Imagine a situation where you are in a meeting. Everyone has an opinion on the issue at hand, but the discussion is not moving forward and no decisions are being made. This is a situation where facilitation can be used to make work more effective. Facilitation can make different meetings more efficient and cooperation more seamless. In this blog post, we will explore the topic and learn what facilitation means and how we can use it in our working lives.
What is facilitation?
Facilitation is the process where a facilitator helps the group to achieve its objectives. Facilitation can be used in meetings, training sessions and workshops. Facilitation is not just about sharing information, but about promoting interaction and participation. In practice, facilitation creates the conditions that enable a group to work constructively together. The facilitator guides the group, facilitating the group’s work. As a result, the group produces content, such as ideas and suggestions or a solution to a problem.
Facilitation is about fostering creativity in a psychologically safe environment. A good facilitator encourages participants to be brave and bring forward new ideas and views. In a psychologically safe environment, no one is afraid to share their thoughts. Facilitation helps the group to work together by helping the group to solve problems, make decisions and strengthen team spirit. The facilitator’s role is to guide the discussion so that everyone’s voice is heard and decisions are made together.
The many benefits of facilitation
Facilitation can be used in many different situations, such as staff development days, change coaching, workshops and meetings. For example, at staff development days, facilitation can help a team to develop new products or services using a variety of brainstorming methods. In change workshops, the facilitator can guide the team to discuss the implications of the new strategy and consider practical measures to implement it. The key is that the facilitator does not make decisions on behalf of the group, but guides the process. The group itself produces the necessary content, whether it is brainstorming, developing plans or solving problems.
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® -workshop
We have used facilitation in many different projects, such as customer experience development, brainstorming workshops and new concept creation. In one workshop, we used LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® to harness the skills of the whole team to develop new services and products. The method provided a concrete way for the team to express and visualise their ideas. Each participant built physical models out of LEGO bricks, reflecting, among other things, the team’s competences and the new services developed from them. This method helped the team to deepen the discussion, understand each other’s perspectives and find creative solutions to complex problems. Research has shown that processes in the context of doing lead to more fertile discussions than just talking. In addition, physical construction helps to open up new ways of thinking that might not be achieved through traditional discussion methods. Through the workshop, we developed new services and products that are now reflected in our offerings. We now offer facilitation and pedagogical coaching, and have made more effective use of service design methods in our projects. Our marketing has focused specifically on these areas, emphasising an inclusive and creative approach to developing customer-centred solutions.
Facilitation improves collaboration and decision-making
Facilitation is a powerful tool for improving group collaboration and decision-making. It enables teams to work in a goal-oriented, creative and inclusive way – whether it’s strategy work, innovation or organisational development. I hope this blog post has helped you to understand the basics of facilitation and its many uses. Remember, at the heart of facilitation is listening and being sensitive to the needs of the group. Feel free to try out the principles of facilitation in your own work and see how it can improve interaction and decision-making. If you need more tips on facilitation or want to book a facilitation workshop for your workplace, feel free to contact us – we’d be happy to help!