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  • Facilitation is about making it easier for groups of people to understand each other's

  • point of view.

  • So sit back for a few moments and put aside responding to those urgent emails, as we share

  • some of the good stuff with you and highlight the poor practices you ought to be on the

  • lookout for... ...and may your business meetings be forever

  • improved.

  • The best facilitators carefully assess the needs of those in the meeting...

  • ...They treat participants equally and work hard to stay neutral in all discussions...

  • A good facilitator knows how to use a wide range of process tools -- but they'll have

  • to be a story for another day, as there're just too many to review in this short video.

  • Getting back to best practices... ...A good facilitator creates an open and

  • trusting atmosphere and helps participants understand why they're there...

  • ...They listen intently in order to fully understand what's being said -- and when speaking

  • themselves, use simple, direct language... ...Good facilitators work to make participants

  • the centre of attention and take notes that accurately reflect what participants mean...

  • Contrast this with some traits of bad facilitators. These are the things to watch out for and

  • avoid in your own business meetings whenever possible.

  • Poor facilitators want to be the centre of attention. They don't really bother checking

  • in with the participants and seeing whether they have any concerns. They often fail to

  • listen and end up losing track of key ideas... ...They also tend to be overly passive on

  • process and let things amble on...

  • Ever been in a meeting like that? Why you end up asking yourself, "Just what is going

  • on here?", "Why are we doing all this?" You raise your concern and the facilitator puts

  • you down? Yep -- right there is another trait of bad

  • facilitators. They put people down and get defensive -- often about some relatively minor

  • process issue. Meetings run by these facilitators often end up being dominated by the team leader,

  • or some other strong voice.

  • Poor facilitators take poor notes. Poor notes lead to poor decisions -- often based on what

  • wasn't said. In fact poor facilitators can be so preoccupied

  • with making their poor notes that they fail to check how the meeting is going and seem

  • to be totally oblivious as to when to take a break.

  • The very worst facilitators tend to push ahead with an irrelevant agenda, having no alternative

  • approaches to offer -- and criminally -- let discussions ramble on and on... and on and

  • on... without proper closure... ...Which is of course, a complete waste of

  • everybody's time, so don't go there.

  • Good facilitators are willing to champion ideas they don't personally favour and find

  • ways of concluding meetings on an optimistic note.

  • In their concluding remarks good facilitators make sure their meetings end with clear steps

  • for the next meeting, ensuring that everybody is up to speed and understands what they have

  • to do. So there you have it, a quick resume of the

  • best and worst facilitator practices... ...What to do and what not to do.

  • Active Presence offers comprehensive facilitation skills training that will help you communicate

  • better in a team environment, and finish those complex projects on-time, within budget.

  • Have a look at the resource library on our website and download the free documents on

  • this subject today.

Facilitation is about making it easier for groups of people to understand each other's

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