The 4 Keys to Effective Group and Team Facilitation

Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” The goal of group or team facilitation is to get to the point where your team is working together towards a common purpose. Once everyone has “bought in” to that purpose it becomes an intent worth realizing on both individual and collective levels. Effective team facilitation can mean the difference between working at cross-purposes and contributing to the success of an organization.

What does effective group facilitation look like?

1. Clear description of Future Intent
   Starting the group facilitation process with a clear and shared understanding of what is the desired outcome is critical for success. The group facilitator will start with the session’s executive sponsor, asking questions like: What are you wanting to accomplish through this facilitated session? What outcomes do you expect to achieve? What challenges are you facing? What have you tried in the past? What does success look like to you?

   Then, the facilitator will interview all – or at least key – participants, depending on the size of the group, asking similar questions: What challenges are you facing in meeting objectives you’re accountable for? What is your take on a particular issue? Where do you want to be at the end of this session?

   Armed with these inputs, and a clear vision of where the group needs to go, the facilitator will then fashion a customized session designed to reach these goals.

2. Do-able Agenda Design
   An experienced facilitator knows the importance of a thoughtful, well-planned agenda. Participants are coming to facilitated sessions with individual positions, preferences and perceived risks. Starting out the session by driving straight towards your ultimate goal – “We’re here today to understand why operations and client services are not working together effectively” – forces people to defend their positions. It creates an Us vs. Them mentality that hinders group work and collaboration before it can even begin.

   Instead, an effective facilitation should begin with exercises and messaging that elicits honesty from participants without the need to defend their positions. It is therefore useful for the first 20% of the session to be focused on building agreement and shared understanding among the parties through a series of thoughtful, powerful, and more open-ended questions.

3. Leveraging the Power of Questions
   As always, questions are a crucial component of this group work. What are the compelling opportunities you face as a team or organization? What are the threats? Drill down. Questions beget questions, and they lead to creativity, innovation, solutions, and commitment.
4. Authentic Participation
   Each individual on your team may participate in a different way. There are those who want to get their thoughts in order before they share; others feed off dialogue and the exchange of ideas; still others just start talking and let their brains catch up to their mouths after. All three ways are valid ways of contributing; what your facilitator needs to do is ensure that each is able to voice his/her opinion and contribute to the process.

Effective group facilitation depends on the ability of the facilitator to elicit responses, opinions, preferences, and answers from team members. Once this happens, they will soon find that collectively they are more than able to find the solutions they need.