Facilitation: The Facilitation Process

Audience

Managers who want to learn how to facilitate a team during the four stages of team development.

Objective

• Apply strategies to help teams move from divergent to convergent thinking.
• Use structural tools to enhance their role as a facilitator.
• Use strategies to facilitate a team during each of its stages.
• Apply methods to use consensus effectively.
• Open and close a meeting effectively.

Topics Include

Unit 1: Background Information

• Define facilitation.
• Distinguish between a meeting's content and its structure.
• Distinguish between a team and a group.
• Identify two thought patterns that teams use to make decisions.
• Apply strategies to help teams move from divergent to convergent thinking.
• Simulation Overview:
• In this simulation you will meet with Janet Porter Icon's Director of Business Development. Janet frequently assumes the role of a facilitator during product development meetings so she would like to pass on her knowledge of facilitation to you. Through your questions you will learn the differences between groups and teams how to transition between divergent and convergent thinking and the process you should use when facilitating a team.

Unit 2: Preparing to Facilitate

• Differentiate among the methods for interviewing team members.
• Identify characteristics of an effective agenda.
• Use structural tools to enhance your role as a facilitator.
• Establish ground rules before a meeting begins.
• Apply steps to prepare a meeting room.
• Simulation Overview:
• In this simulation you will meet with John Cunningham one of Icon's Human Resources Assistants. John has served as a facilitator for several departments at Icon. Today John will give you a series of exercises that require you to think about how you should prepare to facilitate.

Unit 3: Guiding the Meeting

• Open a meeting effectively.
• Apply techniques to ensure that every team member participates.
• Identify four stages of a team's development.
• Use strategies to facilitate a team during each of its stages.
• Follow guidelines to check a meeting's structure.
• Simulation Overview:
• In this simulation you will meet with Patricia Davis Kevin McDonald and Greg Baldwin all members of Icon's project team which is responsible for creating a marketing promotion for a new cellular telephone. You have been assigned as the facilitator for this team. Patricia is the team leader and her team needs to make a decision about the direction of the marketing promotion by the end of the day.

Unit 4: Achieving Sustainable Results

• Identify the steps of the decision-making process.
• Apply guidelines to help teams follow the decision-making process.
• List the methods of making a decision.
• Apply methods to use consensus effectively.
• Close a meeting effectively.
• Simulation Overview:
• In this simulation you will meet with the members of the cellular telephone promotion team: Patricia Davis Kevin McDonald and Greg Baldwin. As the facilitator you need to guide the team through the decision-making process. In an earlier meeting Patricia suggested a mail-in rebate Kevin argued for a website rebate and Greg had the idea of offering a gift with each purchase. By the end of this meeting the team needs to have decided which idea they will use for the cellular telephone promotion.

Duration

4

Minimum Requirements

The CDROM version of this course requires:

• At least a 486DX 33Mhz CPU.
• Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher and a Microsoft compatible mouse.
• At least 8MB RAM.
• At least VGA graphics capability with a minimum 512K video RAM (1MB video RAM recommended).
• At least a double speed CDROM drive.
• An MPC compliant sound card with attached speakers or headphones is recommended (Currently only the CDROM version supports audio).

• At least a 486DX 33Mhz CPU.
• Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher and a Microsoft compatible mouse.
• At least 8MB RAM and 22MB available hard disk space or file server space.
• At least VGA graphics capability with a minimum 512K video RAM (1MB video RAM recommended).

Media