Becoming a Stronger Facilitator
Have you been in a meeting where everyone is talking in circles, groupthink or the loudest voice in the room takes over? You're feeling frustrated and thinking, "What is the point of this meeting, and why am I wasting my time?" Team members are losing trust and doubting each other. The discussion ends with scheduling another meeting instead of getting actionable outcomes. At that moment, you know there has to be a better way.
I have been in those types of meetings a lot when I finally started asking myself if there was anything I could do to improve them. As a team, we developed some handy tricks along the way to help. But I realized the idea here was to evolve that even further—to experiment, play, and try new things. So I wanted to challenge myself to take on new ways of working, connecting, and collaborating with my team.
Applying design thinking by reframing this problem into a How might we statement and brainstorming ideas worked really well. One of the things that came out of this exercise was that I needed to become a stronger facilitator to help my team be more efficient. I experimented, tried many things, and saw excellent results. Meetings shortened and became very focused but also turned into a more collaborative environment. So I would like to share with you a few tips I learned along the way. But let's start from the beginning.
Who is a facilitator?
Facilitators help people move through a process, keep discussions effective, and foster participation. Having a facilitator in the meeting leads to faster decision-making. With the right skills, tools, and tips, you can become better facilitators to align our teams and move faster.
Facilitation skills
A few things to keep in mind if you are trying to grow as a facilitator:
The facilitator sets the context and ground rules: Tell people what you will be doing and why.
Create an inclusive environment: Encourage all participants to share their opinions and ensure that people are not left out of discussions.
Facilitate discussions: Practice active listening and encourage everyone to do the same. It's also important to stay neutral and intervene to avoid going down rabbit holes.
Read the room: It's essential to be mindful when the group loses interest or gets tired.
Replacing Meetings with Structured Working Sessions
The most significant change happened when I ran a structured working session to replace meetings with open-ended discussions. Creating a structured process helped avoid groupthink and allowed everyone's voice to be heard.
There are endless exercises and workshops that you can try with your teams. I recommend starting small to practice and develop your skills. Here are a few examples of activities you can try:
Setting project goals: This activity will help define your project goal and success metrics and align the whole team. There are many frameworks for this workshop. One of our favorite ones is the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) framework. It helps teams shift attention from outcomes to outputs and focuses on creating measurable changes in human behavior. Here you can learn more about how to write good OKRs.
Stakeholder mapping: By doing this short exercise at the beginning of the project, you will ensure you haven't forgotten to involve all the right people at the right time and avoid slowdowns. You will identify all the stakeholders interested in the project and define how you interact with them. Here is a guide on how to run this exercise.
Assumption and questions exercise. This exercise helps your team identify assumptions and questions and act on them to reduce the risk. We recommend you start it at the beginning of the project and repeat it often. This activity is critical in the product development cycle. We heavily use it to ensure we are testing and prioritizing the right research initiatives. Read more on the exercise and strategic testing process.
Lightning decision jam: This 60-90 minute exercise will help you solve any problem, from improving internal processes to building a collaborative culture. Here is a guide on how to run this exercise.
Solution Sketching: This exercise is a great way to generate multiple ideas for building a prototype. Here is a guide on how to run this exercise.
How to Get Started?
Start by defining what challenge or opportunity you want to explore or solve. Reframe challenges as How Might We Statements to set the team up for innovative solutions.
Choose the correct exercise or workshop to help you achieve your goal.
Identify the smallest cross-functional group possible to help solve the problem. It's a good idea to keep the group small to move faster and effectively manage the team. But try to include a good mix of personalities, skills, and disciplines.
Send your team an invite describing the workshop structure and the goal you are trying to achieve.
In conclusion, I want to encourage you to take small steps and try new things. You can become a better facilitator and drive change with your team! The point is don't be afraid to experiment and try new things.
WANT TO BE a BETTER FACILITATOR?
MB Collab coaches can help improve your facilitation skills through some one-on-one coaching.
Schedule a Free 30-minute consultation with one of our experts.