Valley PR Blog

The 8 mistakes of facilitating

By Linda VandeVrede on July 27th, 2009 In Best Practices

As a public relations professional, you may be called upon some day to conduct a PR audit for a client, or hire an outside facilitator for your team.  Facilitating a group is a tricky art.   Kind of like herding cats, sometimes. 

I participated in a board of directors facilitation recently, and our group leader, Beth Terry, was a natural at it.   She was neutral, extremely well prepared, and able to analyze incoming data in real-time.   You can find out more about her at www.bethterry.com. 

Here are 8 common mistakes people make that can botch up facilitation, according to Beth:

1. Not having a clear time agenda. Not assigning a timekeeper.
2. Doing all the talking, or intervening too soon with answers while the group is wrestling with an issue.
3. Not setting the stage by introducing all the players, getting agreement from the group on the agenda purpose and desired end result of the meeting.
4. Not managing the room - there’ll always be people who want to take over. The facilitator has to make sure that everyone participates.
5. Not creating action plans out of the discussion.
6. Allowing the conversation to drop into a complaint session without taking it to the solution step.
7. Neglecting to assign minutes keepers, neglecting to distribute minutes afterwards.
8. Not following up with the “after action” plans.

The most important point to remember, she stresses, is ensure you are constantly focused on solutions. If all you do is identify the frustrations and problems without finding some action items and solution items, you’ll have a very frustrated group at the end. 

That reminded me of the very first facilitation I sat in on.  I was part of a large marketing communications group that wasn’t getting along (sound familiar?), and the company I worked for brought in an outside facilitator. Unfortunately, he was a little too reticent and didn’t lead us to concrete solutions.   As a result, the group remained dysfunctional!  We spent all day in a veritable “bitching session” that left us only with resentful feelings, not answers.

Facilitating groups toward a solution isn’t Beth’s only talent.   She is a CSP, Certified Speaking Professional and author here in Phoenix.   “I focus on creating resilient teams, helping people get out of ‘overwhelm,’ manage change and stress, and learn to deal with difficult people. I also coach people on becoming better speakers and better speech writers.”

This September will be the 20th anniversary of her company.   You can find her blogging, too, at www.cactuswrangler.com.

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