Group facilitation techniques pdf

The guide engaging everyone with liberating structures by group jazz is also an. Techniques of group facilitation oh cards institute. Essential facilitation skills for an effective facilitator. An effective group leader establishes an atmosphere that is. Recognizing early warning signs can minimize the potential for trouble. The aim of the group agreement is to create a safe and respectful space in which people can work together productively. Exploring facilitation techniques in project management. Facilitation, as the term is used in this book, refers to processes by which one member of a group operates to help the group analyze issues, learn from experience, and work as a team to draw conclusions. Useful facilitation skills include planning agendas, creating the appropriate group environment, encouraging participation, and leading the group to reach its objectives. These steps can be especially useful if you have little or no. Support group facilitation guide mental health america. Mg rush facilitation training and coaching 21,910 views 6.

Think about the sort of group you need a random split e. Educators and other professionals spend a lot of time in meetings. They quickly foster lively participation in groups of any size, making it possible to truly include and unleash everyone. Any group member can call the group back to the subject of the. Tools, techniques and tips for effective facilitation. They are useful to aid idea generation, raise energy and help make group decisions. Divide training group into 2, and assign 1 group as participatory facilitation and the other as conventional. Give each group a piece of flipchart paper, and ask them to draw the characteristics of a good facilitator.

Each person has an opportunity to participate in the group. Agenda why groups challenge of group work common pitfalls of groups. Similar to 25to10, each participant reflects on a question and writes one idea on a card or postit you can allow people to generate more than one card. However, leading an active training is hard and requires solid facilitation skills. Group steering techniques make up an area in which most facilitators develop unconscious competences. Directing the key to facilitating effectively is to remember that your role is to lead the discussion, not direct it. A good facilitator can keep meetings focused on the subject of discussion or on dealing with the problem. Facilitation is the glue that holds a group together.

It can be useful to start your meeting or workshop by negotiating a group agreement. Guidelines for forming and leading teams are included in the books field guide to leadership and supervision in business and field guide to leadership and supervision for nonprofit staff guidelines for leading and for working with teams during organizational change are included the books field guide to consulting and organizational. Your ability to make everyone comfortable, encourage everyone to speak up, enforce a respectful tone, and manage the pace will determine the quality of the discussion and therefore, the information you gather. Introduction to facilitation facilitate means to make easy. Participatory facilitation techniques 2 technique how to apply in meetings card sorting is a way of gathering and organizing ideas that draws on the knowledge of the whole group. Vogt founded peoplesworth, a private practice in organizational development, in 1982 and he has facilitated thousands of meetings and retreats since. Finally, at the broadest level, youll be introduced to some journal facilitation techniques that harness some basic counseling skills, and are applicable in any journal setting. One need not be labeled facilitator in order to employ facilitation techniques in a group. Facilitation is used in a variety of contexts including training, experiential learning, conflict resolution, and negotiation. Get students perspectives about what to cover cover a topic more or less fully based upon their feedback 5. Techniques to collaborate in addition to the previous techniques. Facilitation techniques are an important part of elearning project management, as they ensure that the sessions participants work together effectively. Senior consultant, cihs practice and policy scholar mcsilver institute for poverty and policy research new york university tuesday, december 10, 20. Support group facilitation necessitates discernment of the inward disposition of group members and aiding members in exploring, interpreting and reflecting on individual and group affect.

Scanning the room, looking at individual members during group interaction, allows the facilitator to be aware of verbal as well as nonverbal cues. Facilitating learning and change in groups and group. Group facilitation addresses the needs of diverse individuals. Facilitation can play an important role in ensuring a wellrun meeting or engagement process. These steps can be especially useful if you have little or no experience facilitating groups, or can serve as a refresher or resource if you are. The books discussion of oh cards, in the original spanish, is available in pdf format download the pdf. Essentially a group agreement is a set of statements that set the tone for how people will behave within the meeting or workshop. That means a facilitator isnt there to give opinions, but to draw out opinions and ideas of the group members. Of course facilitation can also be used at the organisation, project or community. The role is to work with a group of farmers who are in much the same situation, to drawout knowledge and ideas from different members of a group, and to help them learn from each other and to think and act together. Tedxhampshirecollege jay vogt the art of facilitation. The techniques we will practice today will be ones we can use, that tend to come in participatory facilitation.

