What is Facilitation?

Facilitation doesn’t just mean taking notes, setting ground rules and making schedules. It doesn’t mean creating ‘rules of engagement’ or ‘rules of thumb’ and it certainly isn’t just about repeating and recording what others say. Experienced facilitators create, shape and lead the team’s conversation. They effortlessly observe when important conversations are being missed and, using better questions and supporting tools, redirect wandering conversations, encourage deeper thinking and challenge deeply held assumptions. As a result of expert leadership, facilitators guide teams through challenging business decisions, resolve critical organizational issues and solve difficult problems.

We like to point out that note-takers record history; facilitators shape history.

The essential skills for productive and successful facilitation includes the ability to:

• Diagnose the governing group dynamics at play to address and shift dysfunctional patterns of talk to unlock the team’s potential.
• Ask the Better Questions® to challenge old patterns of thinking, explore limiting assumptions, and produce new insights.
• Design purposeful meetings that incorporate the diversity of team member make-up and produce tangible outcomes despite meeting across time zones and different mediums.
• Apply tools and techniques that mitigate the effects of cognitive and motivational biases that can compromise team output and decision quality.