A little while ago, our very own Dave Sharrock and Aniela Larson hosted a Facilitation 101 webinar and led you through the inner workings of effective meetings and workshops, giving you lots of tips and tricks to elevate your facilitation skills. For those who couldn't join us, we've got you covered. Catch the complete replay here or keep reading to catch the Coles notes in this blog post. 

What is Facilitation? 

Facilitation is defined by Merriam Webster dictionary as “to make easy”. In practice, facilitation is understood as the art of guiding a group through a process to reach a purpose or outcome, without being the star of the show. When it’s done well, it looks effortless, but the secret is that all the effort is in the meticulous planning and preparation, ensuring adaptability, and delivering with skill. 

Curious why facilitation skills are critical?  

Many meetings suffer from poor structure, poor preparation, poor energy and/or a failure to engage all participants. Picture the last meeting you attended. Was it purposeful with a clear outcome? Did everyone contribute to their full potential? Did it elicit commitment and a clear path to action? If not, you’re not alone.  Considering that the average human being now has an attention span of eight seconds (less than that of a goldfish), and the shortest of scheduled meetings last 30 minutes, possessing even basic facilitation skills are critical to holding people's attention. (Stats from a study by Microsoft)

Effective Facilitation addresses these common issues as it ensures every meeting is a strategic opportunity, bringing about the best of outcomes while honing in on group dynamics. Facilitation can also lead to transformational outcomes, which means that having these skills but vital in our fast moving, complex environments.

While not all meetings will require full on facilitation mode, there is still absolute value to understanding how to create meetings that elicit their maximum value, while keeping your participants engaged. This is amplified if you’re a people leader or leading by influence, where there will be times that you’ll absolutely have to tap deep into the facilitation toolbox but may not know how (navigating through conflict is an example). Most of us become leaders without any real training or education on this matter – which means that many of us have room for improvement. If you feel like this might be you, and you’d like to develop your skillset, check out this course.

The Benefits of Effective Facilitation 

While we’ve touched on some of these above, effective facilitation yields a host of benefits that may not be immediately apparent: 

• Enhanced Group Collaboration, Engagement and Participation: By facilitating a sense of ownership and involvement in the collective outcome, participants are more likely to work together effectively. By making space for every participant, facilitation boosts engagement, commitment, and the quality of the final decisions.
• Increased Meeting and Discussion Efficiency: A facilitator's strategic approach to discussions leads to clearer outcomes and saves time by keeping conversations on track.
• Conflict Resolution: Trained facilitators can help teams work through complex issues, allowing them to address underlying conflicts constructively.
• Diversity of Thought and Perspective Integration: Facilitation encourages the integration of a wide range of perspectives, resulting in more innovative solutions and a more inclusive environment. Collective intelligence for the win!
• Improved Decision-Making: The facilitator’s role in providing structure and guiding discussions leads to better outcomes and can lead to faster decisions. 
• Guided (Wicked) Problem-Solving: Facilitators can lead groups through systematic processes to solve complex (also known as wicked) problems, ensuring all angles are explored. When there’s more than one way to do something, and multiple perspectives in the system to consider, facilitation can be a wonder tool.

Facilitators use a range of tools and techniques to manage the group and encourage active participation. This might involve setting the stage for a fruitful discussion (preparation), ensuring all voices are heard (smart questioning), and steering the team towards practical solutions or decisions (process and time management).  

Here’s an overview of the first and most important technique in your facilitators toolbox: Preparation. 

Preparation : The 6 P's of Facilitation

We can’t underscore this enough. Good facilitation is 80% in the preparation, 15 % in skills and aptitude and 5% in luck. According to the Secrets of Masterful Meetings by Michael Wilkinson, preparation can be broken down into the 6 P’s of Facilitation, which used as a guideline can be game changing for you.

