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We offer pure group or team facilitation services for single events/offsites meetings/retreats or long-term developmental initiatives. We see our role to: make easy/easier – to enable – to move forward – to allow to happen or unfold – to lift – to bring out the best.
We are experts at supporting groups have authentic and meaningful conversations that are safe and respectful of all participating. Then, we support the discovery conversation to generate appropriate actions…“So what…now what?”
1. Our basic assumptions:
The wisdom of the team… their (thoughts/feelings/ideas/ intuition/collective judgment) is critical to be expressed and effectively processed if you need alignment, commitment, and creativity to accomplish the team objectives.
2. The three most challenging aspects of group facilitation:
One – getting people to contribute to honest, candid feedback and dialogue about what they really think and feel – the single biggest obstacle is fear that trigger people’s insecure thinking and self-protective behaviors.
Two – staying focused on the group process, and not getting caught up in the content of the discussion.
Three – not letting your personal needs overrule the group.
3. Qualities of our group facilitators:
Patient, detached from specific outcomes, do not take things personally, come from a state of curiosity not certainty, compassionate toward people and their experience, self-aware, able to focus their attention on others, empathic.
4. We incorporate these facilitation skills:
Creating rapport and connection, building trust by being trustworthy, staying focused on purpose, seeing the bigger picture (visioning), clear communication of direction and purpose, effective listening, summarizing, asking effective questions, probing alternatives and options, challenging people to think outside of the box, moving the group to closure, acknowledgment of progress, re-framing.
5. We ask effective learning questions:
Closed-ended questions – elicit ‘yes’/’no’ responses:
Are you, did you, are you planning on, is this good, are you having fun, are things going OK, will this fix the problem, do you understand, is everything OK…
Open-ended questions – elicit participation:
Who is involved, what is going on, how would you describe the results, when is the next step, how do you see me involved, what support do you need, where does this situation occur, when might this be planned, what ideas do you have for improvement, what concerns do you have, have we covered your concerns, why do you think this is the right approach, what other people need to be involved, who can you share this with…
6. The pitfalls we avoid:
Generalizing, personal agendas, criticism, victim mentality – lack of accountability, lack of facts, avoidance, denial, over-answering, withdrawal, protective behavior, soapboxes, impressing, lack of attention/focus, lack of group patience, feedback on people’s ideas when brainstorming, lack of courage to confront negative behavior, judgment.
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