Chapters on mindfulness and stress management as well as the. Introduction to planning and facilitating effective meetings about this publication introduction to planning and facilitating effective meetings is the sixth in a series of guides developed to bring information to coastal managers about the use of social science tools in their field of work. A facilitator is a guide to help people move through a process together, not the seat of wisdom and knowledge. Liberating structures are a disruptive innovation that can replace more controlling or constraining approaches. The group facilitation manual provides a foundation for working with groups, including. A group consensus is used to create a label to summarize or give a title to each cluster. If the group is large, the original sort can be done in small groups and then merged into a large group. Four stages of group facilitation tempus pictet project. As a facilitator, the role is to guide and manage the group. Facilitation techniques the following techniques are used by facilitators during meetings to assist groups in accomplishing their objectives. Foster participation and get people to come up with ideas, thoughts and perspectives that add value.

Employ video calling for engagement and to see body language. Facilitation techniques technique description breakout groups some groups can be too large to enable indepth discussion. The role of facilitator falls on the project manager, who chairs the meeting, encourages ideas, prompts advice, and so on. In aviation settings, the facilitator is typically an instructor, however facilitation. Get all individuals in the room to feel like they are in. The act of assisting or ease the progress andor improvement of projects. As an alternative, you could ask each group member to select a personal characteristic that will help others to. This section covers a number of facilitation techniques that you might find helpful. Structure conversations and apply appropriate group facilitation techniques to keep discussions effective. Within its pages, therapeutic recreation processes and techniques covers concepts behind processing, as well as specific procedures to use in conducting group processing, including debriefing. Group facilitation techniques and methods ksl training. Group and organizational studies, number 2, p419427.

Developing facilitative leadership groups that need to make decisions or engage in a planning process often find that using a trained facilitator makes this process more efficient and easier for everyone involved. Use a virtual whiteboard for note taking and group documentation. You can find additional information related to the stages of. Tuckman, bruce, 2001, developmental sequence in small groups, group facilitation, number 3, spring, p6681.

When teachers act as facilitators this allows the student to retain control, or at least to have a stake in directing their learning 4. Buzz groups students in groups of 2 or 3, discuss topic question. A facilitation technique from the collective action toolkit by frog design essential meeting facilitation toolkit. Liberating structures are easytolearn microstructures that enhance relational coordination and trust. At times, this assignment can be challenging when conflict arises. Use a timer before starting, during breaks, and during question and answer time. Without their contribution, the groups ability to understand or respond to a situation is. Group facilitation is what a leader says or does to create an experiential and relational environment in which diverse individuals develop as a group. Basic facilitation skills module, training and mentoring skills series. Introduction to planning and facilitating effective meetings.

This definition can be divided into distinct statements referring to different conceptual bases. Group facilitation is a process in which a person whose selection is acceptable to all members of the group, who is substantively neutral, and who has no substantive decisionmaking authority diagnoses and intervenes to help a group improve how it identifies and solves problems and makes decisions, to increase the groups effectiveness. Facilitation skills are essential for anyone seeking to guide a group of people through a process of learning or change in a way that encourages all members of the group to participate. Listed alphabetically below are some of the best group facilitation techniques to help your team achieve their goal.

Facilitation tips and interventions reef resilience. If you are in the middle of an argument between two factions of your group, you wont look up your textbook facilitation for dummies. Exploring the five stages of group formation using. What are facilitation techniques in project management. The facilitation process ensures that each group fosters. This book is about facilitation, working in groups and suggesting ways in which the reader can develop skills in facilitation. The four stages of becoming an unconsciously competent facilitator duration. Then a spokesperson from each group or each student reports back to the larger group. Clear linking of each activity to specific meeting stages our own essential meeting facilitation toolkit by sessionlab consists of 12 group facilitation techniques and tools specifically. Some facilitators may believe that facilitation should. To have successful and highimpact meetings number of techniques. The use of communication skills by an outside person to help groups perform effectively. Facilitation tools for meetings and workshops seeds for change.

These findings open the door to developing new problemsolving techniques and team work processes, and to. Each person has a unique viewpoint and valuable knowledge to share. Tips for facilitating focus groups your role as a focus group facilitator is very important. Indepth discussion techniques these follow well after introductory activities and are designed to help structure a discussion and involve every student.