Internal Clarity
| Strategic Planning | Facilitation Methods | Brainstorming Methods |
| Change Management | Team Development | Meeting Design & Facilitation |

Group Facilitation Methods

This 2-day course provides leaders and managers with practical and effective facilitation skills for use in a wide range of business meetings, such as:

• Information exchange
• Brainstorming
• Clarifying issues
• Decision-making
• Problem-solving

Whether participants are interested in enhancing their existing on-the-job expertise or wanting to develop new skills, Group Faciliation Methods provides best practice methodology, clear demonstrations of essential skills and generous practice and application time.

Leadership qualities emerge within teams when members are encouraged to interact with each other in a way that honors the exchange, eliciting both kindred thoughts and divergent viewpoints. An effective meeting is not a chance event. Using these facilitation tools leads all participants to:

• a deeper understanding of the issue at hand
• a clarity of purpose or consensus direction
• ownership of a co-created plan

Anyone whose professional role routinely or periodically includes leading, inspiring and achieving the consensus of a group or committee will benefit from attending this program. In the Group Facilitation Methods course, participants learn three distinct tools that can be used independently or on combination, dependent on meeting objectives.

The Focused Conversation Method
For leading a discussion that promotes dialogue

• Explore new decisions and solutions
• Capture the best thinking of a group
• Create a forum for managing conflict
• Conduct productive employee reviews
• Improve the caliber of group communication

This demonstrates and applies a structure for effective communication that allows everyone in the group to participate. The method results in broadened perspectives and clearer ideas, which enables groups to gain valuable insights from their diverse experiences. Some practical applications of this method are: analyzing trends and current situations, helping a group talk through “sticky” issues and clarifying values associated with delegated tasks and assignments.

The Consensus Workshop Method
Produces creative and practical brainstorm ideas and consensus

• Gather input efficiently for effective decision-making
• Integrate diverse ideas for breakthrough thinking
• Manage conflicting agendas to elicit new commitments
• Build group consensus around new opportunities
• Develop creative solutions to stubborn problems

This teaches skills that enable a team leader, mentor or coach to weave everyone’s wisdom into a collectively-owned superior solution. Participants become familiar with a five-step process that moves the group from the collection of data and ideas through the organization and synthesis of the data, and finally, to a point of consensus, resolution and a deliverable product. The method generates new creativity, incorporates both a rational and intuitive approach to breakthrough thinking and problem-solving that builds team cohesiveness through consensus-driven dialogue.

The Action Planning Method
Excellent for planning short-term projects, team initiatives, corporate events or rejuvenating relevant projects that have stalled

• Visualize the completed task
• Analyze the current situation
• Maximize involvement and contributions
• Develop an implementation plan
• Establish plan for tracking progress

This teaches a process that promotes the successful launch, or course correction, of a project, and maximizes involvement around plan implementation. It helps focus the group for the purpose of clarifying its direction and aligning resources. Participants will learn to:

• Define what the group or team needs to achieve
• Evaluate their situation
• Determine actions to implement their plans and intentions
• Build a timeline
• Designate leadership roles.

Client Comments

“These methods will make the difference in how we reach consensus around our most immediate goals such as merit/reward and enhancing interdepartmental communications.”
President — Regional Health Science Center

“I have to put this course in a class by itself! This is not an exaggeration. I have yet to find an opportunity where I do not apply some aspect of these skills to my daily work.”
Quality Management Specialist — United States Department of Agriculture

To learn how these methods can be used for Participatory Strategic Planning, click here.

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