Communication Objectives
Define the purpose of the meeting or activity.
Agenda
Planning a meeting or activity and communicating its purpose and schedule.
Ground Rules
Establishing an agreement regarding how participants will conduct themselves.
Structure
Providing a clear structure for the meeting or activity.
Meeting Management
Introduce the purpose of the meeting and keep it on track.
Ice Breakers
Ice breakers to introduce people or set a creative tone for an activity.
Brainstorming
Processes of unconstrained generation of ideas without criticism.
Consensus Building
Working towards agreement.
Analysis
Group analysis activities such as a SWOT analysis.
Problem Solving
Working towards a solution to a problem.
Decision Making
Working towards a decision.
Prioritization
Prioritizing a list of actions using techniques such as pareto analysis.
Negotiation
A facilitator can run a negotiation but doesn’t have any power over it as an arbitrator would.
Time Management
Sidelining distractions and things that are taking too long.
Stakeholder Salience
Making sure that vocal stakeholders don’t dominate the conversation unless they have the most authority and accountability.
Conflict Resolution
Resolving conflict and enforcing ground rules.
Cooperation
Trying to move things in a positive and cooperative direction.
Communication Quality
Stepping in to ask for clarifications when people communicate in an unclear way.
Action Items
Tracking actions and determining who is accountable and responsible.
Feedback
Collecting feedback from participants.
Meeting Minutes
Documenting and communicating the results of a meeting.
| Overview: Facilitation | ||
Function | Management strategy | |
Value | Strategy planningDecision makingChange managementProblem solvingTraining | |
Common Pitfalls | Unclear or insufficient meeting objectives. Lack of commitment or preparation on the part of key meeting attendees.Insufficient ground rules. | |
