La facilitación es esencial para llevar a cabo reuniones sin problemas y lograr resultados significativos. Se necesita una plataforma multimedia para resolver problemas de gestión, como “Senigaku Souken”. Los beneficios de la facilitación incluyen acortar el tiempo de las reuniones, facilitar la organización del debate y poner en práctica los contenidos de la reunión. Se requieren habilidades de comunicación, pensamiento lógico y gestión de conflictos para ser un facilitador exitoso. Es importante establecer objetivos claros antes de la reunión para garantizar que sea constructiva. La preparación es clave para una facilitación efectiva.
Facilitation is an essential skill for conducting smooth meetings and leading to meaningful outcomes. Multimedia platform for management problem-solving “Seiigaku Souken”
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There is nothing more wasteful than a meeting that drags on without any conclusion. Recently, some people have been saying that the slowness of meetings is the reason for the decline in productivity in Japan.
So, what kind of efforts are needed to hold meaningful meetings? The first thing that comes to mind is facilitation.
In this article, we will explain tips for successful facilitation and the characteristics of people suitable to be facilitators.
What is facilitation? [Techniques for facilitating meetings]
Facilitation is a method for conducting a conference or meeting smoothly. A person who plays the role of a facilitator is called a facilitator.
What we actually do varies from creating an atmosphere where everyone can express their opinions to correcting the course when the point of discussion has veered off. Although it is easy to confuse with moderation, the two have different roles.
The role of the moderator is to ensure that the program proceeds according to the agenda, and the main functions are to manage the order and time. On the other hand, a facilitator is required to enliven the discussion and guide it towards a goal, in addition to the role of a moderator.
Three benefits of facilitation
There are three benefits of facilitation:
・Meeting time can be shortened
– Facilitates organizing discussions.
・It is easier to implement meeting contents
I will explain each one in detail.
Benefit (1): Meeting time can be shortened
One of the benefits of facilitation is that it reduces meeting time.
Basically, meetings do not produce anything. Meetings do not produce goods or services themselves, nor do they generate profits. That is why it is necessary to end meetings as quickly as possible to be able to use your time for more important things.
If you can use facilitation effectively, you can make the meeting proceed smoothly and have the potential to shorten the meeting time. If you can finish the meeting 10 minutes early, you can reduce the salaries by “the number of participants x 10 minutes”.
If you think about it that way, you will see that the benefit of being able to shorten meeting time is huge.
Benefit (2): Easier to organize discussions
Facilitation has the benefit of facilitating the organization of discussions.
Because meetings involve people from various positions, there are times when discussions tend to get complicated. In those times, the facilitator organizes the discussion and guides the meeting to its conclusion.
Furthermore, organizing the discussion through facilitation allows for constructive discussion, leading to the generation of better ideas.
Benefit (3): Easier to implement meeting contents
Facilitation has the benefit of facilitating the implementation of meeting content.
First of all, a business meeting is not a place of discussion. It should be a place for debate and consensus-building to decide what to do next. However, once the meeting starts, it can end up being only presentations or only discussion, with no concrete action being taken.
This will simply end up being a useless meeting.
This is where facilitation comes into play. If the facilitator can continue the discussion with “building consensus” and “next action” in mind beforehand, it will be easier to implement the meeting content.
5 tips for successful facilitation
Here are five tips for successful facilitation.
・Clarify the start and objective.
・Understand the participants correctly
・Create an environment where it is easy to speak
・Promote constructive debate
・Clarify the action
I will explain each one in detail.
Tip (1): Clarify the start and objective
First, in the preliminary preparation stage, clarify the start and objective of the meeting. Only by counting back from the goal can a meaningful meeting be had.
The trick when sharing is for participating members to know the following two points.
・Purpose of the meeting
・How many times has the meeting been held?
First, clarify the purpose and topic of the meeting. Additionally, it will be simpler if you explain what you will do to achieve your goals. Examples of purposes include sharing information and exchanging opinions.
Furthermore, in long-term projects, you can recognize the starting point by marking “how many meetings have you had?”
Let’s analyze the meeting process and share where we are now.
1. Share the purpose
2. Exchange opinions and generate ideas
3. Determine and agree on direction
4. Confirm and share decisions
In your first meeting, follow the process from step 1, but from the second meeting onwards, you can skip what you did last time.
For example, if you have already finished exchanging opinions and generating ideas, it is important for everyone to know in advance that next time will start with determining the direction.
Tip (2): Understand the participants correctly
To ensure that the meeting proceeds smoothly, make sure to understand the attributes and characteristics of the participating members beforehand. People within the same team often share information, but in meetings where people from different departments gather, there are differences in prior knowledge and ways of relating to the topic.
For example, when addressing complaints about a product, the development department and customer service have different methods of addressing it. Therefore, it is important to understand how much information the participants have and from what angle they are involved in the topic.