The 6 P’s are as follows:

1. Purpose: Why are we meeting? What is the outcome we’re going for?
2. Product: What do you want your participants to have in their hands at the end of the meeting, what do you want them to remember and/or believe as they leave the meeting?
3. People/Participants: Who needs to be in the room?
4. Probable Issues: What are the things we need to address to create the desired products to meet the desired purpose?
5. Process: What’s the process you might want to take the team through, so we address the issues, so that the participants create the product to meet your purpose? This is the stage at which the agenda is created.
6. Place: Virtual or in person.

Getting the lay of these 6 P’s can really be game changing in moving your meeting from a waste of time to a well spent timebox. Here’s a few more tips and tricks that you can use to up your facilitation game.

Tips and Techniques for Aspiring Facilitators

• Prepare Prepare Prepare! If it wasn’t clear enough in the section above, preparation is critical. You cannot wing this, no matter how skilled you think you are. Whether understanding the desired outcome, planning out the process or flow of the session to achieve the objective, reviewing what is required from the participants, timeboxes and instructions, the magic of running a great session lies in its preparation! 
• Step In and Fade Out: As the facilitator, the show is not your show. It’s not about you, but rather, you hold the space for the magic to happen. While you do have to set the stage for the event to take place (stepping in), you also must be fully present and attentive to the spoken and unspoken messages of those whom you’re facilitating (fading out). Mastering active listening is key here, watching the body language and emotional feel, and stepping in when you see the opportunity to dig deeper and elicit clarity to keep the cycle going.If you’re wearing the hat of facilitator as leader, you may have extra challenges in this area and the next on neutrality, as there is sometimes juxtaposition in these roles. Being aware of these strategies is still valuable however, as naming it to the group can help in creating clarity and managing expectations of the participants.
• Maintain Neutrality: Once again, the facilitator isn’t there to participate but rather, to create the appropriate balanced climate for outcomes to emerge. Withholding personal judgments and not advocating for a particular outcome is your role. You aren’t a trainer, you aren’t a SME, you aren’t a leader (unless you are, and have a vested interest in the outcome– then see if you can’t get an impartial facilitator, and if you can’t, caveat this point and manage expectations around outcome, participation, and your role appropriately). Generally speaking, your role is to guide, not to influence. 
• Use Visual Aids and Tools: Visual and interactive tools can reinforce key points and make complex ideas more accessible but be wary of rely too heavily on tools or visuals where it takes away from the team engagement and outcome (when in doubt, kill the PowerPoint). Miro and Mural (or any other collaborative whiteboard) can be amazing, but if you’re setting these up to run like a presentation, then chances are you’re missing the point. Go back to the 6 P’s.
• Manage Difficult Dynamics: Be ready to address conflicts as they emerge and maintain the group's focus and composure. Be aware of levels of conflict however, and if you feel like you’re not skilled enough to deal with something on your own, you may want to bring in an expert. We at IncrementOne have seen it all in facilitated sessions and know that to address a level 3 conflict (the kind where it’s personal), you’re going to need level 3 skills. Remember your responsibility as a facilitator is to also do no harm. This means knowing when you’re out of your depth and not taking the team there, or getting help.
• Document Outcomes: Keep an accurate record of decisions made during the session and collate whatever output you’ve elicited. Not only is this important to maintain accountability but also to provide a clear roadmap for action. The worst kind of meeting is the one you have repeatedly where you talk about the same things, and nothing ever gets done. While we may have been part of events like that in the past (Retro in the hands of an unskilled facilitator, we’re looking at you), we also know that’s not respectful of anyone’s time, and can erode trust. 

As professionals and leaders, we are all de facto facilitators. Though it might not feel like this, we play the role of facilitator more often that we are aware - in team meetings, in brainstorming, in negotiations or morale management. Use these tips, tools, and tactics to make a world of difference for your teams, and don’t be afraid to call for help when you feel like having a neutral third party might get to more honest, innovative and sustainable outcomes. We at IncrementOne are trained to do this, and whether we step in to provide a little strategic guidance, or take over creating and leading the session altogether, we’re here to help.