4 Core Values of Facilitation

Quite often, we take meetings and workshops for granted. We assume it is sufficient to participate and work out the desired outcome by the end of the session. Rarely do we leverage the meaningful conversations that happen in the meetings.

‍

An experienced facilitator understands how to create the right atmosphere and space for collaborative engagement that encourages participants of meetings and workshops to contribute actively and buy into collective decisions. Not everyone may agree with the meeting’s outcome, but often these participants support the decision because they were part of the decision-making process.

‍

Think about the biggest dilemma your team is currently at work.

What would it be like if you gathered your team together to think about a prevailing dilemma in a way so that new views and ideas appear? Have you considered what it would be like to gain unique insight from your team’s collective knowledge and have the problem you’ve been spending too much time over emerge into a vision, a mission, and a roadmap by the end of the group discussion?

‍

The best way to create a productive meeting is to put a colleague with facilitation skills or a professional facilitator in charge. Among the four core values of experienced facilitation include:

‍

1. Efficient use of time and money

Bringing people together, whether in a room or online, is costly. Time spent in ineffective meetings drains morale and blocks the attendees from performing their other duties. An experienced facilitator revitalises the group, helps meeting attendees accomplish more in little time, and reduces the need for multiple meeting sessions.

‍

2. Leverages the collective intelligence in the room

A professional facilitator harnesses the power of collective thinking by encouraging all attendees to participate while managing people with a tendency to dominate the group discussion. The facilitator creates room for people who usually do not speak up and those who do not follow the majority’s views. By active listening, encouraging full participation, and helping attendees improve their understanding of the different perspectives, the facilitator creates a better chance of drawing the best out of the group.

‍

3. Record meeting results

Dynamic group discussions can produce a lot of arguments, ideas and information. By maintaining constant neutrality, a professional facilitator can summarise various statements that respect all the different voices and help the attendees identify areas of agreement and issues that are still not solved.

‍

4. Co-create results

After drawing the full spectrum of views and ideas, an experienced facilitator encourages attendees to generate solutions which were not considered in the past and could resolve apparent issues and constraints. Towards the end of a facilitation session, attendees co-create an outcome that the majority can support and can move on with a sense of shared ownership.

‍