A Facilitator Can Help the Team Solve Any Communication Problems.

By Star Dargin, PCC, CPCC

A skilled facilitator reduces white collar crime. Research shows bad meetings cost the U.S.A. billions of dollars in productivity annually — and that is a crime!

Facilitation is a specific skill that is used in project meetings to bring out the best and resolve the worst in a group, in service of a projection goal. The coming together is a tool that advances the project goals past balancing the needs of the project and the people. Facilitation and meetings go hand-in-hand, and one can't be, or exist effectively, without the other.

A project manager should consider a meeting to be a tool that is used to get a job done, and one that is all-time run like a projection. A meeting, similar a project, allows something new to be created; information technology has a start, an finish, it is temporary, and it should produce clear deliverables. A meeting is one of many tools a projection manager uses to achieve project success. Meetings are piece of cake and familiar and overused, and often are non the right tool for the job. This article explores using meetings as a tool and offers some key facilitation techniques and skills. Facilitation is an art and science and can exist learned and improved upon with practice. It is a required skill for project managers.

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Meetings as a Tool

Meetings are a tool that the project director uses to advance activity and to attain project success. However, meetings are not always the right tool to use. Until the goal of a meeting is articulate, don't have a meeting. Instead, fourth dimension planning before the meeting to get clarity on the meeting's goals. Equally Zig Ziglar said, "A goal properly ready is halfway reached."

A pop teaming model approach chosen GRPI (an acronym related to the dimensions characterizing a team; goals, roles, process, and interpersonal relationships) states that 80% of team conflicts are due to unclear goals. The majority of ineffective meetings are that way because in that location is no clear purpose. Simply past ensuring that the coming together goal is articulate earlier or at the start of the meeting dramatically improves the chances for a successful effect.

Project status meetings are notorious for existence inefficient. Some unproblematic questions can aid make up one's mind if a coming together is the right tool to gather condition information. For case, what condition information is needed, by whom, by when, and how frequently? A new goal may arise from those questions, mayhap revealing that the project manager is the but person who needs to know if a task is on fourth dimension or what the updates are. Hence a meeting would not be the correct tool in this instance.

A ten-person project squad that spends two hours a week in meetings to report status and become updates costs 20 labor hours. If a project manager spends 4 hours a calendar week gathering status and update data instead of property a project condition coming together, the project has saved roughly sixteen projection hours. If the project team establishes an online tool and uses information technology to report condition and updates, more than savings are possible.

The unspoken and intangible outcomes of meetings, however, cannot be overlooked. When team members regularly collaborate, it inadvertently helps to create squad bonding and sparks ideas and solutions that can exist very productive. If the team bonding and breezy team interactions are an important goal for project success, then it'southward vital to create that blazon of interaction, which may or may not exist accomplished past holding a meeting.

Meetings are great places to achieve these project-related goals: reaching consensus, making a conclusion, brainstorming, resolving issues, sharing important updates, and achieving squad edifice. Alternatives to meetings are one-on-one discussion, shared threaded online discussions, or team events. The bottom-line questions hither are: Is at that place clarity on the purpose of the coming together, and is a coming together the right tool to achieve this purpose?

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Facilitation: Hunting for a Goal

A smashing facilitator is similar a militarist hunting to achieve a goal. The hawk has eyes on either side of its head. The hawk starts the hunt sitting upward high in a tree or circling around in the sky; it has a wide, panoramic view of the whole situation. The project manager must be able to see the big flick – the company vision, the industry, the current project state of affairs. When a hawk spots its prey, he become ultra-focused and dives downwardly to become it. Equally he dives and is zooming in on the casualty, he is continually scanning the expanse for risks equally he gets closer. If he detects a threat or claiming on his way to the casualty, he volition make a decision at some point in the descent, no thing how close to the casualty he may be, to back off and reassess. He reviews the challenges and finds a new programme to go his casualty. He may expect for the take chances to pass or make up one's mind a new approach and so re-engage with the casualty. He may realize that the get-go prey is not currently attainable and so choose to go out it for now and find an easier target. He is relentless in getting his prey.

