A professional facilitation helps groups to collaborate effectively. An expert facilitation of workshops is valuable when new projects are developed, complex tasks have to be tackled by mixed teams, and most importantly when implementable solutions are sought for controversial challenges.
Professional facilitation is advised when:
- You are responsible for the results of collaborative team work and – at the same time – you would like to engage with your team on the topic. You shouldn’t take on two roles – engaging in the topic and facilitating without bias. Even if you believe you can do it, the participants will not buy it and show reservations to fully engage.
- You want to achieve an effective group discussion with regard to time and content. Depending on the group size the methods for facilitation will have to be adjusted. For small groups under a dozen participants, different methods will be useful as compared to events with 50 or more participants. Routine in dealing with facilitation techniques and expertise in managing communication and social interaction within groups will pay off.
- You want to encourage a creative collaboration to find innovative solutions for challenging or long-due tasks. If the participants had to gnaw at “some old bone” for a long time, the neutrally facilitated workshop approach can also strengthen motivation and confidence so participants choose to engage again on the topic.
- You see that previous resolutions have not been respected and implemented. Implementable decisions must be developed with some rigour; a desperate appeal to take agreements and resolutions seriously won’t be enough. If agreements are repeatedly not implemented, there is some deeper root cause behind it. In the best case, the lack of implementation comes from how the resolution was described, e.g. it may have been formulated as a fuzzy goal statement. If it was overlooked that important interests of stakeholders would be put at risk if the resolution is implemented you may have a bigger problem.
As facilitators we restrain from proposing specific solutions for an issue; rather we bear the responsibility for the diligent process and the good working atmosphere, this includes asking the hard questions. As facilitators we put rigour to the whole process: we begin with analyzing the problem with the client, engage with interested stakeholders, prepare the workshop and – on demand – organize the venue including field programs.
For the efficient and effective discussion of complex topics, participants have to have a good understanding of the topic and interim results from this unfolding conversation. To that end, we will ensure the logic arguments are valid, clear and kept visible. Usually, arguments will be immediately recorded and displayed during the course of the conversation, e.g. on panels or screens in front of the group. This documentation helps to improve the quality and streamline the discussion, since it avoids repetitions and ensures arguments are precise.
We offer detailed photo protocol, which represents the results of the workshop authentically, and results-focused decision logs, if clients wish we also provide recommendations how to deal with identified conflicts or further steps after the workshop. The digital protocols and recommendations are delivered to the customer and, if so desired, to all participants.