Facilitating with Ease!
Core Skills for Facilitators, Team Leaders and Members, Managers, Consultants, and Trainers
Ingrid Bens
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Facilitating with Ease!
Core Skills for Facilitators, Team Leaders and Members, Managers, Consultants, and Trainers
Ingrid Bens
About This Book
The definitive guide to running productive meetings
Facilitating With Ease! has become the go-to handbook for those who lead meetings, training, and other business gatherings. Packed with information, effective practices, and invaluable advice, this book is the comprehensive handbook for anyone who believes meetings should be productive, relevant, and as short as possible. Dozens of exercises, surveys, and checklists will help transform anyone into a skilled facilitator, and clear, actionable guidance makes implementation a breeze. This new fourth edition includes a new chapter on questioning, plus new material surrounding diversity, globalization, technology, feedback, distance teams, difficult executives, diverse locations, personal growth, meeting management, and much more. With in-depth, expert guidance from planning to closing, this book provides facilitators with an invaluable resource for learning or training.
Before you run another meeting, discover the practices, processes, and techniques that turn you from a referee to an effective facilitator. This book provides a wealth of tools and insights that you can put into action today.
- Run productive meetings that get real results
- Keep discussions on track and facilitate the exchange of ideas
- Resolve conflict and deal with difficult individuals
- Train leaders and others to facilitate effectively
Poorly-run meetings are an interruption in the day, and accomplish little other than putting everyone behind in their "real" work. On the other hand, a meeting run by an effective facilitator makes everyone's job easier; decisions get made, strategies are improved, answers are given, and new ideas bubble to the surface. A productive meeting makes everyone happy, and results in real benefits that spread throughout the organization. Facilitating With Ease! is the skill-building guide to running great meetings with confidence and results.
Frequently asked questions
Chapter One
Understanding Facilitation
What Is Facilitation?
What Does a Facilitator Do?
- conducting background research to understand the needs of the group and what they hope to achieve
- helping the group define its overall goal, as well as its specific objectives
- preparing a detailed agenda that includes process notes describing how the interaction will unfold
- helping the group create rules of conduct that create an effective climate
- making sure that assumptions are surfaced and tested
- questioning and probing to encourage deeper exploration
- offering the right tools and techniques at the right moment
- encouraging participation by everyone
- guiding group discussion to keep it on track
- making accurate notes that reflect the ideas of members
- helping members constructively manage differences of opinion
- redirecting ineffective behaviors
- providing feedback to the group, so that they can assess their progress and make adjustments
- helping the group to achieve closure and identify next steps
- helping the group access resources from inside and outside the group
- providing a means for evaluation of the meeting and seeking improvements
What Do Facilitators Believe?
- people are intelligent, capable, and want to do the right thing
- groups can make better decisions than any one person can make alone
- everyone's opinion is of equal value, regardless of rank or position
- people are more committed to the ideas and plans that they have helped to create
- participants can be trusted to assume accountability for their decisions
- groups can manage their own conflicts, behaviors, and relationships if they are given the right tools and training
- the process, if well designed and honestly applied, can be trusted to
- achieve results