Like the militarist, the facilitator has the larger view of the terrain and knows when to zoom in on the goal of the meeting. The facilitator adjusts to the situation as it develops real-time. The facilitator is relentless in achieving the goal of the meeting. The facilitator moves the meeting forwards and will acknowledge if a meeting goal is unrealistic, adjusting on the ground of that. The facilitator adapts, adjusts, and connects to the participants while bringing them forward as ane to achieve the meeting goal. Similar the militarist, the facilitator is in a constant scanning and taking-action fashion in service of the goal and the participants.

Facilitation Skills and "AND"

A facilitator uses many techniques and skills at different times in the meeting. Information technology'southward non always articulate what skills volition be needed and when. The challenge is to figure out in existent-fourth dimension which skill to use when and for what group, all while keeping a focus on the goal of the meeting. Many of the skills needed appear to be in contradiction with each other, such equally the ability to see the large picture and the details at the same time. Nonetheless both are needed. The key is finding the correct residual; a facilitator expands the range of what is possible by using opposites. A facilitator's technique is to apply the "and" approach. Using "and" allows for expansion and inclusion. Here are some examples:

• Run across the big picture AND the details.
• Use focus AND a divergent path.
• Get clarity AND create chaos.
• Solicit data from anybody AND only from a few.
• Focus on the people AND the content.
• Be forceful AND be quiet.
• Arbitrate AND let information technology become.

Some key skills used in existent-time that enable the utilise of the "and" approach are:

• Listening well, communicating well, asking good questions, managing conflict, and the power to read body language
• Assessing private and grouping behaviors and determining how to intervene in service of the goal
• Having an ability to summarize, organize, and get to the bottom line fast
• Beingness adaptable, flexible, and able to suit the process on the fly

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Facilitation — Taming the Beliefs

People are the greatest asset and can as well be the greatest claiming for both facilitators and project managers. People's behaviors are predictable and unpredictable at times, and dissimilar group dynamics elicit different behaviors from people. Some common group dynamics that crusade behaviors that tin get in the way of achieving the goal of a meeting are: the "elephant in the room" (the non-discussable), the impact a senior director has, perceived technical competition among members, and the need to exist right.

Each individual and group interaction presents a new and real-fourth dimension challenge for a facilitator. Individual and grouping behaviors have common patterns and when identified can exist dealt with. A good facilitator can recognize the behaviors and intervene chop-chop. A behavior is external and appreciable. It is a inkling to what an individual, or the group collectively, may exist thinking. However, it is important to not make assumptions from one unmarried behavior what a person is thinking. An example is middle rolling. Center rolling is a behavior that is externally observable. Heart rolling could hateful anything from "that's stupid," "I've heard information technology before," "you're stupid," or "I'm stupid for not knowing." By putting the beliefs into the larger context, it helps to sort out if the facilitator needs to arbitrate and how.

Here are two contexts showing when to intervene and when non to for eye rolling.

1. A senior sponsor in the rut of a word where the goal of the meeting had well-nigh been reached, stops and rolls her eyes for no apparent reason. A facilitator may ask, "I noticed you rolled your eyes. Is it related to the conclusion that we are close to reaching?"
2. A participant who is not involved in the chat and who is known to dislike a co-worker who is speaking, rolls his optics. The facilitator may chose to ignore this in the meeting.

By separating the behaviors from the person, information technology makes conflicts and adjustments less personal. It is about the behavior that is not existence helpful in moving the coming together forward rather than being almost the person. Addressing the behavior helps to continue emotion in check by depersonalizing information technology. Mutual individual behaviors that arrive the way of a productive meeting are:

• Not paying attention
• Being distracted
• Not being respectful
• Not speaking upwardly and participating
• Talking too much
• Talking off-topic

Facilitation Technique — Shifting: Acknowledge and Move

Shifting is a technique for intervening and redirecting the meeting toward the goal. If you have ever driven a manual transmission vehicle, you know you have to physically change gears for a smooth ride and for your vehicle to run efficiently. You can drive for hours in 1 gear on a flat surface and never take to alter gears. Or you may notice that y'all need to ofttimes change gears because of the conditions effectually yous – frequent starting and stopping, other drivers, lots of hills, etc.

