Meeting Facilitation

# Introdutction

Many, if not most communes make the bulk of their big decisions in meetings. Having a well run meeting makes decsion making easier and faster, and helps ensure the decsions arrived at are the best possible solutions. Most communes use consensus in their decision making meetings, but effective meeting facilitaion is a useful skill rgardless of the decsion making system used. A good facilitator makes sure that the groups decison making process is followed fairly, empowers group members to contributre their knowledge to the meeting equally and helps identify solutions emerging out of the conversation. Meetings can be facilitated by an individual or a pair of group members. It is even possible for agorup to facilitate iteslf without an assigned facilitator, but this is only recommended for very small groups, or groups with great understanding and respect of their decsion making process.

Facilitation is a very dynamic skill, which almost anyone can learn, but arguably takes a lifetime to master. There are a myriad of subtle factors and group dynamics that a facilitator can benefit from remaining aware of. Likewise, there is an abundance of skills and tools that a facilitator can draw from. This article intends to provide an overview of the most important roles of a facilitator, as well as some of the more subtle ones, and to identify some tools that can be used while facilitating a meeting.

# The Facilitiator's Role

The facilitator is the member of the group who leads the meeting, but this should not be confused to mean that the faciltator is the leader of the group. The facilitator's job is to make discussion and decsion making easier for all members of the group.  The four main roles of a facilitator are as follows:

1. Insure the the group follows it's agreed upon ***process***
	* Make sure each agenda item has someone to lead it
	* Clarify the background information and desired outcome of each agenda item
	* Clarify motions being brought to vote before they are voted on
2. Keep the group aware of ***time*** factors
	* Periodically summarize the discussion
	* Make sure discussion stays releveant
	* Make process suggestions for the group to accept or reject
	* Assign a time keeper to help keep the group on time
3. Lend ***direction*** where possible and assist the group in ***analysis***
	* Seek to maintain a positive meeting climate
	* Express appreciation to group and individuals for ideas and progress toward a decision
	* Keep the group from focusing entirely on details
4. ***Empower*** the group as a whole, and work to circumvent any attempts to overpower the group
	* Draw those who have not been speaking into the meeting
	* Remain sensitive to group dynamics and check in with the group often
	* Make sure the group sticks to it's own ground rules
	* Learn to recognize hidden comments as suggestions or proposals
	* Keep a "stack" of those who wish to speak as necessary to ensure all group members get fair airtime

Additionally, it is useful for a facilitator to prepare for a meeting in advance by familiarizing themself with the meetings agenda and making sure that the agenda is complete, and that there is a member of the group ready to lead each agenda item. The facilitator may also review the agenda at the beginning of the meeting so that all group members have an idea of the conversations ahead and so that last minute adjustments can be made. Finally, the more familiar the facilitator is with the personalities present within the group, the most effectively they will be able to repsond to them during the meetng.

Different groups may have diferent agreements about the facilitator's role in a meeting. It is importatnt to clearly understand what a groups expectations are of a facilitator and act accordingly.

# Supporting Roles

It can sometimes be useful to assign other meeting roles to group members to lighten the burden on the facilitator. Many of these roles may be integrated into the facilitaor's role, but having a dedicated note take is essential if a group want's to have minutes recorded for their meetings.

## Note Taker

The note taker is the member of the group that records what happened at the meeting in a written format. At minimum, someone should write down decisions that were reached in the meeting, but it can also be useful to to take detailed minutes summarizing the points made during the discussion of each angenda item. The note taker can also help by reminding the group where it left off if a conversation is interrupted by a technical point or break.

Some note taking tips:

* Don't get too caught up in taking gramatically correct notes, especailly when typing them. Just make sure they are understandable, they can be corrected later.
* Try bolding, underlining, highlighting, etc. decsions in the notes and labeling them with "decision" or "proposal."
* It can also be useful to bold or otherwise indicate tasks that individuals were assigned over the course of the meeting, and label them with a phrase like "task" or "action item"
* In typed notes, try enclosing decisions or tasks in square brackets so that they can easily be searched in the notes.
* It can be useful to gather all decisions made and/or tasks assigned in a table at the tops of the notes, with the task, who it is assigned to and the deadline for the task ifapplicable. Some groups call this the "task-a-tron." Doing this allowes the group to revisit the task-a-tron next meeting to check in on progress with those assigned tasks.

