Transcript Effective Facilitation Skills: Going from Good to Great by Arzum Ciloglu

Effective Facilitation Skills
Facilitation Skills: Going from Good to Great
AFP Partners’ Meeting
July 19, 2016
Arzum Ciloglu, MPH, DrPH
[email protected]
Effective Communication Skills for Facilitators
Modeling
• Practice behavior that you want reflected
back to you
• Try to be non- judgmental
• Watch your nonverbal messages
• Remember to have some fun
**Adapted from:
http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/Facilitation_Skills_Developing
_Facilitative_Leadership.pdf
Active Listening
• Be genuinely interested in other people's
thoughts and feelings.
• Listen intently.
• Make appropriate eye contact.
Effective Communication Skills for Facilitators
**Adapted from:
http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/Facilitation_Skills_Develo
Summarizing
• Use paraphrasing as a method of
clarifying.
• Check your perceptions with the group.
• It is very important to summarize at the
end of key parts of the agenda and at the
end of meetings.
**Adapted from:
http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/Facilitation_Skills_Developin
_Facilitative_Leadership.pdf
Focusing attention and pacing
• Keep the group on the topic and focused,
• Use care to limit or reduce repetition.
• Stay on track!
• Except…when is it ok to go off on a tangent?
**Adapted from:
http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/Facilitation_Skills_Develop
Recognizing progress
• "Nice job!”
• “We covered a lot of ground in a short
time”
• “That’s a great SMART objective”
**Adapted from:
http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/Facilitation_Skills_Developing
_Facilitative_Leadership.pdf
Scanning/Observing
• Nurture full participation from the group.
• Watch nonverbal cues in the form of
‐ body movements
‐ facial expressions
‐ gestures
• Take a break, change the pace, change the
topic, etc.
**Adapted from:
http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/Facilitation_Skills_Developing
_Facilitative_Leadership.pdf
Waiting or Silence
Remember that sometimes the hardest
thing to do is nothing.
**Adapted from:
http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/Facilitation_Skills_Developing
eadership.pdf
Questioning
• Ask for examples, share personal experiences
• Relate to other topics
• Types of questions—open, closed, reflective,
probing
• How to use questioning
– Ask questions of entire group
– Target question to specific participant
– State question, pause, then direct question
Effective Communication Skills for Facilitators
Inclusion
• Give equal opportunity to participate.
• Encourage those who have been silent
to comment.
**Adapted from:
http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/Facilitation_Skills_Developing
_Facilitative_Leadership.pdf
Body Language
**Adapted from:
http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/Facilitation_Skills_Developing
_Facilitative_Leadership.pdf
How to set up a room for maximum
participation?
Effective Communication Skills for Facilitators
Handling Difficult Team Members
• Goal is to reduce, alter, or eliminate the
member's undesirable behaviors
– without hurting his or her self-esteem or
capability to contribute
• Never verbally scold or embarrass the
individual in front of the group or even
privately
Techniques for Handling Problems
• Be direct, but tactful
• Talk with the person candidly about
the behavior in private
• Use the team's informal leadersthose
Four Common Types of Troublesome
Team Members
1. The Mummy
This person will not freely participate in
discussions.
Facilitator Antidotes:
• Be patient
• Give major role in warmup/icebreaker
• Ask direct questions to the person on topics
he or she has expertise
• Assign these role as subgroup facilitator
**Adapted from:
http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/Facilitation_Skills_Developing
_Facilitative_Leadership.pdf
Four Common Types of Troublesome
Team Members
2. The Windbag
This individual comments too
frequently and tends to dominate
discussions
Facilitator Antidotes:
• Establish procedures to limit discussion
• Ask questions to other members by name.
• Use nonverbal signals
• Do not assign subgroup leadership roles to person
**Adapted from:
http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/Facilitation_Skills_Developing
_Facilitative_Leadership.pdf
Four Common Types of Troublesome
Team Members
3. The Rambler
This individual will often
get off track in his remarks,
misses the point
Facilitator Antidotes:
• Make it clear there are time constraints
• Revert back to agenda
• Consider making this individual a recorder or
timekeeper
**Adapted from:
http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/Facilitation_Skills_Developing
_Facilitative_Leadership.pdf
Four Common Types of Troublesome
Team Members
4. The Homesteader
A person who takes an initial position and is highly
reluctant to budge or consider other viable
alternatives.
Facilitator Antidotes:
• Talk of consensus building
• Provide facts
• Enlist support of team members
• Supply an alternative
**Adapted from:
http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/Facilitation_Skills_Developing
_Facilitative_Leadership.pdf
Buzz Groups
What would I do if:
1.
2.
3.
4.
One group member seems to do most of the talking?
An individual is silent for a long period of time?
Someone in the team "puts down" another member?
Group seems to want to reach a decision, but
appears unable to?
5. Someone comes late
6. Group members are excessively polite and unwilling
to confront each other’s ideas?
**Adapted from:
http://www.ilj.org/publications/docs/Facilitation_Skills_Developing
The other side of the
coin…Challenging Facilitators
• The Drill Sergeant—rigidly
stuck on the agenda and puts
the clock above content
• The Know-it-all –always
has the answer.
http://www.workshopexercises.com/Facilitator.htm
Challenging Facilitators
• The Ice Cube—The distant and
aloof, unwilling to personalize
the experience
• The Blabber—loves
the sound of his or her
own voice.
Effective Communication Skills for Facilitators
http://www.workshopexercises.com/Facilitator.htm
Challenging Facilitators
• The Passenger—lets people talk
too long and gives up the reins
of facilitation
• The Storyteller–-tells far too
many stories without getting
to the content.
Effective Communication Skills for Facilitators
http://www.workshopexercises.com/Facilitator.htm
Challenging Facilitator
• The Parrot—relentlessly recaps
information, restates ideas, and
summarizes the obvious
• The "I Can't Hear You"
Guy—refuses to listen.
Effective Communication Skills for Facilitators
http://www.workshopexercises.com/Facilitator.htm
Challenging Facilitators
• The Marathon Man—piles
activities on top of one another,
doesn’t allow for breaks, and
ignores the need for groups to
reflect on a topic or idea
The Molasses Man—painfully
slow and doesn’t have a feel for
pacing, variety, or style
Effective Communication Skills for Facilitators
http://www.workshopexercises.com/Facilitator.htm
Food for Thought
• Do we see ourselves, or anyone we know, in
any of these examples?
• Have there been times when we’ve been a
“challenging facilitator”?
• How can we improve?
Effective Communication Skills for Facilitators
http://www.workshopexercises.com/Facilitator.htm