When showtime learning how to drive a manual manual, most people rely on the tachometer, that gauge that measures the engine revolutions per minute. If it is besides loftier or too low, you know you have to shift up or down. When the vehicle makes horrible noises, banging and grinding, an error had been made. A more experienced commuter knows the subtleties of the engine sounds and route weather condition and shifts unconsciously and effortlessly.

Shifting a vehicle is an acknowledgement that a change needs to happen and indicates that appropriate activity has been taken. Shifting every bit a facilitator is acknowledging that something has happened in the meeting that is potentially blocking the group's power to achieve the goal. Shifting acknowledges what is going on now, existent-time, and takes action to move towards the goal. Here are six examples of how a facilitator can use the shifting technique afterward hearing a participant maxim this potentially obstructing comment: "I hate when we apply ABC to solve that problem."

Before putting any specific technique into play, the first stride is to acknowledge what the person said. The most mutual method of doing that is to echo their words back to them. The closer it is to what they said, the amend. An case is, "I heard yous say that you hate it when nosotros utilise ABC to solve that problem."

The second step is to make a real-time cess of the statement and how helpful or not it is to reaching the goal of the meeting.

The third step is to shift to take action. Here are 6 examples of different gears you can shift into, based on the person, the situation, and the goal:

• Alternative: What do think will solve the problem?
• Flip it: I have seen ABC work and be helpful and useful in cases which are similar to ours.
• Appoint them: Is there anything good nearly it? Is there anything useful nearly it? What specifically won't solve this problem? Can it be used in any state of affairs?
• Pace over: I (the grouping, skilful) believe it will solve the trouble; permit'due south pursue that for now until information technology proves that it can't.
• Appoint others: Chris is the skillful in ABC; Chris, do you hold? Chris is the determination-maker for ABC; Chris, should nosotros hash out or continue? Raise your paw if you lot concord that ABC won't work.
• Get them to a Yeah: Can we acknowledge our differences about this and move on? Can nosotros talk about it later? Can I put it in a parking lot?

Shifting is a skill that takes practice and adept facilitators do it unconsciously all the time.

Summary: Facilitation – A Skill Worth Building

In that location are more tools, techniques, and skills that a great facilitator brings into play, such every bit pre- and mail-meeting planning, basic meeting skills such as having an calendar, using ground rules, practicing fourth dimension management, and using appropriate technology for the task at hand. It takes pre- and post-planning, knowing the challenges involved, constant scanning like the hawk, and adapting to the state of affairs as information technology unfolds.

Shifting is one technique that tin be applied in the coming together to motility towards the goal. Nearly importantly, the facilitator must get clear on the purpose of the meeting. The meeting itself is nothing more than a tool that is run similar a mini project in service of moving forward the larger project. The outcome is improved productivity.

A great facilitator can elicit unexpected and sometimes amazing results by tapping into the wisdom of the group through skillful facilitation. Some results of slap-up facilitation are that ownership and results are created and the team is inspired and engaged. The upshot for the projection manager is that there has been efficient and quality advancement towards project commitment.

For more than information on this topic, also as how Corporate Didactics Grouping can help optimize your organization's performance, contact usa or telephone call 1.800.288.7246 (U.s. only) or +ane.978.649.8200.

About the Author:

Star Dargin, PCC, CPCC, is a trainer and consultant for Corporate Education Group. Star'south client feel includes numerous industries, small-scale businesses, learning institutions, land agencies, and independent workers. Star has also held leadership positions at several high-tech companies in roles such every bit manager of applied science, managing director of project managers, and international plan manager. Additionally, Star is an adjunct professor at Boston University where she teaches graduate-level courses on leadership and communication skills for project managers.

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Source: https://www.corpedgroup.com/resources/pm/facilitation-pm.asp

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