A detailed guide on taking meeting notes can be found here.

## Time Keeper

A time keeper's job is to keep track of time spent on each agenda item and on the meeting as a whole. They should altert the group when time limits are reached for each agenda item, checking in to see if the group would like to add more time to an item. A time keeper should also help the group maintan a sense of whether a meeting is running ahead of or behind schedule.

## Vibes Watcher

A vibe watcher's roll is to pay special attention to energy levels and emotional climate of a meeting. They shoud pay attention to body language, facial expressions, distracting side conversations or people interrupting each other over the course of a meeting. A vibes watcher may interrupt a meeting when necessary in order to offer their reflections on the meeting climate and suggest remedies if there is a problem. or example, offering a stretch break to wake people up or shuffling seats if tension is preventing people from hearing each other. It is important for the vibes watcher to fill their roll in a way that avoids making people fell guilty or defensive.The vibe watcher's role may be filled by the facilitator, but a dedicated vibes watcher is especially useful when conversation is expected to be tense or controversial, or if a meeting is expected to be long.

## Stack Keeper

When there are a lot of people interested in talking during a meeting, it can be useful to maintain a speaker order. A stack keeper records the order in which members of the group raised their hand and calls on them in that order, or the stack keeper may choose to allows those who have not had as much air time to speak sooner or ask those who have been dominating the conversation to give space to others.Facilitators can also keep stack, but a dedicated stack keeper is useful in meetings where the stack becomes particularly long.

## Process Observer

It can ocasionally be useful to designate a process observer, whose job it is to to observe the overall workings of the group, especially during times of conflict or transition. A process observer should not participate in the task of the meeting, and might find a notepad for observations useful. The process observer can also keep tally of number of times each member of the group speaks in order to record participation patterns.Some things a process observer might look for:

* What general atmosphere did the group work in?
* How were decisions made?
* If there was conflict, how was it handled?
* Did everybody participate? Were there procedures to encourage participation?
* How well did group members relate to each other?
* Were there recognized leaders within the group or was power distributed?
* How did the group interact with the facilitator?
* Where there differences between male and female participation? Differences in participation between white folks and people of color? Did demographics affect air time?

Toward the end of a  meeting, the process observer can mention the strengths they observe within the group and offer constructive feedback on the groups process. It is best to offer specific observations when giving feedback, so that group members know exactly what you are talking about and do not get defensive.

# Important Concepts in Fa​cilitation

The most essential thing for a facilitator to understand is their role as facilitator. This understanding alone will go a long way and point a general direction toward improvement. Becoming a better facilitator means filling these roles more fully.

In additon to understanding the role of a facilator, the follwing oncepts are important to keep in mind, and understanding them can help improve one's faciltiation.

## The Facilitator's Mindset

Effective facilitation requires a certain stepping out of oneself. An effective facilitator must hold the needs of the group above their personal interests and guide the group without leading it. The following tips may help one develop a facilitator's mindset:

* The faciliator is not the chair of the group, nor the leader of every item.
* Consider if the group is okay with emotional input. Are you as a facilitator?
* Be prejeduced toward agreement; maintain optimism; look for common ground.
* Be an ally to all members of the group. Offer differnt venues for input so that everyone has something that works for them.
* Remember that though you may be facilitating a meeting, the meeting is not about you.
* Be aware of what you don't know.
* Model curiosity and eagerness for new information
* Work with the members of the group as whole, complicated individuals.
* Use the question "what does the group need most in this moment" as your mantra and always try to act on your best answer.

## Ground Rules

When facilitating a meeting, it is important to understand the group's ground rules, then hold yourself and the group to them.

