9 of 11: Suggested Facilitation Strategies - Too Focused on Task? Too Focused on Group Dynamics?
(1) Ask the group about the progress it is making with reference to the desired outcomes.
(2) AND ask the group about how they feel about this work.
(3) Some people are naturally intuitive when it comes to the
maintenance side of group processes.
Others need some help picking up on cues, as well as some tips to change
the energy and dynamics in the room. If
you are less intuitive in this area, you can always ask the group how they
feel. For example, Are they energized or tired?
Do they feel ambitious or cautious? Creative or constrained? Then you
might get some information and consider how you need to shift gears.
(4) Create yourself a prompt sheet of ideas! Have some tricks up
your sleeve for changing energy and dynamics.
It might be as simple as taking a break, getting some coffee and fresh
air, or changing the physical environment (such as by going outside, or
rearranging seats). If you’ve been doing lots of group discussion, perhaps take
a break for some individual thinking time or watch a short video talk (have
some short ones aside). Ask people to
draw what they are thinking or pick and image (have a mixed deck available)
which reflects their mood and do some ‘presencing’ to get people back in the
room. Jump around. Clap.
Make noise a task: such as tasking people with creating a 30 second
musical reflection of the event so far using only what they find on their
tables. Have some quick games up your
sleeve (we find a great source is the Systems Thinking Playbook) to highlight a
relevant point from the event so far. Consider different scenarios (from people
tired and flagging to people playing and laughing too much and not applying
themselves to the task) and options for each.
(5) If you know you have a bias towards ‘task’, practice wearing
a ‘maintenance’ hat in group opportunities.
In situations where you are not officially ‘facilitating’, try and turn
down your ‘task’ hat and tune into group maintenance, thinking specifically
about what is happening in terms of group dynamics and what interventions or
design choices you could make to strengthen the process for the benefit of group
maintenance.
(6) If the reverse is true and your bias is towards maintenance,
try and practice wearing your ‘task’ hat.
Try and step out of your ‘modus operandi’ and flex other thinking
muscles. And note the great things other
people do that you might like to incorporate into your own practice.
(7) If you struggle to follow the discussion sufficiently, consider
strategies to help you ‘tune in’. For
example, perhaps decide to take notes at a flipchart so that you can structure
your thinking – creating a mind-map of the keep points emerging from the
discussion. And if that doesn’t work and
an element of group dynamics is really distracting you (e.g. some voices are
not being heard and others are overbearing), chances are others may also be
struggling – in which case you could go with a different methodology (maybe
break from plenary into groups to discuss either the same questions in parallel
or different questions according to their interest).
(8) See also the points about summarizing and synthesizing
above. Use the strategies suggested
there, getting others to summarize things for everyone (you included) and using
lots of templates that you can review as necessary.
(9) Invite others to review your event designs with you - with
knowledge of ‘you’ in mind. And invite
others to observe you in facilitation delivery mode and provide you
feedback. Additionally consider
providing feedback forms (or other mechanisms) at the end of each event,
providing people with opportunities to help you improve.
Related blog posts:
No comments:
Post a Comment