January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
Establishing meeting guidelines entails team members identifying what they will expect of each other, how the group will interact, and what behaviors will be expected. The following are some helpful hints on how to establish guidelines:
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
The second step for effective meetings is planning the meeting. There are three activities to this step: • Set objectives • Handle logistics • Prepare the agenda.
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
The third step for effective meetings is to conduct the meeting, which requires skill in two activities: • Opening the meeting • Closing the meeting
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
It is generally useful to evaluate each team meeting, because it provides the project team with the opportunity to critique how effective and efficient the team is during the meetings. Evaluation helps the team resolve problems – rather than let them continue. This feedback is important because unresolved problems can affect the success of the project.
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
Careful record-keeping is essential to having effective meetings and a successful project for several reasons: • Serve as a checklist for each team member of the work he has to accomplish before the next meeting • Help team members to have a common understanding of the decisions taken • Help to serve as a report to groups of individuals...
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
Listening is a skill one needs to develop consciously. While most people agree that listening is important, few people do it well. There are many factors that can interfere with people’s ability to listen. It is important to be able to recognize the barriers of good listening so that team members can become more aware.
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
In discussing barriers to listening we suggested ways to overcome some barriers. But the best strategy for listening despite barriers is to listen actively in a way that communicates the attention of the listener to the speaker. Some active listening techniques include: • Affirming • Bridging • Organizing • Confirming.
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
The five basic techniques to that enable building rapport among team members are: • Common courtesy • Personal connections • Team language • Body and facial language • Acknowledging
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
Efforts to establish a bond of confidence and mutual respect among team members can be undone by an ill-chosen word or careless mistake. Rapport breakers to be aware of include: • Rudeness • Inappropriate tone of voice • Inaccuracy • Demanding language • Technical jargon.
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
The first step to provide information is preparation, encompassing these preliminary activities: • Identify the purpose • Anticipate audience needs and questions • Outline information Sometimes these activities will take very...
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
The second step to provide information is the actual delivery. There are three activities to this step: • Set the stage • Present information • Confirm understanding.
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
Open questions invite the person being questioned to determine the content and direction of the response. They tend to elicit expansive by encouraging people to speak freely. WHEN Open questions are most useful when team members: • Are not sure where to begin with the questioning • Need background information about...
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
Closed questions restrict the person being questioned to the topics of the questioner’s choice. They discourage elaboration and allow team members to get at specific pieces of information in a consistent manner. Most often, a person being questioned will provide a very brief response to a closed questions – nothing more than a “yes” or “no.”
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
The descriptions we’ve given for open and closed questions should be considered guidelines rather than hard-and-fast rules. When questioning to obtain information, team members should keep these additional points in mind.
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
Team members sometimes do not have enough information to respond adequately to a statement. At other times, they do not understand what has been said. This lack of information or understanding can harm the team and the success of the project.
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
Confirming questions enable team members to check their understanding of what has been said and why. It is a good idea to confirm any statement that is open to several interpretations, even if team members think they understand it in the context of the conversation. This helps eliminate misunderstandings, especially when talking with someone who uses technical language.
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
Positive feedback reinforces work that has been well done. Positive feedback: • Tells the team member that he or she has met or exceeded group norms and expectations for participation on the team • Makes it more likely that the person will repeat the desired performance • Communicates to the team member that his/her contributions are recognized and valued
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
Corrective feedback calls for changes in a team member’s opinions, actions, or behaviors. Corrective feedback improves the team member’s contributions in the future. It does not focus on past failures. Corrective feedback is always directed at specific opinions or actions, not at the person. It strikes a balance between what was good or helpful about a contribution in question and what needs changing. Corrective feedback should be proved with genuine interest in seeing the other person improve.
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
Sometimes during team meetings, members are unresponsive to questions and issues. The discussions may break down, leaving some issues unresolved or preventing the team moving forward. POSSIBLE CAUSES Team may become non-responsive under conditions like the following: • The topic of discussion is ...
January 2000 | Facilitation Skills
Overly talkative team members dominate the discussion and slow down the project team’s progress. Other team members cannot contribute their information, ideas, opinions, and expertise. Other team members may perceive their contributions as not being important. Ultimately, the team’s creativity and effectiveness may suffer.