Orbit Activity 9

This activity gives Rostrum members the ability to see how it’s done by watching others and to practise the art of facilitating. It’s a very valuable and useful skill, which can be applied in both professional and community situations.

Activity 9 – Facilitate a discussion

Duration: 10-15 mins
Pre-requisites: Completion of Launchpad Program

Aim

To effectively facilitate a discussion and reach a result.

Objectives

  1. To create an environment where everyone in the meeting has a chance to offer an opinion or a comment
  2. To treat every person in the room equitably
  3. To drive a process which enables ideas to be canvassed, and explored and to reach a conclusion

The Why…

Many people in today’s workplace are asked to facilitate a discussion. The terminology in the workplace may be to ‘lead a discussion’. The technical term is to facilitate.

This activity gives Rostrum members the ability to see how it’s done by watching others and to practise the art of facilitating. It’s a very valuable and useful skill, which can be applied in both professional and community situations.

The How

Specific guidelines on how to tackle this activity.

Start by questioning: Facilitation is a very complex process, and it requires a great deal of thought. The best way to approach this is to ask yourself: ‘what is the conclusion that is desired at the end of this process?’

  • Are you looking for a decision?
  • Are you looking at just sharing or illuminating ideas?
  • Are you looking at one particular idea and getting people’s opinions?

There are many ways to deal with this.

Do some research: People tend to think that facilitating is just brainstorming, but brainstorming is just one of dozens of tools that can be used when you facilitate in order to reach a conclusion. It’s a good idea to do some research into facilitation techniques to give you a better idea of all the tools and strategies that make good facilitators.

Tips and traps

Trap: The biggest trap is that you, as the facilitator, talk too much.

Tip: Use a process which enables people to contribute without the facilitator driving the process to a particular point of view.

Trap: Taking ‘sides’: The facilitator needs to remain neutral, and be seen to be neutral.

Tip: Questioning is a really important skill for a facilitator, so it’s important to practice the art of questioning without bias (e.g. Rather than: ‘How could that possibly work?’ Try: ‘Can you tell us more about how that might work?’ Or, rather than: ‘Some examples are…’ Try: ‘What are some examples of this type of thing you’ve experienced in your work/projects/ community/life?’)

Trap: Negating or passing over someone’s idea or point of view. (Ensure everyone has the opportunity to be heard and the discussion is balanced.)

Tip: Record the discussion: You may actually ask another member of your Club to be the recorder (e.g. using a whiteboard or laptop/screen), while you’re facilitating.

Tip: Summarise the discussion (during and at the end) so the group can see that all points have been considered and also see the overall results.

Trap: Letting one group or person take over or derail the discussion. (Ensure both ‘sides’ have equal opportunity to discuss their point of view.)

Tip: Encourage members to bring their personal experience to the discussion so that all sides of the discussion can be considered.

Trap: Allowing participants to continually use language or examples that are racist, not inclusive or otherwise inflammatory. It’s your role as facilitator to identify where this may have ‘crossed the line’, repair the situation and get the discussion back on track.

Tip: Be clear and up front about your expectations of the discussion (you can even set ‘ground rules’), the time frames and what outcome you’d like to achieve by the end of the allotted time.

Guidelines for Program Director:

Unless a member is experienced in facilitation at work, this activity is better to be delivered later in the Orbit Program. This is why it’s Activity 9. A speaker needs to be relatively skilled to be able to effectively facilitate.

Like other activities, plan this so you firstly give the facilitation exercise to a member who is experienced, and then a few weeks later, give it to a member who’s doing it for the first time. Make sure both members know you’ve done it this way so that the newer member can see a more experienced member model facilitation. Encourage newer members to speak to the experienced member for guidelines, tips and good advice.