|
A facilitator is someone who skillfully helps a group of people understand their common objectives and plan to achieve them without personally taking any side of the argument. The facilitator will try to assist the group in achieving a consensus on any disagreements that preexist or emerge in the meeting so that it has a strong basis for future action. The role has been likened to that of a midwife who assists in the process of creation but is not the producer of the end result. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Midwifery is a blanket term used to describe a number of different types of health practitioners, other than doctors, who provide prenatal care to expecting mothers, attend the birth of the infant and provide postnatal care to the mother and infant. ...
Definitions There are a variety of definitions for facilitator. - One is that a facilitator acts as "an individual who enables groups and organizations to work more effectively; to collaborate and achieve synergy. She or he is a 'content neutral' party who by not taking sides or expressing or advocating a point of view during the meeting, can advocate for fair, open, and inclusive procedures to accomplish the group's work" - Doyle[1]
- Another definition is "one who contributes structure and process to interactions so groups are able to function effectively and make high-quality decisions. A helper and enabler whose goal is to support others as they achieve exceptional performance" - Bens[2]
- Yet another suggests "the facilitator's job is to support everyone to do their best thinking. To do this, the facilitator encourages full participation, promotes mutual understanding and cultivates shared responsibility. By supporting everyone to do their best thinking, a facilitator enables group members to search for inclusive solutions and build sustainable agreements" - Kaner[3]
Synergy or synergism (from the Greek synergos, συνεÏγός meaning working together, circa 1660) refers to the phenomenon in which two or more discrete influences or agents acting together create an effect greater than that predicted by knowing only the separate effects of the individual agents. ...
Types
Business facilitators Business facilitators work in business, and other formal organisations but facilitators may also work with a variety of other groups and communities. It is a tenet of facilitation that the facilitator will not lead the group towards the answer that he/she thinks is best even if they possess an opinion on the subject matter. The facilitator's roles is to make it easier for the group the arrive at its own answer, decision, or deliverable. Facilitation in business, organizational development (OD) and in consensus decision-making refers to the process of designing and running a successful meeting. ...
Wall Street, Manhattan is the location of the New York Stock Exchange and is often used as a symbol for the world of business. ...
Training facilitators Training facilitators are used in adult education. These facilitators are usually subject experts, however draw on the knowledge of the participants and then fill in any gaps. Training facilitators focus on the foundations of adult education: establish existing knowledge, build on it and keep it relevant. The role is different to the formal trainer who will take a more leading role and take the group through an agenda designed to transmit a body of knowledge.
Skills The basic skills of a facilitator are about following good meeting practices: timekeeping, following an agreed-upon agenda, and keeping a clear record. The higher-order skills involve watching the group and its individuals in light of group process and dynamics. In addition, facilitators also need a variety of listening skills including ability to paraphrase; stack a conversation; draw people out; balance participation; and make space for more reticent group members (Kaner, et al., 1996). It is critical to the facilitator's role to have the knowledge and skill to be able to intervene in a way that adds to the group's creativity rather than taking away from it. In organizational development (OD), the phrase group process refers to the behavior of people in groups, such as task groups that are trying to solve a problem or make a decision. ...
The term group dynamics implies that individual behaviours may differ depending on individuals current or prospective connections to a sociological group. ...
A successful facilitator embodies respect for others and a watchful awareness of the many layers of reality in a human group.
In the event that a consensus cannot be reached then the facilitator would assist the group in understanding the differences that divide it.
The International Association of Facilitators was founded in 1993 to promote facilitation as a profession.(= 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...
In organizational development (OD) and consensus decision-making, facilitation refers to the process of designing and running a successful meeting. ...
The role of a facilitator
Some of the things facilitators do to assist a meeting: - Helping participants show up prepared to contribute
- Codifying the purpose, scope, and deliverables of the meeting or workshop
- Coming prepared with a variety of group facilitation and dialogue tools that the facilitator is skilled in and can employ in difficult moments
- Keeping the group on track to achieve its goals in the time allotted
- Either providing the group or helping the group decide what ground rules it should follow and reminding them of these when they are not followed
- Reminding the group of the objectives or deliverables of the meeting or session
- Setting up a safe environment where members feel comfortable contributing ideas
- Guiding the group through processes designed to help them listen to each other and create solutions together
- Asking open-ended questions that stimulate thinking
- Tentatively paraphrasing or repeating verbatim individual contributions to confirm understanding and ensure they are heard by the whole group
- Tentatively summarizing a recent part of the discussion
- Recording agreements reached in large script on the wall so all can see and accept the wording
- Recording the current issues within the group in large script on the wall using phrases agreed by the group
- Offering a possible wording for an unspoken question that may currently beset the group
- Ensuring the group doesn't settle for the first thing that they can agree on because they find it painful to go on disagreeing with each other
- Offering opportunities for less forceful members to come forward with contributions
- Ensuring that actions agreed by the group to carry out its decisions are written up in a large script on the wall for all to see and are assigned to individuals
- Evaluating the performance of the meeting to assist in continuous improvement.
Paraphrasing is the act in which a statement or remark is explained in other words or another way, as to clarify the meaning. ...
Verbatim has several meanings. ...
Issues can refer to: plural of issue 1999 album titled Issues by Korn This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ...
Some things that facilitators don't do: - Back a particular opinion voiced in the group
- Offer their own opinions
- Let the group unconsciously shy away from a difficult area
- Lead the group towards what he/she thinks is the right direction
References - ^ Michael Doyle, quoted in Kaner, et al, 2007, p. xiii.
- ^ Bens, 2000, p. 5.
- ^ Sam Kaner and colleagues (2007) p. 32.
Bibliography - Ingrid Bens (Author); Facilitating Wtih Ease!: A Step-by-Step Guidebook with Customizable Worksheets on CD-ROM, Jossey-Bass, ISBN 0-7879-5194-3, (2000)
- Sam Kaner with Lenny Lind, Catherine Toldi, Sarah Fisk and Duane Berger (Authors); Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, Jossey-Bass; ISBN 0-7879-8266-0 (2007)
- Ron Kraybill (Author); Structuring Dialogue: Cool Tools for Hot Topics; Riverhouse Epress(2005)
- Ron Kraybill (Author); Group Facilitation: Skills to Facilitate Meetings and Training Exercises to Learn Them; Riverhouse Express(2005)
- Roger Schwarz (Author); The Skilled Facilitator; Jossey-Bass ; ISBN 0-7879-4723-7 (New & Revised July 2002)
External links For other meanings of the word facilitator see Facilitator (disambiguation). The term facilitation is broadly used to describe any activity which makes easy the tasks of others. ...
|
Feeds |
Contact