A successful
meeting needs to be well organized with a sense of purpose and direction. To
ensure this, it is helpful to have a facilitator take charge of the session. A
good facilitator adds immense value to any business or learning setting. The
number of meetings is on the rise, with the average professional spending up to
a third of their work week in meetings. However, with the right facilitator at
the helm, the time spent in meetings doesn’t have to be lost time.
Some people
believe that facilitating a workshop/team is easy. It is not. When you have a
group of people in a room, anything can happen. Some people will dominate the
meeting, while others won’t say a word; a few will stick to the issues at hand,
many more will go off tangent. Experienced facilitators know how to control a
meeting without deciding its outcome; how to follow an agenda while
accommodating discourse; how to build consensus without alienation.
Here are some
key traits that an excellent facilitator must-have:
1. Involving
It can be a
real challenge to ensure that the ideas of every single person in the room are
heard, especially during larger meetings. One person may hold the floor for too
long, more introverted attendees may be hesitant to speak up, and the flow of
conversation can be hard to manage. Ensure that you are able to bring in all
the people into the conversation. Successful facilitators are by nature
people-lovers. They have a genuine respect for the uniqueness of every
individual and believe that everyone has something to contribute to the team.
The facilitator makes sure every point of view is heard and respected.
2. Active
Listener
Listening is a
key characteristic for a facilitator. Both being able to listen to others and
to encourage others to listen are equally as important. A facilitator needs to
be able to actively listen to their group and understand what they are trying
to say. Paraphrasing, summing up or using other active listening techniques are
great ways to fully grasp and gauge the meaning of what people are saying. An
excellent facilitator needs to be able to listen to a group, an individual and
also themselves. If you feel like you aren’t feeling yourself, if you are tired
this will emerge externally in your facilitation and the group will feel it.
3. Inquisitive
Asking
questions is crucial to allowing valuable dialogues to be had. The facilitator
does not want to simply talk to the group and tell them things and you don’t
want to just give the group the answers to their problems. Instead, they must
come up with them themselves. Asking open-ended questions that can spark
helpful and beneficial discussions that can trigger solutions is much more
valuable to all involved. The facilitator must also know how to probe
respectfully, firstly to get people out of their comfort zones, but also to
encourage participants to delve deeper into thoughts in order to get more out
of the meeting.
4.
Authentic
A good
facilitator needs to be authentic. People will soon tune out, disengage and not
trust what you are saying if you are insincere. Being authentic allows you to
connect and relate much easier with the participants and enables you to bond
with them. In order to be an authentic facilitator, you must create a safe
space to encourage people to open up and express themselves without the fear of
retribution. If people do not feel comfortable or safe to convey their feelings
both they and the facilitator won’t be able to present their true authentic
selves. Trust is the key to encouraging others to express their true thoughts
and feelings. Without trust and authenticity, the meeting will be sure to be a
waste of time.
5. Impartial
Having an
unbiased perspective and not tainting other’s opinions with your own is crucial
to allowing open and worthwhile discussions. You don’t want to push your views
onto others, instead, you want to create a forum where people can freely
discuss and express themselves, enabling problems to be solved and decisions to
be made. Not to mention, treating all participants as equal ensures that you
maintain honest and open-minded conversations. It will be crystal clear to
participants if the facilitator is trying to steer the conversation and push
their own predetermined conclusions onto the group. An excellent facilitator
provides an unbiased space for alternative opinions and views to be brought up
in a respectful way.
6. Enthusiastic
and Encouraging
A facilitator
has to know how and when to bring the energy into the room and at the same time
when it needs to be reeled back in. The facilitator’s energy holds the ability
to control the feeling and environment of the room. It can help to inspire,
encourage and motivate the group in order to provoke solutions and creative
ideas if there is a brainstorming exercise or bring the energy back down if a
serious discussion needs to be had. The capability to manage the emotions in
the room will be of great help when constructive conversations and to keep the
meeting on track.
7. Promotes
Constructive Feedback
In order to
ensure participants are not caving into one person’s idea(s), the facilitator
will challenge the group by posing questions to either help them think more
broadly, deeper or wider. If required, the facilitator encourages the group to
stop and reflect on their performance or ideas for purposes of improvement.
Feedback is best when it is constructive and is based on real, observable
events that others can relate to. The facilitator also demonstrates their
willingness to receive feedback by actively listening and incorporating process
changes where it makes sense.
8. Flexibility
You need to
plan appropriately how you intend to cover all the session agendas within the
available time limit. Be firm with how much time you allow participants and
know when to call back the team to the agenda if they start to deviate. Even
after planning, things may not always go as expected. If you stay rigid, it
will be difficult for you to adapt to the new circumstances and still carry
through your session successfully. For example, if new agendas come up, will
you still be able to address them, or will you neglect them? Flexibility allows
you to innovate solutions to challenges as you go so that the end objective is
still realized no matter what.
9. Patient
As they say,
patience is a virtue and it is a fundamental trait when it comes to
facilitating. Staying calm in discussions or when things get heated is
important to limit any tensions or situations before they occur. As the
facilitator, you want to help improve the situation so leading by example and
keeping composed is essential. It is almost unavoidable that sometimes things
just don’t go to plan. Whether it be technical or process issues, things just
don’t always go how you thought they would. The facilitator must ensure they
are patient and resolve the issue by encouraging dialogues and introducing
different questions to the group as the purpose or plan changes and adapts.
10. Goal
Orientated
Keeping the
participants on track and keeping the conversation aligned with the main
outcome is important and sometimes tricky. It is human nature that
conversations go off on a tangent, which yes provides some of the most
interesting and constructive discussions, but the facilitator needs to know
when and how to bring the conversation back to the main purpose of the meeting.
If the meeting is too long people will tune out and not focus, therefore
managing the time is a tricky but essential part of facilitating.
Becoming an
excellent facilitator takes time and practice. The skills you need will be
honed and tweaked over many years of preparing and practicing in real
situations. It is very rare that you would wake up overnight and be the perfect
facilitator. Successful facilitators are made, not born.
