Group facilitator roles and responsibilities

Handbook For Facilitators

Your function as a group facilitator and leader is to see to it that the most constructive decisions are made and the positive and creative actions are followed through on. One way to do these things is in how effectively you are able to conduct planning and follow-up meetings.

Following are some of the guidelines that help any leader make the best use of the time and talents of those people assigned to get any given project planned and completed.

There are basically ten aspects of successful leadership/facilitating:

Safety: An effective facilitator creates a "safe space." This means that no one attacks or belittles anyone else in the meeting. No rude remarks, no personal demeaning. Everyone's ideas get a fair and equal hearing. It is the facilitator's responsibility to set the example in the appropriate behaviors that create safe space.

Free interaction: This aspect of successful facilitating goes hand in hand with creating a safe space. Although a certain degree of orderliness in procedure is needed, strict control can hamper the flow of information and ideas. Finding that balance point between chaos and stultify is the responsibility of the facilitator. A practical suggestion for finding that place of balance would be to move through a group one after another, left to right -- however works best -- and encourage people to write down any ideas that come to them while someone else is talking. Then they have their response ready when it is their turn.

3.Appropriate Levels of Interdependence:

It is the facilitator's job to make sure everyone understands that as in the cliche, "There is no 'I' in team," and everyone and every department is represented in the meeting because there is a perception/knowledge that each specialty represented is needed to get whatever the job is done. It is also the facilitator's job to make sure that every single person understands that the job doesn't get properly done if he/she, individually, is slacking. Everyone must carry his/her section of the log.

4. Inclusion: Even with a plan to make sure every person gets their say -- see free interaction -- there are those in almost any group of more than four, who for many reasons don't speak up. If the facilitator does not make a deliberate effort to include these people, valuable information could be lost. People don't speak up because of personal self-worth issues -- my ideas aren't worth anything, childhood training -- yes, there are still families where children are seen and not heard -- and the subordinate puts the facilitator or others he/she sees as "more powerful" in the role of a parent, there might even be some kind of anger issues.

5. Cohesiveness: A facilitator can build a sense of cohesiveness by use of a dry erase board, a chalkboard or some other means of collecting the ideas of the group in one, highly visible place so that each person can see what he/she offered as part of the whole that is being developed out of the discussion.

6. Trust: Building and maintaining trust includes a lot of the same ideas and issues as creating a safe space. If the situation is one that requires confidentially, each person must be able to trust that what is said will not be spread. In many instances, the example of offering trust to others must be set by the facilitator. Trust is shown by delegation. Giving out jobs with an attitude of confidence that the person assigned will produce appropriately.

7. Influence: It is the nature of a leadership position of any kind to wield a certain amount of influence. There is a certain amount of automatic willingness to be persuaded tendered by those who are subordinate when an individual is placed in a position of leadership. Using that automatic willingness wisely, and with respect is exceedingly important. As with all these guidelines, there is an inter-relationship with safety and trust in the way influence is used. A leader who has a personal agenda he or she wants to impose on those around will soon find a great deal of resistance -- overt or covert -- and the job will not get done.