The Art of Facilitation

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The Art of Facilitation

• Presented by Neville Turbit
• Project Perfect
• www.projectperfect.com.au

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Agenda

• About Meetings
• Context for Facilitation
• 24 Techniques
• Conclusion

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Purpose of a Meeting

• Briefing
• One way communication
• Disseminate Information
• People leave with more information then they had
  when they arrived
• Workshop
• Two way communication
• Gain input
• Reach a conclusion
• People leave with a problem solved

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Meeting Leader

• Briefing
• MC role
• Manage the order of speakers
• Workshop
• Keep the discussion focused
• Manage input from people
• Guide towards the best solution

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Workshop Problems

• Loose focus
• Dominant personalities - imbalance
• Distractions
• No time management
• No process to follow
• Takes too long
• Result is not always the best option

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Motivation
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• Context for Facilitation

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Facilitation

• The benefit of facilitation in a meeting is to
  have one person focus on achieving the purpose of
  the meeting.

The responsibility of a facilitator is to ensure
the group works in a cohesive manner to reach a
workable solution as quickly as possible.
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Independent

• Should not be a subject matter expert who is
  critical to the outcome
• Should not have a solution to sell
• Beneficial if they are not knowledgeable in the
  area
• Need the brain space to manage the meeting

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Key Activities

• Setting the scope and desired outcome
• Planning the meeting
• Managing time
• Managing the contributions
• Keeping the focus
• Drawing out solutions
• Managing distractions
• Summarising the result

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Planning the Meeting

• Venue design
• Invitees
• Anticipated behaviour
• Other agendas
• Contentious issues
• Contingency planning

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Setting the Scope Outcome

• Goals of the meeting
• Information base
• Time required
• Trade offs

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Running the Meeting

• Concentrate on Process not Content
• Set the ground rules
• Ensure equal contribution
• Differentiate between information generation and
  reaching a conclusion
• Ensure group ownership
• Focus Quality decisions made quickly

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• Techniques

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24 Techniques

• Nominate Tie breaker
• Nominate recorders
• Time out
• 15 Minute rule
• Focus on facilitator
• Stop cross discussion
• Crystallise
• Establishing criteria

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24Techniques (Cont.)

• Act dumb!!!
• Reverse positions
• Break out groups
• Top n Reasons
• Challenge solutions Devils Advocate
• Speaking stick
• Root cause analysis
• Ranking and trade off
• Disruption

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24 Techniques (Cont.)

• Change seating positions
• Brainstorming versus Logical deduction
• Maintaining control thru physical position
• Prioritising criteria
• Functional decomposition data modelling
• Why are we special?
• SEND (Starting, Expanding, Narrowing, Deciding)

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Meeting Agenda

• Introduction. Why are you here?
• Purpose of the meeting
• Rules and responsibilities
• Timeframes
• Discussion
• Conclusion and validation
• Where to next
• Close

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3 Decision Questions

• Can I live with it or am I going to go home and
  not sleep tonight because I am in such violent
  disagreement?
• Can I support it and apply resources to it?
• Can I not talk badly of the decisions made here
  today?

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• Conclusion

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Summary of Facilitation

• Fosters quick decision making
• Fair Go
• Balance between different parties (e.g. Business
  and IT)
• Encourages participation by all team members
• All team members contribute to decisions
• Builds atmosphere of co-operation
• Must be independent
• Builds momentum

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Thanks for your attention
White paper in Project Perfect White Paper
Collection http//www.projectperfect.com.au/info
_role_of_the_facilitator.php