#### Sample ground rules

Different groups will have different ground rules; below is a sample set:

* Emotional expression is okay, but agression is not
* If confused about what is happening, ask
* Raise hands in order to speak
* Call on people in the order which they raised their hands, but the speaking order may be altered to follow a train of thought or bring in those who have not spoken recently
* Silence means assent (at least for procedural matters)
* If the group is undecided about how to proceed, the faciliator makes the call
* The facilitator is present in service of everyone
* The facilitator may interrupt conversation if ideas are being repeated
* It is the facilitator's job to keep people on topic
* Search for agreement
* Assume good intent
* Keep electronic devices silenced

## Dual Roles: Shaping Content While Managing Energy

The facilitator has the dual role of giving shape to the meeting's content while managing the group's energy. The faclitator can act with a light touch when things are going well, but should be more firm when conversation is getting off topic or there is a problem that needs to be adressed. Whether the faciliator focuses on meeting content or on the meeting's energy will depend on the needs of the group at the moment.

#### Shaping Content

The facilitatior may use a number of techniques mixed with open discussion to offer different ways of looking at ideas, including, small group breakout, brainstorm, round robin, a moment of silence, or individual writing. Some of these tools are discussed below in the "Facilitation Tools" section.

There are also a number of techniques a facilitator or group can use to bring members of the group to better understanding of one another. Some of these include, mirroring what was heard, paraphrasing an idea, summarizing conversation, weaving together ideas, developing a partial agreement based on common ground, or develping floating proopsals based on emerging agreement

It is also important to undertand when it is appropriate to delegate a task or discussion, moving it to a smaller group that may report back later.

#### Managing Energy

It is also important for a facilitator to remain aware of a group's energy and take appropraite steps to keep a positive climate. For example, it is useful to remain aware of underlying power dynamics, keep monolouges in check, observe and name emotions that are being expressed, call a break if needed, ensure members of the group are physically comfortable and to work with disress when it appears.

## Delegating

Sometimes it is more productive to delegate a task, decision or conversation to a smaller group than to continue discussing it as an entire group. When delegating, it is important to know what is expectd of the group being delegated. It is best to be clear on the answers to as many of the belows questions as apply:

* Who composes the subgroup? Can members join and leave this group at will? What is the subgroup's meeting and decsion making process?
* What is the subgroup expected to accomplish?
* What is the dealine for the assigned task?
* What resources will be made available for the taks? (money, labor, tools, etc.)
* Is the subgroup expected to report back? If so when, how often, and what should the reports address?
* What licence does the subgroup have to make decisions without the whole, and what is the subgroup expected to check in about first?
* How do members not part of the subgroup offer input to the subgroup?
* Should the subgroup coordinate with other groups?

## Commitment to Relationship

At moments, two or more participants in a meeting may take polorized postions, and other members of the group or the faciliator may be asked to take sides. Members ot the group, and especially the facilitator should reisist this urge and instead emphasize the relationship between members of the group and build bridges across which information can flow. Remember that the faciltator is not a judge arbiter or therapist. It can be very useful when conflict arises to paraphrase what one person is saying into language that others can understand, or to focus on the emotional experience a person might be having.

## Asking for Help

It is important for the faciliator and other members of the group to be comfortable asking for help when they need it. It can be good for a faciliator to say what parts of facilitation they are struggling with at the beginning of a meeting and ask for the group's help. The group will ususally be understanding when the facilitator stumbles and attempt to help them, and the facilitaor can be more relaxed, already having admitted their weaknesses.

Other ways to help or seek help as a facilitator or group member include:

* Keeping the door open to new facilitators gaining expereince
* Assign work that is in line with a person's abilities
* Break big jobs down into managable parts
* Have a back up facilitator, or swirch facilitators when the original facilitator cannot be neutral when discussing a certain topic
* When a topic is emotionally charged and neutrality is not avaialbe within the group, seek outside help
* Have a member of the group offer reflections on the process and facilitation of the meeting
* Have meeting evaluations at the end of a meeting to reflect on what was good about the meeting and its facilitation and what partcipants struggle with.
* Find another group in the area that uses a similar decsion making process and trade facilitators, offering fresh eyes

# Facilitation Tools

There are a number of communication tools and discussion formats that working groups and their facilitators can use to help a meeting run smoothly, exchange ideas in a diversity of way, and help uncover emerging agreement. Groups can use the tools that work the best for them or invent their own.

