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→Part 3: Facilitation
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= Part 3: Facilitation = | = Part 3: Facilitation = | ||
== Part 3.1: Preparing for Facilitation == | |||
5 min | |||
Facilitator: Have you ever sat in a meeting and thought, “Why is nothing getting done?” or “We just had a meeting, and decided on no action points!” or “Why is this so boring?” | |||
This may be because you are not using consensus based decision making with strong facilitation. | |||
What does that mean? | |||
According to the facilitation handbook, | |||
''Facilitation is a way of providing leadership to others through process.'' | |||
This means that a trained facilitator will guide participants through a series of decisions and work through problems in a manner that is open, collaborative, and respectful. The leader or facilitator will never abandon their team members, but instead lead the members to a mutually beneficial decision. | |||
This is all lovely, but what does this mean? First, you need to decide if consensus-based facilitation is the right approach for your group. If you are having a brainstorming session, or are not at a decision-making phase of your project, you may want to hold back. Otherwise, forge on ahead and start making decisions. | |||
At the beginning of every group meeting, roles should be decided upon. One person will guide and lead the discussion from a non-judgemental space. That person is the facilitator. When working in a project or affinity group, this role can change every meeting or every few meetings, but it should always switch. The person who is facilitating should know before the meeting if they are facilitating so they can have time to prepare. | |||
Other roles that may need to be filled are the note taker or takers, the stack keeper and time keeper, who makes sure that everyone speaks in the order they had a comment as well as pays attention to time, a person to write out the mutually decided upon agenda either before or during the meeting (this can be the same as the facilitator or note taker) and the person who brings snacks. | |||
Every role in a group meeting is important, but the facilitator holds the keys to process. | |||
== Part 3.2: Qualities of a good facilitator == | |||
(2 minutes) | |||
*The facilitator helps the group define its goal, assess needs, create plans, and execute them. | |||
*The facilitator guides group discussions and keeps the group on track. | |||
*They make sure that records are kept accurately, openly, and accessibly | |||
*They help groups assess and build skills in order to identify and build on key competencies | |||
*They manage conflict in the group and provide a positive experience in service of a decided upon goal. | |||
*They foster leadership within groups and encourage everyone to take on a leadership role. | |||
*They teach and empower other people to facilitate and make faciliation processes joyous and fun. | |||
== Part 3.3: Process vs. Content == | |||
(5 minutes) | |||
'''''Hand out Process vs. Content handout''''' | |||
Facilitator: In assuming a leadership role, you have become the process director, not the content director. Content is defined as what is being discussed. Content is the meat and bones of any meeting. Without content, there is no meeting. Why meet if you have nothing to talk about? | |||
Process means how things are being discussed. It is how people talk to each other and respect each other in the space. It is how everyone’s voice is heard in discussions and how decisions are made the everyone is on board with. | |||
This can be really hard, particularly if you’re a natural leader. You want to make your opinion heard, but if you’re facilitating, you are more of a mirror and sounding board for other participants and your opinion, while certainly important, should be limited. | |||
= Part 4: Consensus = | = Part 4: Consensus = | ||