ones own cultural group

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Code of Cross-Cultural Conduct

• We appreciate enjoy cultural diversity
• We accept that our own perceptions are coloured
  by our own upbringing/culture
• We empathise with others view
• We are open-minded and we dont stereotype other
  nationals
• We openly discuss how our different cultural
  backgrounds may be influencing an issue

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Code of Cross-Cultural Conduct

• We recognise and accept that physical contact
  differs across cultures
• We recognise that language is a barrier and make
  allowances without being patronising
• We always double-check understanding
• We plan our communication to eliminate the
  negative and accentuate the positive
• We communicate in a clear, direct, honest and
  open way

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Helpful Attitudes Values

• My mind-set wont help them
• Everybody is human, unique with potential
• Its OK to teach
• No one best way
• People never argue with their own data
• Facilitators cant win arguments
• Silence is OK
• Dont push the river

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Good Facilitation Brings

• Co-operation
• Results