## Hand Siginals

Many groups use hand signals to to communicate non verbally, indicating agreement, concern, a desire to speak, etc without interruptng the conversation. The facilitator can read hand signals to help determine where to take the conversation or who to call on next. Below is a chart of hand signals (click to expand) that may be used in a meeting, followed by descriptions of some commonly used hand signals

#### "Sprinkles": Agreement

Wiggling the fingers of both hands pointed upward inidcates agreement with the point currently being expressed.

#### "Sprunkles": Disagreement

Wiggling the fingers of both hands pointed downward indicates disgareement with the point currently beings expressed

#### Rolling Hands: Wrap it Up

Rolling your hands around eachother in front of you to indicates that the current speaker is repeating points or being long winded, encouraging them to wrap up what they are saying and move on to a new point.

#### Raised Hand: Wants to Talk

Raising a hand indicates a desire to speak. The facilitor or stack keeper should acknowledge the hand and then add that person to the speaking order, or "stack."

#### Alternating Pointing: Direct Response

Pointing at the person currently speaking with both hands alternatingly indicates that someone would like to respond directly to what is being said. These people are ususally called on first before continuing through the "stack."

#### One finger raised: Point of Information

Raising one finger indicates that a person has a short and urgent piece of information or response relevant to what is being discussed. These people are ususally called on first before continuing through the "stack."

#### Hand in Shape of C: Clarifying Question

Raising a hand in the shape of the letter C indicates that a person has a clarifying question about what is being said. These people are usually called on first before moving through the "stack," and the original speaker is given an opportunity to answer the question.

## Brainstorm

In order to generate new ideas about how to adress the problem being discussed, the facilitator may suggest a brainstorm. During a brainstorm, members may call out their ideas as they come, in no particular order. Group members should be careful not to interrupt each other, and if this becomes an issue they can raise a hand to indicate they have an idea before expressing it. Brainstorms can last for a specified amount of time, until the group runs out of new ideas to express, or until an idea the group is paricularly interested in exploring is raised. This tool is ususally used toward the beginning of discussion of a topic, to raise ideas that can then be discussed further.

## Round Robin

In order to hear the thoughts of everyone in the group, the facilitator may suggest a round robin. During a round robin, each member expresses their ideas about the current topic or responds to a posed question, proceeding through the group in a circle until everyone has spoken. Group members always have the option of passing.

## Straw Poll

In order to gauge support for an emerging idea or proposal, the facilitator may suggest a straw poll. In a straw poll, all members of the group indicate their level of support for an idea or possible solution to the issue at hand by raising a hand with between 0 and 5 fingers, with 0 fingers indicating strong opposition and 5 indicating stong support. This tool is very similar to the "fist to five" method of voting sometimes used in consensus decision making, but it is intended only to gauge the group's postion on an idea, and does not lead to any binding decsions.

## Break Out

In order to more strongly develop ideas, the facilitator can sugesst that the group splits into a number of groups of specified size. For a given amount of time, or until conversation begins to calm down, each group can discuss discuss the problem at hand, explore possilbe solutions and perhaps develop a poular proposal more completely. When the group comes back together, a member of each smaller group can summarize thier conversation.

## Vibe Check

If members of the group seem tired, tense, irritated or are in some other state that prevents effective communication, the facilitator or vibes watcher may check in, ask how members of the group are feeling, and offer some remedy. For exapmple, if members of the group are tired, a break may be called, or the group can go through a stretching exercise together, or if conversation is getting tense, switching seats may help relieve it.

## Facilitation Games

At times, the facilitator can bring gameplay into a meeting in order to introduce members of the group to one another, build trust among the group,or keep the group enaged and active. For a list of some possilbe games, see the Facilitation Games page.

# Humor in Facilitation

Proper use of humor as a facilitator can make meetings more fun, or may lighten the mood when the energy is low or tense. However, one must be careful in using humor as a facilitator, since when improperly used, it can be damaging to the meeting atmosphere or relationsships. It is best only to use humor as a facilitator when we are confident that others actually find us funny. If we know that others in the room do not appreciate our sense of humor, it's best to refain from it. Unwelcome humor in a meeting will disrupt the meeting's energy at best, and damage relationships at worst. As such, it is important for a facilitator to understand their capacity with humor and only use it within their ability.

