Facilitation is an underrated yet essential tool for anyone leading a team, department, or an entire organization. While technical expertise and strategic vision are crucial, leaders must also know how to bring out the best in their people. This is where facilitation comes in. It helps navigate diverse opinions, align different functions, and unlock creative solutions that drive the business forward.
Facilitating Means Empowering Your People
Effective facilitation is not about commanding the room; it’s about empowering the people in it to find the way forward. Think of it like being the conductor of an orchestra. You’re not playing the instruments, but you’re helping each member play their part in harmony with the rest.
In practice, this means creating the right environment for each person, team, or department to think, discuss, and decide. For example, when I facilitated a cross-functional initiative to align R&D, Marketing, and Product Development on a new product strategy, I focused on creating a shared understanding of our objectives. The goal wasn't just to talk about our individual challenges but to converge on a cohesive strategy that allowed all teams to understand their role. Facilitation was the bridge that connected these departments, leading to greater synergy and more impactful outcomes.
The Six Principles of Effective Facilitation
Facilitating well means focusing on both the process and the people involved. Here are six principles that can help you, as a leader, become a more effective facilitator:
1. Clarify the Objective: Facilitation helps create clarity around strategic goals. Imagine leading a workshop on next year’s R&D focus areas. It's critical to ensure that all stakeholders understand not only the overall goal (e.g., innovation in a key product line) but also the metrics that will determine success. This is like defining OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) for a department. Everyone should know what the overarching objective is and how their efforts contribute to measurable outcomes.
2. Engage All Participants: True facilitation means engaging every voice, from senior executives to frontline team leads. Different perspectives add value, but some voices can dominate. Techniques like 1-2-4-All, where people reflect individually before progressively discussing in larger groups, help ensure that even the more reserved participants contribute. In a strategic alignment session, this approach allowed engineers to share innovative product ideas that the leadership team hadn’t previously considered.
3. Drive Momentum: It’s easy for strategy discussions to lose steam. Time-boxing discussions or using Pomodoro intervals (e.g., 25-minute segments) keeps the energy high and prevents discussions from getting stuck on minor points. For instance, during a product roadmap review, time-boxing helped us avoid getting too deep into technical details, keeping the conversation at a strategic level while ensuring momentum toward decisions.
4. Foster Constructive Dialogue: Disagreements are part of any meaningful discussion. It’s the facilitator’s job to make space for constructive debate. Once, during a roadmap review, there was a split between the Business and R&D teams about prioritizing features. Rather than letting the disagreement escalate, I used a Troika Consulting approach. This allowed stakeholders to offer advice and present their perspectives without defensiveness, ultimately leading to a consensus that balanced short-term market needs with long-term R&D goals.
5. Establish Clear Outcomes: It’s easy to leave a strategic session without clear next steps. As a facilitator, it’s crucial to align on what decisions were made and what the next steps are. At the end of a quarterly planning meeting, for example, I ensure the group has defined the Objective (e.g., expanding AI capabilities within our product suite) and the Key Results (e.g., three AI features adopted by 5 customers within the next three months). This OKR alignment means everyone leaves knowing their role in driving that strategy forward.
6. Capture Key Insights: Documentation might not seem glamorous, but it’s what keeps great ideas from getting lost. After facilitating any workshop, I always ensure decisions and next steps are documented and distributed. This creates accountability and ensures everyone is aligned, even weeks after the meeting.
Practical Facilitation Tips
Start with Ice Breakers: The quickest way to get people engaged is by breaking down barriers. Icebreakers like "Two Truths and a Lie" or "One Word Whip" can help set the tone, foster comfort, and encourage everyone to participate. It might seem trivial, but everyone benefits from a moment of shared vulnerability. It humanizes the group and paves the way for honest dialogue.
Minimize the HiPPO Effect: The "Highest Paid Person’s Opinion" (HiPPO) can easily dominate discussions. Assigning the highest-paid participant a neutral role, such as note-taker, can help prevent their status from unduly influencing the conversation. In a cross-departmental planning meeting, using silent brainstorming helped ensure that even less experienced team members' ideas were considered before the discussion began.
Schedule Smart Breaks: Strategic discussions can be mentally taxing, particularly when they involve different departments with unique priorities. Scheduling short breaks every 40-60 minutes can keep participants refreshed and engaged. During one multi-department strategy session, a 10-minute informal break led to an impromptu conversation that sparked a breakthrough in aligning Marketing and R&D's approaches to product launch timing.
Validate After Breaks: After breaks, take time to validate what was discussed before. A quick recap ensures everyone’s still aligned and ready to continue. This is especially useful in lengthy strategic discussions where the focus can drift.
Enforce a No-Device Rule: In in-person meetings, a "no device" rule helps maintain focus. Specific times can be designated for checking messages, which prevents people from being distracted during critical discussions and maintains the group’s collective attention.
Use the Parking Lot for Unrelated Ideas: Brainstorming sessions often touch on wide-ranging issues. Using a "parking lot" to capture unrelated ideas allows participants to stay focused without losing potentially valuable insights. At the end of the session, the group can revisit these topics to determine the next steps.
Leverage Time-Boxing Techniques: Keeping high-level discussions timely is essential. Set specific durations for each topic and appoint a timekeeper. For example, using Pomodoro intervals during a product strategy session keeps discussions focused and ensures the meeting runs efficiently.
Adapt Facilitation Techniques to Communication Styles: Leadership teams consist of different personalities. Techniques like Silent Brainstorming or Troika Consulting ensure that introverted participants, who may not be comfortable speaking in large groups, have the opportunity to contribute their valuable insights.
Facilitate Engagement and Fair Contributions: Tools like Round Robin or Dot Voting help ensure that every participant has an equal opportunity to share their thoughts and influence the outcome. This is particularly useful in a decision-making setting where every department’s perspective matters.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid in Facilitation
Lack of a Clear Plan: Without a defined agenda or outcome, discussions can become unfocused. Always have a plan that includes specific objectives and expected results before gathering the group.
Creating the Agenda in Isolation: People often create agendas alone and hand them off to facilitators. Instead, co-create the agenda with key people (including the facilitator) to ensure all relevant perspectives are considered and the session is set up for success.
Assuming Understanding: Don’t assume that everyone knows the workshop's purpose or expected outcomes. Take time at the beginning to clearly communicate both the overall goal and the participants’ role in achieving it.
Failing to Follow Up: Even if decisions are made, failing to assign responsibilities and follow up can mean that no real progress is made. Assign clear owners and due (or next check-in) dates for each action item.
Not Summarizing Outcomes: Conclude meetings by summarizing the main outcomes and next steps. Leaving things vague can lead to misalignment and inaction. Ensure every participant knows what has been decided and what they need to do next.
Ignoring the Importance of Documentation: Documentation ensures alignment and accountability. Without it, key insights and decisions are easily forgotten, especially in fast-paced environments. Always document key takeaways and distribute them promptly.
Facilitation IS a Leadership Skill
Facilitating well is about serving people. Making sure everyone has what they need to contribute effectively. It’s a way to lead without commanding and support without dictating. When you facilitate, you give the team the space to collaborate, innovate, and align on solutions that they feel ownership over.
The next time you find yourself running a session, don’t think of it as just another meeting. Think of it as an opportunity to help your team shine. To enable them to come up with their best ideas, solve their hardest problems, and make real progress together. That's the power of facilitation.
Credits: This article wouldn’t have been possible without Staszek!