It’s a leadership skill that few people talk about: group facilitation.
Facilitation means “to make easy” or “to lessen the difficulty.
“It’s not a quick fix, but developing your facilitation skills over time will help you accomplish your collective goals more easily.
When executives say they want to work on leadership skills, you’ll often hear them talk about the need to communicate more clearly, develop strong presentation skills, run productive meetings, improve strategic thinking, decision making and problem solving.But the ability to facilitate group discussion well is a leadership skill that underpins many of the other skills executives need to master to be most effective in their role.
Why focus on facilitation now?
- Management approaches have shifted away from top-down approaches to inclusive approaches. One executive can’t have all the answers. They need input from those who are involved in all aspects of the business. Good facilitation is a means to accomplish buy-in.
- Employee engagement is now center stage. Companies realize the power of employee engagement. Employee engagement, or lack thereof, affects their bottom line. Facilitating high quality discussions is one of the best ways to engage employees.
- Innovation is necessary to be competitive. Leaders must facilitate new kinds of discussions that are less directive and more provocative — conversations that challenge people’s thinking and invite new ideas.
With the current challenges executives face, there are many opportunities to make things easier!
Some executives achieve desired results by facilitating their own meetings.
Others need a little help from time to time.
I often serve the role of outside group facilitator when an outside resource is needed to bring objectivity or a process based approach.
Whether your team is ready for a big leap or trying to get unstuck, facilitation is an effective way to move them forward.
I like what my friend and colleague, Tom Breur, has to say about facilitation when a group is “stuck.”
When a group wrestles with a difficult problem, in the early stages of facilitation they can sometimes spin around in circles and get “stuck.” What is usually going on then, is that they’re rehashing old alternatives from within a too small set of options to deal with the issue at hand. They run over familiar approaches over and over again, which are then discarded because they have proven not to work in the past. Groups may not be inclined to look for fresh ideas. You can add value to the process by motivating people to consider innovative, inclusive solutions.
So to bring out the best in your team and achieve the results you really want, strengthen your facilitation skills.
To start, how would you rate your facilitation skills?
Think about your ability to:
- Listen
- Observe
- Summarize key points
- Synthesize issues
- Prompt/Ask relevant questions
- Resolve conflicts
- Stay focused on the desired outcome
- Resist imposing your own ideas
Pick just one of these areas to work on, and you’ll begin to improve your facilitation skills.
Continue your efforts to build your directive leadership skills, but don’t ignore the supportive leadership skills. You need both!
The key is knowing when to be bold, assertive and directive and when to listen, observe and invite dialogue.
Facilitate. Don’t force results.
It’s just easier.
PS – Tom Breur makes nine other excellent points about group facilitation. You can find Tom’s full article on group facilitation in his newsletter archive: