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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Help groups deliver results with an updated approach to facilitation and consulting
The Skilled Facilitator: A Comprehensive Resource for Consultants, Facilitators, Trainers, and Coaches, Third Edition is a fundamental resource for consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers, and anyone who helps groups realize their creative and problem-solving potential. This new edition includes updated content based on the latest research and revised models of group effectiveness and mutual learning. Roger M. Schwarz shows how to use the Skilled Facilitator approach to: boost improvement processes such as Six Sigma and Lean, create a psychologically safe learning environment for training, and help coaches work with teams and individuals in real-time. This edition features a new chapter that explains how to facilitate virtual teams using conferencing technology.
Facilitation skills are essential in many kinds of work, and if you are looking to bring your skills up to date it is critical that you rely on trusted information like the knowledge offered in this go-to reference.
- Develop the facilitative mentality and skills that enable you to help groups get better results, even in the most challenging situations
- Help groups achieve greater performances, stronger working relationships, and higher levels of individual well-being
- Quickly develop productive and trusting work relationships with the groups you help
- Establish the functions of your facilitative role
- Implement a research-based, systematic approach to diagnose and intervene in groups and improve their performance and results
The Skilled Facilitator is a practical resource for corporate, government, non-profit, and educational practitioners, as well as graduate students in group-focused programs. This edition contains up-to-date material, based on recent studies, to help facilitators move beyond arbitrary tactics to utilize cutting edge, research-based strategies that improve group processes, relationships, mindsets, and outcomes.
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Seitenzahl: 713
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
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Contents
Cover
Additional Praise for
The Skilled Facilitator
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface to the Third Edition
What The Skilled Facilitator Is About
Who This Book Is For
How the Book Is Organized
Features of the Book
What's Different in the Third Edition
Part One: The Foundation
Chapter One: The Skilled Facilitator Approach
The Need for Group Facilitation
Most People Who Need to Facilitate Aren't Facilitators
Is This Book for You?
The Skilled Facilitator Approach
Experiencing the Skilled Facilitator Approach
Making the Skilled Facilitator Approach Your Own
Summary
Chapter Two: The Facilitator and Other Facilitative Roles
Choosing a Facilitative Role
Basic and Developmental Types of Roles
Serving in Multiple Facilitative Roles
When It's Appropriate to Leave the Role of Facilitator
The Group is Your Client
What is Your Responsibility for the Group's Results?
Summary
Chapter Three: How You Think Is How You Facilitate: How Unilateral Control Undermines Your Ability to Help Groups
How You Think: Your Mindset as an Operating System
Two Mindsets: Unilateral Control and Mutual Learning
How You Think Is Not How You Think You Think
The CIO Team Survey Feedback Case
The Unilateral Control Approach
Values of The Unilateral Control Mindset
Assumptions of the Unilateral Control Mindset
Unilateral Control Behaviors
Results of Unilateral Control
Give-Up-Control Approach
How Unilateral Control Reinforces Itself
How Did We Learn Unilateral Control?
Moving from Unilateral Control to Mutual Learning
Summary
Chapter Four: Facilitating with the Mutual Learning Approach
The Mutual Learning Approach
Values of the Mutual Learning Mindset
Assumptions of the Mutual Learning Mindset
Mutual Learning Behaviors
Results of Mutual Learning
The Reinforcing Cycles of Mutual Learning
Are There Times When Unilateral Control Is the Better Approach?
Summary
Chapter Five: Eight Behaviors for Mutual Learning
Using the Eight Behaviors
Behavior 1: State Views and Ask Genuine Questions
Behavior 2: Share All Relevant Information
Behavior 3: Use Specific Examples and Agree on What Important Words Mean
Behavior 4: Explain Reasoning and Intent
Behavior 5: Focus on Interests, Not Positions
Behavior 6: Test Assumptions and Inferences
Behavior 7: Jointly Design Next Steps
Behavior 8: Discuss Undiscussable Issues
Learning to Use the Behaviors
Summary
Chapter Six: Designing and Developing Effective Groups
How a Team Effectiveness Model Helps You and the Teams and Groups You Work With
The Difference between Teams and Groups—and Why It Matters
How Interdependence Affects Your Work with Teams and Groups
The Team Effectiveness Model
What's Your Mindset as You Design?11
Team Structure, Process, and Context12
Team Structure
Team Process
Team Context
Interorganizational Teams and Groups
Helping Design or Redesign a Team or Group
Summary
Part Two: Diagnosing and Intervening With Groups
Chapter Seven: Diagnosing and Intervening with Groups
What You Need to Diagnose
What You Need to Intervene
The Mutual Learning Cycle
Summary
Chapter Eight: How to Diagnose Groups
Step 1: Observe Behavior
Step 2: Make Meaning
Step 3: Choose Whether, Why, and How to Intervene
Challenges in Diagnosing Behavior and How to Manage Them
Summary
Chapter Nine: How to Intervene with Groups
Key Elements of the Intervention Steps
Using the Mutual Learning Cycle to Intervene: An Example
Step 4: Test Observations
Step 5: Test Meaning
Step 6: Jointly Design Next Steps
How to Move through the Intervention Steps
Choosing Your Words Carefully
Summary
Chapter Ten: Diagnosing and Intervening on the Mutual Learning Behaviors
How Mutual Learning Behaviors Differ from Many Ground Rules
Contracting to Intervene on Mutual Learning Behaviors
Intervening on the Mutual Learning Behaviors
Behavior 1: State Views and Ask Genuine Questions
Behavior 2: Share All Relevant Information
Behavior 3: Use Specific Examples and Agree on What Important Words Mean
Behavior 4: Explain Reasoning and Intent
Behavior 5: Focus on Interests, Not Positions
Behavior 6: Test Assumptions and Inferences
Behavior 7: Jointly Design Next Steps
Behavior 8: Discuss Undiscussable Issues
Summary
Chapter Eleven: Using Mutual Learning to Improve Other Processes and Techniques
Using Mutual Learning to Diagnose and Intervene on Other Processes
Diagnosing and Intervening When Groups Are Using a Process Ineffectively
Diagnosing and Intervening on Processes That Are Incongruent with Mutual Learning
Diagnosing and Intervening on Processes That Espouse Mutual Learning: Lean and Other Continuous Improvement Approaches
Summary
Chapter Twelve: Diagnosing and Intervening on Emotions—The Group's and Yours
The Challenge
How People Generate Emotions
How Groups Express Emotions
Managing Your Own Emotions
Deciding How to Intervene
Intervening on Emotions
Helping People Express Emotions Effectively
Helping People Reduce Defensive Thinking
Helping the Group Express Positive Emotions
When People Get Angry with You
Learning from Your Experiences
Summary
Part Three: Agreeing To Work Together
Chapter Thirteen: Contracting: Deciding Whether and How to Work with a Group
Why Contract?
Five Stages of Contracting
Stage 1: Making Initial Contact with a Primary Client Group Member
Stage 2: Planning the Facilitation
Stage 3: Reaching Agreement with the Entire Group
Stage 4: Conducting the Facilitation
Stage 5: Completing and Evaluating the Facilitation
Summary
Chapter Fourteen: Working with a Partner
Deciding Whether to Partner
Dividing and Coordinating the Labor
Allocating Roles within Your Division of Labor
Developing Healthy Boundaries between You and Your Partner
Debriefing with Your Partner
Summary
Chapter Fifteen: Serving in a Facilitative Role in Your Own Organization
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Internal Facilitative Role
How Your Internal Facilitative Role Is Shaped
Shaping Your Facilitative Role
Changing Your Facilitative Role from the Outside In
Summary
Part Four: Working with Technology
Chapter Sixteen: Using Virtual Meetings
Choosing Which Type of Virtual Meeting Technology to Use—If Any
The Challenges That Virtual Meetings Create
Designing and Facilitating Virtual Meetings to Meet These Challenges
Summary
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About Roger Schwarz & Associates' Work with Clients
The Skilled Facilitator Intensive Workshop
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Exhibit 2.1
Exhibit 2.2
Exhibit 3.1
Exhibit 4.1
Exhibit 5.1
Exhibit 8.1
Exhibit 9.1
Exhibit 9.2
Exhibit 10.1
Exhibit 10.2
Exhibit 10.3
Exhibit 10.4
Exhibit 10.5
Exhibit 10.6
Exhibit 10.7
Exhibit 10.8
Exhibit 10.9
Exhibit 10.10
Exhibit 10.11
Exhibit 10.12
Exhibit 10.13
Exhibit 10.14
Exhibit 10.15
Exhibit 10.16
Exhibit 10.17
Exhibit 10.18
Exhibit 10.19
Exhibit 12.1
Exhibit 12.2
Exhibit 12.3
Exhibit 13.1
Exhibit 13.2
Exhibit 13.3
Exhibit 13.4
Exhibit 13.5
Exhibit 13.6
Exhibit 14.1
Exhibit 15.1
List of Illustrations
Figure 1.1
Figure 3.1
Figure 3.2
Figure 3.3
Figure 3.4
Figure 4.1
Figure 4.2
Figure 4.3
Figure 4.4
Figure 5.1
Figure 5.2
Figure 5.3
Figure 5.4
Figure 5.5
Figure 5.6
Figure 5.7
Figure 6.1
Figure 6.2
Figure 6.3
Figure 6.4
Figure 7.1
Figure 7.2
Figure 8.1
Figure 9.1
Figure 10.1
Figure 11.1
Figure 11.2
Figure 11.3
Figure 13.1
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Part 1
Chapter 1
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Additional Praise for The Skilled Facilitator
“Practical, credible, insightful, and relevant, the newest edition of The Skilled Facilitator is sure to find a special place on your bookshelf. Roger presents the most current practices that are both steeped in theory and immediately applicable.”
—Elaine Biech, author of Training and Development for Dummies, and editor of 101 Ways to Make Learning Active Beyond the Classroom
“The third edition of The Skilled Facilitator is a winner. The mutual learning approach builds in transparency and integrity in conflict resolution processes, its integration with the team effectiveness model makes this the preferred approach for team interventions. This is the stuff that organizational TRUST is built on. It will continue to be my go-to resource in my work as an organizational ombudsman and coach.”
—Thomas P. Zgambo, former World Bank Group ombudsman and former President of The Ombudsman Association (now the International Ombudsman Association)
“Roger Schwarz smartly updates his classic text on facilitation, taking into account contemporary brain research and framing his approach in terms of the proper, ‘mutual learning’ mindset for working with groups effectively. Schwarz offers a system that will help professionals in the field become trusting, trusted, and—with practice—terrific facilitators.”
—Ed Frauenheim, Director of Research and Content at Great Place to Work, and coauthor of Good Company: Business Success in the Worthiness Era
“The expanded, revised edition provides new, innovative approaches and insights not only to professional facilitators but also to those who want to use facilitation skills to be effective leaders, consultants, or coaches. Roger makes facilitation skills and techniques understandable and usable. These skills are particularly important in labor-management relations and other settings in which leaders must generate commitment rather than compliance and where mutual understanding is critical to productive relationships.”
—Robert Tobias, former president, National Treasury Employees Union, and professor of public administration, American University
“In an increasingly demanding business setting, the ability to adapt quickly is critical. Skilled facilitation is a key competence to making change happen. This insightful and practical book offers all those involved with facilitation tools they can use. By using these tools, they will help their organization win in changing markets.”
—Dave Ulrich, Rensis Likert Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Partner, the RBL Group
“Roger Schwarz's third edition of The Skilled Facilitator is a must-read for anyone who is responsible for facilitating team meetings, leading group discussions, or conducting training sessions. His insights and practical tips for managing group process and group dynamics are invaluable. Whether you are new to facilitation or a seasoned pro, Schwarz's techniques, models, and concrete examples will help you get better results with the groups you lead and manage.”
—Karen Lawson, PhD, president, Lawson Consulting Group, Inc., and author of The Trainer's Handbook, 4th edition
“The Skilled Facilitator continues to be an outstanding resource for both new and seasoned facilitators, managers, and organizational leaders as well as consultants and coaches. The additions and enhancements in the third edition, particularly the new chapter on facilitating virtual meetings, make this well-written book a must for anyone who works with face to face and/or virtual groups. Roger is an exceptional consultant and inspirational teacher who walks his talk.”
—Nadine Bell, Certified Professional Facilitator, past Chair of the International Association of Facilitators, inaugural inductee to the International Association of Facilitators Hall of Fame
“Roger's book is still the best text on group facilitation available in English. The third edition continues his thoughtful and completely useful guidance on facilitating group processes and has benefited from the ongoing dialogue he has shaped within the facilitation field. Readers will get the core skills and mindsets necessary for effective group facilitation and perhaps more importantly, will be cautioned against the multitude of missteps that can sabotage the best intentions. His precision with language led to a number of changes in the new edition that clarify and simplify descriptions of the key facilitative rules and the applications of facilitation in coaching, training, and consultation.”
—Douglas Riddle, PhD, Senior Fellow, Center for Creative Leadership
“At the heart of the Skilled Facilitator approach is the premise that how you think is how you facilitate—or consult, coach, train, or mediate. No matter our profession, Roger's book offers us all practical and useful information for making any human interaction more effective and successful. After reading The Skilled Facilitator, I found myself listing all the ways I could immediately use Roger's six-step mutual learning approach, eight behaviors of mutual learning, and especially the content from ‘Diagnosing and Intervening on Emotions (the Group's and Yours).’ The Skilled Facilitator is an outstanding reference book that I will come back to again and again. I am glad I have it on my trainer's bookshelf!”
—Sharon L. Bowman, author of Training from the BACK of the Room and The Ten-Minute Trainer!
Praise for the Second Edition
“Everyone wants to be a facilitator: consultants, managers, even teachers. What is desperately needed is a common, practical reference for understanding facilitation in diverse professional settings. No one has done a better job than Roger Schwarz of synthesizing the major theoretical underpinnings and translating them into clear, usable guidelines for practitioners.”
—Peter M. Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline
“I recommend this book with enthusiasm to professionals in all fields, to consultants, graduate students, and thoughtful managers. Schwarz has done an excellent job of integrating social science theories with valuable advice. He makes both come alive with rich, excellent examples.”
—Chris Argyris, James Bryant Conant Professor, emeritus, Harvard University, and author of Knowledge for Action
“Roger Schwarz has written the perfect book to transform mediators into skilled facilitators. It is all here: the theory, the practical suggestions, the guidelines, the analysis of groups. The only thing better than this book is the book and the workshop.”
—Zena D. Zumeta, president, Mediation Training & Consultation Institute/The Collaborative Workplace
“As a new entry to the facilitation field, I wanted to find out what the industry thought was the best resource for combining theory with the practices of facilitation. I submitted my request to the largest online discussion forum for active, professional facilitators. Roger Schwarz's book The Skilled Facilitator was by far the favorite choice of people in the profession. I am ordering my copy now!”
—Malcolm Dell, former executive coordinator, Woodnet Development Council, Inc.
“People with group and team expertise often referred to Roger Schwarz's first edition of The Skilled Facilitator as ‘the facilitators' bible.‘ The enhanced, revised edition will easily retain that title. The millions who have to cope with ineffective meetings on a daily basis would be wise to quickly acquire and absorb the key points. Merely using the list of behavioral ground rules would so enhance the effectiveness of their meeting process that it would pay for the book many times over. Using the rest of the ideas in the book would generate significant bottom-line return through swifter, higher-quality, more easily implemented decisions at all levels of the organization.”
—Michael M. Beyerlein, director, Center for the Study of Work Teams, and professor of industrial/organizational psychology, University of North Texas
“The Skilled Facilitator has many good tips and practical suggestions to help everybody be a better facilitator, which is the task for all of us.”
—Peter Block, author of Flawless Consulting and Stewardship
The Skilled Facilitator
A Comprehensive Resource for Consultants, Facilitators, Coaches, and Trainers
Third Edition
Roger Schwarz
Cover image: David Kerr DesignCover design: Wiley
Copyright © 2017 by Roger Schwarz. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Previous editions (also published by Wiley): Copyright © 2002 and 1994 by Roger Schwarz.Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Schwarz, Roger M., 1956- author.
Title: The skilled facilitator: a comprehensive resource for consultants, facilitators, managers, trainers, and coaches / Roger M. Schwarz.
Description: Third edition. | Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., [2017] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016029060 (print) | LCCN 2016042887 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119064398 (cloth) | ISBN 9781119064411 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119064404 (epub) | ISBN 9781119176572 (obook)
Subjects: LCSH: Communication in management. | Communication in personnel management. | Group facilitation. | Teams in the workplace. | Conflict management.
Classification: LCC HD30.3 .S373 2017 (print) | LCC HD30.3 (ebook) | DDC 658.4/5–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016029060
To Kathleen, Noah, and Hannah
Preface to the Third Edition
Since I wrote the first edition of The Skilled Facilitator in 1994, it has become a standard reference in the field. Many readers have told me that the book has fundamentally changed how they help the groups they work with. They return to it again and again when faced with challenging or new situations. I am gratified that many people in different roles across many fields have found the book so valuable. I hope you will be among them.
What The Skilled Facilitator Is About
The Skilled Facilitator is about how you can help groups become more effective, whether you're a consultant, facilitator, coach, trainer, or mediator. When I wrote the first edition, facilitative skills were something you called on a facilitator for. Now these skills are recognized as a core competency for anyone working with groups.
The book describes one approach to facilitation—the Skilled Facilitator approach. It's a relatively comprehensive and integrated approach, so you can learn it and use it as you work with groups. The approach is based on research and theory that I cite throughout the book.
The Skilled Facilitator approach has several key features. It's based on a set of core values and assumptions—what I call mindset—and principles. Whether you're serving as a facilitator, consultant, coach, trainer, or mediator, you can always figure out what to do in a particular situation by turning to the core values, assumptions, and principles to guide your behavior.
The Skilled Facilitator approach integrates theory and practice. Throughout the book, I answer three questions: “What do I do? How do I do it? Why do I do it that way?” By answering the first question, you understand what specific tool, technique, or method to use in any particular situation. This gives you a general idea of how to respond in any situation. By answering the second question, you understand exactly what to say in that situation. Answering these first two questions is necessary, but not sufficient. By answering the third question, you understand the theory and principles that make all the tools, techniques, methods, and your specific behaviors work. When you know the answers to these three questions, you no longer have to use the tools and methods exactly as you learned them—you can modify them and design your own tools and methods to help a group, no matter what situation you're in.
The Skilled Facilitator approach is a systems approach for helping groups. All the parts of the approach fit together and reinforce each other because they are all based on the same set of core values, assumptions, and principles. The logic of the approach is transparent, and you can share it with the groups you're helping. This makes the approach more powerful and practical.
In the Skilled Facilitator approach, the mindset and behaviors that you use to help a group are the same mindset and behaviors that the group can use to improve its effectiveness. There isn't a secret set of principles, techniques, or methods for you and another set for the group. When you act effectively, you're modeling effective behavior for the group. This makes it much easier for you to help the group increase its effectiveness. Recently, I wrote Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams for the groups and teams you are helping. The book uses the very same approach (including the same models and behaviors) that I describe here to help teams develop the mindset, skill set, and team design to create better results. If you find The Skilled Facilitator useful and want to help teams learn how they can apply it in their leadership roles, Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams will show them how.
At the heart of the Skilled Facilitator approach is the premise that how you think is how you facilitate (or consult, coach, train, or mediate). Research shows that in challenging situations almost all of us use a mindset that leads us to behave in ways that reduce our ability to help the groups we're hired to help. The Skilled Facilitator approach teaches you how to rigorously reflect on your own thinking and feeling so that you can more consistently operate from a productive mindset. This will enable you and the groups you help to get three results: better performance, stronger working relationships, and individual well-being.
Who This Book Is For
Most people who need to use facilitation skills aren't facilitators. If you need facilitation skills to help groups that you're not a member of, I wrote this book for you. The Skilled Facilitator will help you work more effectively with groups so that they can better achieve their results. You'll find this book useful if you work in any of these roles:
You're a
facilitator
who helps work groups: boards, top leadership teams, management teams, work teams, task forces, committees, labor-management groups, interorganizational committees, or community groups. This includes facilitators who specialize in Lean, Six Sigma, or other process improvement approaches.
You're a
consultant
who works with groups as you provide expertise in any content area, such as strategy, marketing, operations, process improvement, or any other area.
You're an
organization development consultant
who needs facilitative skills to help groups and organizations manage change.
You're an
HR consultant
who serves as a business partner to the leadership teams you support and are often involved in difficult conversations regarding employee performance or behavior.
You're a
coach
working with teams, groups, or individuals.
You're a
trainer
who facilitates discussion as part of your training.
You're a
mediator
who wants to develop your facilitative skills or work with groups.
You're a
faculty member
who, as a practical scholar, teaches courses on groups or teams, facilitation, consultation, coaching, organization development, or conflict management, in the fields of management, health care, engineering, public administration, planning, psychology, social work, education, public health, or in other applied fields.
If you're the leader or member of a team, I've written another book for you: Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams. It uses the same approach that I describe in this book, but it's designed for your specific role. If someone has suggested you read The Skilled Facilitator, you might find Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams a better fit for your needs.
How the Book Is Organized
I have organized The Skilled Facilitator into four parts. Here are brief descriptions of the chapters within them.
Part One: The Foundation
In Part One, I lay the foundation for using facilitative skills.
Chapter 1, “The Skilled Facilitator Approach.” In this chapter, I give an overview of the Skilled Facilitator approach, including what it will help you accomplish and the questions I answer throughout the book.
Chapter 2, “The Facilitator and Other Facilitative Roles.” How do I figure out what role to use when working with a group? What do I do if I need to play more than one role? In this chapter, I describe how you can use the Skilled Facilitator approach in any role you serve: consultant, facilitator, coach, trainer, or mediator. I describe each role, explain when to serve in each one, and discuss how to serve in multiple roles when working with groups.
Chapter 3, “How You Think Is How You Facilitate: How Unilateral Control Undermines Your Ability to Help Groups.” The most challenging part of facilitating, consulting, coaching, or training is being able to work from a productive mindset. This chapter describes how almost all of us operate from an unproductive mindset—unilateral control—when we're faced with challenging group situations. I describe how unilateral control leads you to think and behave in ways that reduce your effectiveness and your ability to help groups.
Chapter 4, “Facilitating with the Mutual Learning Approach.” The mutual learning approach is the foundation of the Skilled Facilitator approach. In this chapter, I describe how the mutual learning mindset enables you to think and act in ways that help you and the groups you're working with get results that aren't possible with a unilateral control approach. I describe the specific values, assumptions, and behaviors that make up the mutual learning approach.
Chapter 5, “Eight Behaviors for Mutual Learning.” This chapter describes the eight behaviors that put the mutual learning mindset into action and how you can use them to increase your effectiveness and to help groups increase their effectiveness. I explain how each behavior contributes to better results and when and how you use each one.
Chapter 6, “Designing and Developing Effective Groups.” If you're helping groups get better results, it's important to understand what it takes for groups to get those results. Building on the mutual learning approach, this chapter provides a model of group effectiveness that explains how to design new groups to be effective and how to help existing groups improve their results.
Part Two: Diagnosing and Intervening with Groups
In Part Two, I describe how to observe a group, figure out what is happening that is limiting the group's effectiveness, and intervene to help the group become more effective.
Chapter 7, “Diagnosing and Intervening with Groups.” How do I figure out what's happening in a group that's reducing its effectiveness? What do I say to the group when I figure it out? In this chapter, I introduce the mutual learning cycle that you can use to answer these questions and to diagnose and intervene effectively with a group.
Chapter 8, “How to Diagnose Groups.” There are so many things to pay attention to in a group; how do I decide what to look for? In this chapter, I show you how to use the mutual learning cycle to look for the important things occurring in a group, figure out what they mean, and decide whether to intervene with the group.
Chapter 9, “How to Intervene with Groups.” After I decide to say something to the group, what exactly should I say, who should I say it to, and when should I say it? In this chapter, I show you how to intervene so you can determine if the group is seeing what you're seeing and decide together what, if anything, the group or you should do differently.
Chapter 10, “Diagnosing and Intervening on the Mutual Learning Behaviors.” In this chapter, I give verbatim examples of how to intervene when group members are not using each of the eight mutual learning behaviors.
Chapter 11, “Using Mutual Learning to Improve Other Processes and Techniques.” This chapter shows you how to use the Skilled Facilitator approach to help a group improve how it uses any process or technique, such as Lean and Six Sigma processes, performance management processes, strategic planning, or problem solving.
Chapter 12, “Diagnosing and Intervening on Emotions—The Group's and Yours.” What do I do when people start to get emotional? What do I do when I start to get emotional? In this chapter, I explain how you and the group members generate your emotions, and how you can help group members and yourself express emotion so it makes the conversation and problem solving more productive.
Part Three: Agreeing to Work Together
In Part Three, I describe how to reach an agreement to work with a group; how to decide whether to work with a partner, and if so, how; and how to work internally in your organization.
Chapter 13, “Contracting: Deciding Whether and How to Work with a Group.” The agreement you develop with a group about how you will work together creates the foundation for your helping relationship. Poor contracting generates problems throughout the relationship. In this chapter, I describe a detailed five-stage process you can use to ensure that you and the group develop a healthy working relationship that meets both of your needs.
Chapter 14, “Working with a Partner.” Working with a partner can be more valuable to a group—if you and your partner can work well together. In this chapter, I describe the potential advantages and disadvantages of working with a partner, how to decide whether to work with a partner, and ways to divide and coordinate your work effectively.
Chapter 15, “Serving in a Facilitative Role in Your Own Organization.” If you're an internal facilitator, consultant, or coach, you face different challenges than your external counterparts. In this chapter, I describe how your internal facilitative role develops, the potential advantages and disadvantages of the internal role, and specific strategies you can use to be effective in your role, including contracting with your manager.
Part Four: Working with Technology
In Part Four, I describe how to work virtually with groups.
Chapter 16, “Using Virtual Meetings.” Increasingly, groups are meeting in virtual spaces rather than face-to-face. In this chapter, I describe when to use virtual meetings, how to decide among different virtual meeting technologies, identify the special challenges of virtual meetings, and explain how to effectively address the challenges.
Features of the Book
This book offers several features that will help you navigate and learn the Skilled Facilitator approach:
Key principles of the Skilled Facilitator approach are in
boldface
type, and key terms are in
italics
type.
A book cannot substitute for the skill-building practice of a workshop (which is why we offer The Skilled Facilitator Intensive Workshop). Still, throughout the book I give verbatim examples that show you how to put the principles into practice. This includes real cases of how group members act ineffectively and how you can intervene in such cases.
I share my own stories and my colleagues' stories to illustrate how to apply the Skilled Facilitator approach—and how not to apply it. There are examples of my own ineffective facilitation; I have learned from them and assume you will, too. In all the examples and stories, I have disguised the name and type of the organization, as well as the names of individual members. I have sometimes created a composite of several stories to quickly illustrate a point.
What's Different in the Third Edition
If you've read the second edition, you may be wondering how this edition is different. There are a number of significant differences:
I focus more on the consultant, coaching, and trainer roles. In this edition, I explain throughout the book how you would approach a situation differently depending on your facilitative role.
There is a new chapter on using virtual meetings.
All of the models are completely revised. The unilateral control approach and mutual learning approach have new core values and assumptions, behaviors, and results. The Team Effectiveness Model has new core values and results.
The mutual learning approach and the Team Effectiveness Model are completely integrated. The mutual learning approach is completed embedded in the Team Effectiveness Model.
Part OneThe Foundation
Chapter OneThe Skilled Facilitator Approach
This book is about helping groups get better results. If you're reading this, you may be exploring how to or are already working with groups. You may be serving as a facilitator, consultant, coach, or trainer. In any case, you want to develop facilitation skills to help groups become more effective.
The Need for Group Facilitation
Groups are the basic work unit in many organizations. Organizations are too complex for individuals alone to have all the information they need to produce products and services, or make key decisions, without creating unintended negative consequences. So, organizations create groups to get all the needed information in the same room, resolve different and conflicting views, and commit to a common course of action. Groups need to work effectively. But if you've worked with groups, you know they're often less than the sum of their parts; they make poor decisions, create mistrust and low commitment, and leave members demotivated and stressed. It doesn't need to be this way. This book will show you how to help groups achieve what they want and need to achieve.
Most People Who Need to Facilitate Aren't Facilitators
If you work with groups, you need facilitation skills. Most people who work with groups don't think of themselves as facilitators, and technically, they're not. Essentially, a group facilitator is a content-neutral third party who helps a group improve how to work together to get better results. But even if you're not a facilitator, you can still use the same approach—the mindset and skill set—that facilitators use to help groups get better results. At its core, facilitation is simply a way of thinking and working with groups that increases the chance that they'll perform well, develop strong working relationships, and maintain or improve members' well-being. It's valuable for any relationship worth your time. If you serve in any of these roles, you'll benefit from facilitation skills:
You're an internal or external consultant, providing expert advice to organizations.
You may be an expert in the area of strategy, finance, accounting, IT, HR, marketing, logistics, organizational change, or any number of other areas. Your purpose isn't to facilitate groups, but you need to work with groups to understand your clients' challenges and needs, and propose and implement solutions.
You're an internal or external consultant whose purpose is to help groups improve their results by improving their process in some way.
You may specialize in process improvements such as Lean, Six Sigma, value engineering, quality improvement, or other related approaches. You may feel challenged when dealing with problems that stem from the soft side of groups, like resistance to change. Or you may specialize in a key element necessary for effective groups such as managing conflict productively, building trust, increasing diversity, or demonstrating leadership.
You're a coach, now working with teams.
You generally work with individuals but increasingly find yourself working with teams. You realize that helping a team requires more skills than working with someone one-on-one.
You're a trainer who helps people develop knowledge and/or skills in a group setting.
You need to actively engage people as you meet their learning needs while simultaneously making sure you stay on task and on time.
If you're a member or formal leader of the group you're trying to improve, facilitation skills are also essential for your work. I've written the book Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams (Jossey-Bass, 2013) for people in your role. It uses exactly the same mindset and skill set I describe in this book, and it includes specific examples to help you in your formal and informal leadership tasks.
Is This Book for You?
This book is for anyone who works with groups to help them get better results. It provides a comprehensive approach to facilitation that you can apply in a variety of roles. When you've finished reading the book, you'll have answers to the five main questions that anyone who wants to work effectively with groups must address.
Should I Be a Facilitator, Consultant, Coach, or Trainer to a Group?
How do I decide what role to play? What do I do if I need to help the group by using more than one role? You can help a group as a facilitator, consultant, coach, or trainer. Selecting the appropriate facilitative role is important. In each role, you help a group in a different way. The role you select depends on the type of help the group needs. If you select the appropriate role, you help the group achieve its goals. If you select an inappropriate role, you hinder the group and can hamper your working relationship with them.
The Skilled Facilitator approach defines six of these helping roles, describes how you use each role to help the group, and the conditions under which it's the most appropriate role for you to use (Chapter 2). It also explains when and how to move between the roles.
What Should I Pay Attention to to Help a Group?
Do I watch who speaks to whom or how much people speak? What role each member plays in the group? How people state their views and ask questions? How group members with different personality types interact? When you're working with a group, there are so many things you might focus on to figure out what the group is doing that is productive and unproductive. It's not possible to pay attention to everything, so how do you decide what's important to pay attention to and what's not? And how do you do this in real time so that you can respond immediately, instead of figuring it out after the meeting has ended?
When you ask yourself these questions, you're asking for a diagnostic model to guide what you pay attention to and how you make sense of it. The Skilled Facilitator approach uses a multifactor diagnostic model that enables you to identify what is occurring in a group that is increasing or decreasing its effectiveness. The approach describes eight behaviors (Chapters 5 and 10) that you can use each time a group member speaks, to analyze exactly how he or she is making the conversation more or less productive. The approach also describes two mindsets (Chapters 3 and 4) that group members use—one effective and one ineffective—so that you can infer when group members are thinking in ways that lead them to act less effectively.
Finally, the Skilled Facilitator approach includes a Team Effectiveness Model (Chapter 6) that describes how a group or team's design, including its structures and processes, affect its results. Structure includes the group's task and goals, the ways in which group members are interdependent as they accomplish the task, and the roles that group members fill as they work together. Process includes how the group solves problems, makes decisions, and manages conflict. By analyzing a group's underlying structures and processes, you identify powerful but invisible forces that affect the group.
The Skilled Facilitator diagnostic model enables you to attend to a range of factors (that is, mindset, behavior, structures, and processes) that make significant differences in the three results that every team needs to achieve: (1) solid performance; (2) strong working relationships; and (3) positive individual well-being.
What Do I Say When the Group Isn't Working Effectively?
When should I intervene with the group? What exactly should I say? Who should I say it to? After you've diagnosed what's happening in a group, you have to decide whether to intervene; that is, whether to share what you're seeing and what you think it means for the group, and see if the group wants to change its behavior. You can't intervene every time you see something that may reduce the group's effectiveness; if you do, the group may not accomplish its work and may lock you out of the room.
When you decide to intervene, you need to decide what kind of intervention to make, exactly what to say, and to whom. To accomplish this, the Skilled Facilitator approach includes a six-step process called the mutual learning cycle (Chapters 7 and 9). The cycle is a structured and simple way for you to think about what's happening in the group and then to intervene effectively. It enables you to intervene on anything that is occurring in the group, including when group members' behavior is ineffective (Chapter 10), when group members are using some process ineffectively (Chapter 11), and when emotional issues arise (Chapter 12).
How Do I Develop an Agreement to Work with a Group?
How do I figure out who my client group is and what kind of help they need? What agreements do I need to make to increase the chance of success, and which group members need to be involved in the agreement? What do I do if group members tell me things they want me to keep confidential? Addressing these questions and many others will enable you to reach an agreement about whether and how you and the group will work together. This is the contracting process, and how well you manage it affects the course of your work with the group. Manage it well and you and the group have created the conditions for an effective working relationship; manage it poorly and unresolved issues will continue to plague your work with them.
The Skilled Facilitator approach provides a five-stage contracting process. It describes the purpose and tasks for each contracting stage, the type of information to obtain and share with the group, the decisions you and the group need to reach, and who needs to be involved at each stage.
What Do I Do When a Group Is Difficult to Deal With?
How do I work with group members who aren't participating, are openly hostile with each other, or are resisting me? How do I deal with a group leader who is trying to control the facilitation? What do I do when the group is really frustrating me? Being able to effectively address challenging situations—ones in which the stakes and emotions are high and members have very strong and different views—is a sign of a skilled facilitator, consultant, coach, or trainer. That includes situations in which the stakes are high for you, you think you understand the situation and the group doesn't, and you have strong emotions.
At the heart of the Skilled Facilitator approach is the fundamental and powerful principle that how you think is how you facilitate—or consult, coach, and train. Although the tools, techniques, and behaviors that you'll learn in this book are necessary and important, ultimately your effectiveness stems from your mindset, the values and assumptions that drive your behavior and ultimately create your results. Even if you have a set of effective tools, techniques, and behaviors, you'll get poor results for yourself and the groups you're helping if you apply them using an ineffective mindset.
Unfortunately, when we find ourselves in challenging situations, almost all of us use the same ineffective mindset—unilateral control (Chapter 3). The specifics may differ for each of us, but when we feel psychologically threatened or embarrassed, research shows that 98 percent of us operate from this. As the name suggests, the core values and assumptions of this approach are designed so we unilaterally control the situation to get the outcome we want. Ironically, the unilateral control mindset leads you to act in ways and get the very results you're trying hard to avoid: lower-quality decisions, mistrust, unproductive conflict, defensive reactions, lack of commitment, strained relationships, decreased motivation, and increased stress.
The Skilled Facilitator approach operates from a different mindset that research shows is more effective—the mutual learning mindset (Chapter 4). The mutual learning mindset comprises the core values of transparency, curiosity, informed choice, accountability, and compassion. When you operate from the mutual learning mindset, rather than assuming you understand and are right while others who disagree don't understand and are wrong, you assume that each of us is missing information and that differences are opportunities for learning. You recognize that you may be contributing to the very problems you're complaining about.
Throughout the book, I will help you recognize when you may be operating from a unilateral control mindset and show you how to shift to a mutual learning mindset. My clients consistently tell me this is the most powerful part of the Skilled Facilitator approach—and the most challenging as well. The more you're able to do this, the more you'll be able to help groups, even in the most challenging situations.
The Skilled Facilitator Approach
The Skilled Facilitator approach is one approach to facilitation. It's an approach I've been developing since 1980, when I began teaching facilitation to others. The Skilled Facilitator approach is based on a theory of group facilitation that is grounded in research on groups. Its elements have been borne out by more than 35 years of research.1 Here are the main characteristics of the approach.
It Answers the Questions: What Do I Do? How Do I Do It? Why Do I Do It That Way?
The approach accomplishes this by integrating theory and practice. Knowing what to do and how to do it—the specific behaviors, tools, and techniques—are necessary, but they're not sufficient. If you don't understand why you're doing what you're doing—the underlying principle—you won't be able to spontaneously redesign your behavior when you're faced with a new situation. By understanding the underlying theory and principles, you move from being a novice cook having to dutifully follow a recipe to a creative chef who can use the knowledge of ingredients and cooking chemistry to create any dish from the available ingredients.
A Systems Approach
Facilitators often tell me stories of how, despite their best efforts to help a group in a difficult situation, the situation gets worse. Often this happens because the facilitator isn't thinking and acting systemically.
For example, in your facilitative role, if you privately pull aside a team member whom you assume is dominating the group, in the short term it may seem to improve the group's discussion. But it may also have several unintended negative consequences. The pulled-aside member may feel that you're biased against him, thereby reducing your credibility with that member. If the group doesn't think the member is dominating the conversation, then you've unilaterally acted at odds with the group's needs, which undermines your relationship with the group. Even if you're reflecting the other group members' opinions, talking to the member individually shifts the group's accountability to you and inappropriately increases the group's dependence on you for sharing their views and solving their own problems.
When you think systemically, you see the group as a social system—a collection of parts interacting with each other to function as a whole. You understand that although every group is different, because all groups are systems, under the same system conditions they generate predictable system results, such as slow implementation time, deteriorating trust, or continued overdependence on the leader. You can predict what's likely to happen in a group based on how the group is structured and how members are interacting.
When you help a group, you enter into this system. Your challenge is to understand the group's functional and dysfunctional dynamics, and help it become more effective, without becoming influenced by the system to act ineffectively yourself. When you act systemically, you recognize that any action you take affects the group and you in multiple ways that have short-term and long-term consequences. Your interventions are more helpful to the group, and you avoid or reduce negative consequences for the group and you.
All the Parts Fit Together
Because the Skilled Facilitator approach is a systemic approach, it takes a comprehensive approach to helping groups—and all the parts fit together. Many facilitators develop their approaches by collecting tools and techniques from a variety of other approaches. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, but if the different tools and techniques are based on conflicting values or assumptions, they can undermine your effectiveness and the groups you're trying to help. For example, if you say that your client is the entire group, yet you automatically agree to individual requests by the group's leader, you may soon find yourself in the middle of a conflict between the group and its leader, rather than helping to facilitate the entire group.
The Skilled Facilitator approach starts with an internally consistent set of mutual learning core values and assumptions. Together they create the mindset upon which all the Skilled Facilitator tools, techniques, and behaviors are based. Consequently, when you use the approach, you're acting congruently. You won't be giving the group mixed messages or otherwise creating problems for the group.
It's the Same Approach for You and Group Members
One of the things that makes the Skilled Facilitator approach powerful is that, aside from the fact that your facilitative role differs from that of a group member, the approach is the same for you as it is for the groups you're helping. The Skilled Facilitator approach states that effective facilitators, consultants, coaches, trainers, and group members operate from the same mutual learning mindset and use the same set of behaviors.
There is no secret set of facilitator tools, techniques, or strategies. I wrote Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams so leaders and their teams could benefit from the same mutual learning mindset and skill set as facilitators, consultants, coaches, and trainers. If you want the groups you're working with to understand how to get better results by developing a mutual learning mindset and skill set, you can ask them to read Smart Leaders, Smarter Teams. Not only will it will help them become a more effective group, but also they'll better understand how you're using the same mutual learning approach to help them.
This means that there is a common mindset and skill set, no matter what your role. When you act effectively in your facilitative role, you're modeling effective behavior for leaders and groups. This makes the transfer of learning from you to the group quicker and easier. Consequently, you can use the mutual learning approach in three ways, as Figure 1.1 shows: (1) You can use the mutual learning mindset and skill set as the basis for your thinking and behavior; (2) the group can use the mutual learning mindset and skill set as the basis for their thinking and behavior; and (3) you can use the mutual learning mindset and skill set to diagnose and intervene to help the group get better results using mutual learning.
Figure 1.1 Using Mutual Learning Three Ways
You Can Use the Approach Almost Anywhere
Although this book is about helping work groups, many of my clients tell me that they use the mindset and behaviors of the Skilled Facilitator approach outside of work, with their families, friends, and community, and see positive results. You can use the approach in almost any situation—in any role—because it's based on principles of effective human interaction. For me, the principles underlying the Skilled Facilitator approach are simply the way I want to be in the world, as a facilitator, consultant, spouse, father, friend, or in any other role.
Experiencing the Skilled Facilitator Approach
My clients consistently tell me that the Skilled Facilitator concepts and tools are easy to understand. And then, after practicing a little, they often add, “But it's harder than it looks.” When you read the many verbatim examples I share in the book, you'll probably and reasonably think, That's not difficult. After all, the examples I share use everyday language that you've already mastered, even if you've never combined the words in the way that I have. It's not like you're watching me perform magic and wondering, How did he do that?
But it's harder than it looks for several reasons. First, you need to pay attention to many aspects of a group simultaneously. Second, you need to quickly make sense of what you're seeing. To do this efficiently and without feeling overwhelmed, you need instant access to your diagnostic models. Finally, you need to quickly decide what intervention to make with the group. All of this is cognitively challenging.
But here's the most challenging part: When you start to use the approach with real groups, you'll sometimes find it difficult to speak the words you have read in the book and maybe even committed to memory. It's not simply that you haven't learned the phrases; it's that you're dealing with challenging situations—ones that trigger your own unilateral control mindset. You may feel frustrated or annoyed with group members, anxious about conflict within the group, worried about whether you can help the group, or any mix of emotions.
Furthermore, because how you think is how you facilitate, when you're operating from a unilateral control mindset it trumps your ability to use mutual learning behaviors. In short, the most challenging part of facilitation is not the group—it's your mindset and how the group affects it.
I'm telling you this not because I'm trying to dissuade you from reading this book, but to let you know this is normal. All those who use the Skilled Facilitator approach find that their own mindset is the main challenge to their effectiveness—including me.
Now, here's the good news. If you regularly practice the approach and get rigorous feedback, you'll become more effective. You'll be able to operate from the mutual learning mindset more often. When you slip into unilateral control, you'll be able to realize it more quickly and move back to mutual learning more quickly. One of the joys of hearing from readers of The Skilled Facilitator and clients who I have taught is that they are much more effective than they used to be and their clients and colleagues tell them that. They also tell me that their effectiveness spills over to other roles in their life because they use the mutual learning approach in general.
Making the Skilled Facilitator Approach Your Own
Part of learning the Skilled Facilitator approach is integrating it with your own style—making it your own. Throughout the book, as you read examples of what I would say in various situations, sometimes you may think that the words are natural and make sense; other times, you may think, This sounds awkward; I can't imagine myself saying those words. You're likely to have the same experience as you begin to practice using this approach with groups. This awkward feeling is common, stemming partly from learning a new approach.