The trick is to investigate and interview the following elements in advance.
・Knowledge of the participants
・How to get involved in the topic
・Things and missions that interest you
・Positions and relationships of the participants
・Key people related to the topic.
Knowing the roles and areas of expertise of each person will make it easier to continue the discussion.
Tip (3): Create an environment where it is easy to speak
Many people do not express their opinions in meetings, and there are cases where the same members always do. However, if the conclusion is biased by the opinions of a few people, the meeting loses its meaning and can make participants lose motivation.
To finally reach a conclusion that many people agree on, it is necessary to create an environment where everyone can feel comfortable speaking.
For example, reasons why participants do not speak include feelings such as “my comments are not respected”, “I will not be liked if I express a different opinion”, and “I am shy because I am a newcomer.””
To get rid of that anxiety and get people to speak, it is effective to consider the following tips.
・Communicate that each individual’s voice is important
・Ask questions to people who do not speak much
・Respect the opinions expressed
・Start with topics that are easy to talk about
・Repeat the speaker’s words.
・Provide Aizuchi
It might be a good idea to establish a rule that says: “Do not reject opinions different from yours”, so that the entire team is aware of it. Additionally, by understanding key individuals and people in positions where it is difficult to speak, you can be more careful in distributing your time and asking questions.
Tip (4): Proceed with the discussion constructively
To make the meeting even better, try to have constructive discussions.
In many cases, the original purpose of a meeting should be to make constructive decisions. Now that email and chat tools are prevalent, there is no need to hold meetings just to share information.
It is important to have constructive discussions so that the best possible decisions can be made to improve the company’s future.
For this purpose, facilitators should take into account the following points.
・Maintain a neutral position
・Ask the main question while accepting opinions.
・Explain the main topic to someone else.
When holding a meeting, the discussion can slip or jump, so the facilitator has the role of correcting the course of the discussion to achieve a constructive discussion.
Tip (5): Clarify your actions
At the end of a meeting, make sure that each participant’s next action is clear. Clarify “who”, “when”, and “what”.
As mentioned earlier, nothing will result solely from meetings. Value is created only when the decisions made in the meeting are put into action.
For example, no matter how much we talk about new products, it is pointless to produce test products. On the other hand, producing even a single test product is a sufficient step forward.
At the end of a meeting, make sure to clarify your actions. It is especially important to decide “who” and “when”.
Three necessary skills for facilitation
There are three necessary skills for facilitation:
・Communication skills to facilitate conversation.
・Logical thinking ability to proceed with constructive discussions.
・Conflict management skills that promote consensus building.
I will explain each one in detail.
Skill (1): Communication skills to facilitate conversation
The skills necessary for facilitation are communication skills to facilitate conversation. Communication skills in this case mainly refer to the ability to listen.
Facilitation requires creating an atmosphere that brings out the opinions of all participants. At the same time, the facilitator also has the function of attentively listening to the participants’ opinions.
Skill (2): Logical thinking ability to proceed with constructive discussions
Facilitation also requires the ability to think logically to advance discussions constructively.
Facilitation requires the ability to accept a variety of opinions, organize them reliably, and correct the direction of the discussion. You also need the ability to find the essential factors of things.
To demonstrate these skills, a deep understanding of the topic and a high level of logical thinking ability to organize things are needed.
Skill (3): Conflict management skills that promote consensus building
Naturally, as the meeting progresses, conflicting opinions may arise. However, once the meeting is held, a conclusion must be reached.
At this point, facilitators need to have “conflict management skills” (skills to handle contradictory opinions) to resolve conflicting opinions and foster consensus building.
The most important aspect of conflict management is the allocation of responsibilities. If you can clarify who is in charge, that person will make the final decision, which will facilitate consensus building. On the other hand, no matter how good a facilitator is, if no one is in charge, it will be almost impossible to make appropriate decisions.
It is important to clarify who will be in charge before the meeting.
Summary
Now let’s summarize this article.
・Facilitation is a method for conducting a conference or meeting smoothly.
・Facilitation provides benefits such as shortening meeting time and facilitating the organization of discussions.
・For successful facilitation, it is important to establish meeting objectives in advance.
The presence of a facilitator is essential to quickly conclude a constructive meeting. And for a meeting to be constructive, it is necessary to have a clear goal beforehand.
In today’s society where email and chat are prevalent, there is no need to hold meetings just to share information. It would be better to hold a meeting to improve the long-term benefits of the company.
Facilitators need to prepare not only during the meeting but also beforehand. Why not refer to the tips presented in this article?
[The person who wrote this article]
This is the editorial department of Shikigaku Research Institute/Shikigaku Co., Ltd. “Bringing management to you.” We are currently producing articles that will help with management work based on the concept of “Seiigaku.” The Senigaku method, which has been introduced to more than 3,000 companies, is also available to the public.
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Citation: Knowledge Research Institute