Facilitator Tool Kits A Guide For Helping Groups Get Results

In a university setting, collaboration and consensus are essential ways of working. Simple in concept but not so easy to achieve, creating an environment where groups can be productive and effective in achieving their goals is a facilitator’s primary role. Facilitate means “to make easy.” As a facilitator, your job is to make the meeting easier for the participants. Your main task is to help the team or group increase its effectiveness by improving its processes. A facilitator manages the method of the meeting, rather than the content. Facilitators are concerned with how decisions are made instead of what decisions are reached. Facilitator Responsibilities Intervene if the discussion starts to fragment Identify and intervene in dysfunctional behavior Prevent dominance and include everyone Summarize discussions and conversations Bring closure to the meeting with an end result or action Facilitation Challenges A facilitator is similar to the conductor of a symphony. Continually focusing on and attending to the group Being comfortable with ambiguity and information overload Processing misperceptions and emotional reactions Focusing exclusively on process rather than content Helping the group develop so they can ultimately work without facilitation.

source :

https://ictp.fpg.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/Facilitator-Toolkit.pdf