Whether or not using humor as a facilitator, a good facilitator should know when humor is productive and when it is damaging, and how to work with it when it arises. Humor can be helpful when it is gentle, widely accessible and doesn't interrupt delicate moments. Used corrcectly it can counteract boredom or tension in a meeting. However, there are some uses of humor that do more harm than good.

Humor can be awkward when someone in the room is not in on the joke, and humor can be especially destructive when someone in the room is the subject of the joke. Whether intentional or not, nobody likes to feel they're being made fun of. When potentially damagaing humor appears, it's helpful for a faciliator to remain aware of reactons to the humor, especially from the person who spoke immediately prior to the joke. If someone looks hurt by the humor, it is a good idea to check in with them, and if they are hurt to help them get clear with the person who brought it up. It's good to get clear with the offended member that the other person may not have intended to offend, and also help the humorist understand how what they said might be seens as hurtful. Apologies can be helpful if necessary.

If jokes that carry negativity, even subty, are allowed without being checked, it can create a meeting environment in which people will be more reserved with their inpuut, partly for fear of being the target of the next joke. If those making jokes are instead asked oplenly if they intended cirticism, they can either dissavow that suspcion, or the criticism will be brought into the open where it can be dealth with. In either case, checking seemingly caustic humor will help maintain a producitve and trusting meeting climate.

Generally speaking, it is safest to stay away from sarcasm or humor targeted at any specific individual, unless you are making fun of yourself. This is especailly true for the facilitator. However, word play like alliteration, puns or comic juxtaposition are ususally safe types of humor to use. Still, one should be careful using humor after a particularly vulnerable or heartfelt comment, since the previous speaker could feel overlooked by the joke. Such comments shoudl be acknowledged and responded to appropraitely before humor is used to move the group along.

# Ideas for this page

According to Laird (Sandhill Founder):

There almost certainly needs to be a come-to-Jesus conversation about investing in this early on. Almost all groups get this wrong.

Meeting facilitation is extremely important, especially since many communities will make most of their decisions in meetings.

This article could discuss:

* Theory/purposes of facilitation
	+ Enable the group to facilitate itself
	+ Synthesize information and reflect it back
	+ Uncover common ground and reveal the group's collective will
	+ Equalize power dynamics within the group

Facilitation tools

* Temperature checks
* Round robin
* Consensus cycle:
	+ Background information
	+ Proposal
	+ Clarifying questions
	+ Temperature check
	+ Address concerns
	+ Reformulate proposal toward consensus
* Facilitation games

## Resources

The "Government" section of the FEC's resource library

The "Government" tag of the FEC's resource library

The "Decision Making" tagof the FEC's resource library

The "Process" tag of the FEC's resource library

The "Meetings" tag of the FEC's resource library

"Group Decsion Making Handbook"~~#2D2D2D,#FFFFFF:from NASCO's shared resource library~~

Decision Log

ACDC Meeting Agenda

Sunday Meeting Agenda

"Meetings That Rock!" from NASCO's shared resource library

"Facilitation Tools" from NASCO's shared resource library

"Four Roles of a Facilitator" from NASCO's shared resource library

"Humor in Facilitation" from NASCO's shared resource library

"Facilitation Games" from NASCO's shared resource library

"Essentials of Integrative Facilitation" from NASCO's shared resource library

"Designated Meeting Roles" from NASCO's shared resource library

"Group Roles"from NASCO's shared resource library

"Mina's Guide to Taking Minutes" from NASCO's shared resource library

"Kwunsensus Meeting Process (Modified Consensus)"~~#2D2D2D,#FFFFFF: from NASCO's shared resource library~~

~~#2D2D2D,#FFFFFF:"Best Meetings" from Communites Magazine~~

~~#2D2D2D,#FFFFFF:"Business and Well Being" from Communities Magazine~~