Know the challenges of leading leaders
July 5, 2010 by davissm · 3 Comments
Have you ever facilitated a group of facilitators? In my experience, this can be a challenging thing to do. Some of my most frustrating experiences with groups have occurred when working within groups of my peers. In this week’s article, Facilitating Facilitators, I reflect on these experiences and made some observations that may help us see facilitation a bit more clearly. I look forward to hearing about your experiences and specific comments on this matter.
Whether 1)facilitating or as 2) a participant with a group of facilitators I intro/suggest process guidelines at the outset of the discussion/meeting:
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“OK, with the experience in this room we know the drill that helps us get the best from groups and we are no exception:
1.Have on hand a fun object and either keep it yourself or toss it to any group member & say,
“so one speaker at a time and please pass the object to the next person who wants to contribute to the discussion”
2.Ask: “can we have a volunteer to keep track of time alotted to the issue being discussed & to interrupt/advise group of half way mark and, advise when 5 minutes is left so we can start to wind down and summarize our findings.”
3.Ask/suggest a volunteer at end: “to summarize discussion findings” or, select one based on their first name letter in the alphabet”
4. Say: “we’ll also self-monitor our process so discussion stays on track (i.e. one speaker at a time, on topic)
I find if I say/suggest the above as facilitator and/or participant in an upbeat way, the group gets on board. Depending on time I might also suggest at the end of the discussion we self-critique:
a) General question: overall how well did we employ the guidelines? How did you feel using them i.e. productive, engaged, bored etc..
b) What worked especially well? Why?
c) What was especially challenging?
d) What could we could we have done differently?
e) What insight (if any)did you have that will change the way you facilitate groups in the future? i.e keep doing, start doing, stop doing?
Cheers,
Denyse Lynch
The Lynch Group
“It’s Not What You Think..it’s HOW!”
Steve – as usual, truly inspired!
I couldn’t help but wonder more about myself and whether I have inadvertently caused one of my facilitator peers grief. Thanks for giving me cause for pause and reflection.
Lynn
Great points!! Excellent reminder to Facilitators …… the rules apply to our meetings too !