Barry Brewster

Most people associate the word "facilitator" with someone who trains and develops groups of people. Facilitation is vital but often underutilized in other roles especially management positions.

Organisations in Asia are moving from an autocratic style of management to a participatory, coach based one. Facilitation is a valuable tool in making this happen because it:

• Builds team effectiveness

• Allows teams and individuals to reach true consensus

• Enables staff to embrace more involvement

• Encourages the manager to 'ask not tell'.

• Allows managers to run highly productive time efficient meetings.

To master any new skill managers must practice it and see its benefits. We suggest that our clients specifically train their managers to facilitate meetings - meetings happen every day and are often poorly run; wasting valuable time and causing frustration.

Most managers learn to run meetings by observing others or through trial and error; yet there are a number of very simple steps easily mastered by any manager.

DESIGN AND REFINEMENT

Develop a detailed agenda for the meeting, share it with the participants and get their feedback and refine / promote your design if necessary. A simple agenda should contain:

• Each topic for discussion (and what needs to be accomplished)

• Time to be spent on each topic

• The person who will lead the topic

• The process that will be used to facilitate the discussion

MAKE SURE EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS THEIR ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY IN THE MEETING

In an effective meeting:

• People understand their role for each topic (lead or participant) and what they need to prepare to be effective.

• People understand the defined role that they have for the meeting ie facilitator, chairperson, time keeper, notes taker, flip chart scribbler etc

SET CLEAR GROUND RULES FOR ALL MEETINGS

Ground rules for meetings should always be visible and updated when necessary.

• Feedback should be phrased in a constructive manner

• Anyone can call timeout if they are confused

• Mobile Phones switched off

• Create a "car park" - a piece of paper to 'park' ideas that are interesting but not relevant for future discussion (so they do not distract / take the team off topic)

MAKE SURE EVERYONE HAS INPUT

The facilitator should use a variety of tools / techniques to stimulate ideas and discussion.

Key technique: In Asia it can be difficult to collect ideas in a group situation as members may initially be reluctant to voice their opinion. There are many ways this can be countered for example using sticky notes to capture individual thoughts or ideas

MAKE PROCESS CHECKS

Process checking involves the facilitator occasionally stopping the meeting to 'check in with everyone'

• Check if things are moving towards agenda goals

• Check energy levels

• Check pace

TAKE MEETING NOTES

Meeting notes should be simple and concise they should state:

• What was decided

• Specific actions

For each action clarify and record:

• When it will be achieved

• Who has overall accountability

• Who will take the action (responsibility)

• Who will support the action

• Who needs to be kept informed of status on the action

Key technique: Make people aware of the date of the next meeting where status reports WILL be required

EVALUATE

Review and evaluate the meeting

• What worked

• What did not work

• What improvements could be made

By implementing these techniques we have found clients are able to boost their meeting efficiency by at least 100%. Try them out with your team and you will see results as well as learning the fundamentals of facilitation - that's two for the price of one.

Barry Brewster (CMF) is the only Certified Master Facilitator in Asia. He is also a Board Member for the International Institute for Facilitation (INIFAC) and the Director of Organisational Development for Evans & Peck.

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