Tips for Facilitating Groups or Meetings
Prepared by Vicki Stasch, Management Consultant
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Facilitator/Leader’s Role
- Establish and adhere to a time line
- Be a neutral person for the group
- Listen and clarify issues within the group
- Listen twice as much as you talk-your role is to engage and direct the people not to tell or talk
- Solicit input from everyone
- Discourage domineering or judgmental behavior
- Keep the discussion flowing and on focus
- Offer your input at the end/at the beginning only if the group is struggling
Monitor Role
- Helps facilitator by reminding of time lines
- Signals the group when ground rules are violated-ground rules are posted
- Reminding the facilitator when everyone has not had input
- Is a second set of eyes and ears to insure the meeting flows well
Tips for Facilitating
- Arrive early to set up room and materials, post the agenda and to greet people.
- Always have writing boards/markers. A lap top computer helps.
- Start session on time with introductions, purpose of session, agenda review and clarifying your role.
- Set or review ground rules or code of conduct with the group plus the mechanism to monitor
- To start a discussion, write a question(s) on a board and ask the group in pairs to respond.
- Use small group discussions (3-7 people) to get everyone participating.
- Use structured Brainstorming to gather a lot of information quickly: go around room asking for each person’s brief ideas which are recorded
- Use consensus building to get everyone’s agreement on a decision, outcome. Consensus is “we can live with this”, not necessarily “we all agree”
- Have group members write prior to verbal discussion: post-it notes, 3x5 cards, on posted paper pads.
- Use video tape(s) as a tool to get group focused
- To manage the long-winded or domineering members, refer to ground rules or ask them to summarize in ten words or less.
- To involve the silent members, use small groups or pairings.
- To get everyone’s input, pose the question then move “round robin” around the room asking for each person’s input in 20 words (or 1 minute each).
Meeting Follow up
- Keep notes of the actions and agreements with dates assigned
- Address unresolved issues and agendize for next meeting
- Summarize or offer meeting closure
- Ask participants about what worked and did not
- Insure notes or minutes are distributed