Communication 3nineTOO

Expert Facilitator

 

The ‘Expert’ Facilitator

Mary E. Vielhaber

 

Case Overview

 Misunderstandings occur when an inexperienced external consultant facilitates a strategic planning session without carefully preparing for the session, or using facilitation techniques and strategies for overcoming employee resistance to change. This case is set in the finance department of an electrical utility company. Mitch Johnson, the vice-president of finance, hires Tom Davison, an external consultant, to facilitate his departmental strategic planning session. Marlene Lewis, the Director of Banking Relations, who reports directly to Mitch, agrees with this decision because she knows that employees will be resistant to changes the department must consider to remain competitive. During the strategic planning session, some employees react negatively to Tom’s facilitation techniques. As the session deteriorates, Marlene realizes Tom seems more interested in using a keypad technology to count votes than he is in listening to employees’ ideas and concerns.

 Learning Objective

 This case illustrates the misunderstandings that can occur in a strategic planning session when the facilitator is not adequately prepared, the leader is not appropriately involved, and some participants become frustrated with their lack of input into the process.          

 

Keywords and Definitions

 Deregulation—the transition from an industry regulated by government to one subject, into competitive market forces. Major segments of the electricity industry are being restructured. Electrical utility companies will no longer be regulated monopolies that provide electricity to customers within a specific region. Under deregulation, customers will choose the suppliers of their electricity.

 Wireless keypads—hand-held, wireless electronic remotes given to every participant in a meeting. Participants respond to questions or statements by pressing a number on the keypad. Computer software takes the responses and instantly produces a graph of the results that is then projected before the group with a projection system.

 Key Case Concepts

 Strategic planning—an organizational planning process that is based on an analysis of the internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external threats and opportunities to determine an organization’s mission, vision, and strategic goals. Strategic planning culminates in a plan that outlines the actions the organization must take to reach its strategic goals.

 Facilitation—the process of helping a group to discuss issues and make decisions through a number of techniques including agenda setting, agreement on ground rules, monitoring group process, and consensus building.

 Group consensus—an agreement among group members to support a specific decision. Consensus is achieved by encouraging group members to openly communicate their ideas, express their disagreements with others’ ideas, and seek shared understandings. Voting, or pressuring people to give in, or dictating a decision does not achieve consensus.

Theoretical Briefing

 

       Facilitators can play a valuable role in helping groups to discuss issues or problems, consider multiple alternatives or solutions, and make decisions. Facilitators can be either internal or external to the group. Internal facilitators know the group’s members and norms, but may be biased by their experiences with the group. Managers can serve as facilitators by using facilitation techniques in order to encourage involvement and participation of group members. Typically, external facilitators are largely neutral because they are not an ongoing part of the group. To be effective, external facilitators must be acceptable to all of the members of the group. An external facilitator who does not have the trust and cooperation of the group will not be able to elicit open participation or honest perspectives.

       Before a manager engages an external facilitator to work with a group, the manager must determine the goal of the facilitation, as well as the expected behaviors to achieve that goal. For example, if a manager wants the facilitator to help the group with problem solving, the facilitator might be expected to use a problem-solving model to move the group through problem identification and solution generation, to decisions and action planning. Likewise, if a manager wants the facilitator to help the group reach a consensus, the facilitator might be expected to help the group discuss issues, brainstorm and prioritize ideas.

       Facilitators perform a number of initial tasks from participating in preparing the agenda, setting up the physical environment so as to encourage open communication, and helping the group determine the ground rules that will govern the discussion and decision making. Facilitators also need to clarify the role they will play in the facilitation. That role includes asking questions, recording group ideas and decisions, summarizing the group’s progress, and intervening when the group gets off track or conflicts emerge. The external facilitator maintains neutrality when conflicts erupt in the group. At the same time, the facilitator uses conflict resolution techniques to resolve disagreements. The facilitator should clearly communicate to the group the role that he or she will play.

       Group leaders who use external facilitators must be actively involved in the group’s discussion. When facilitation appears to be faltering because ground rules are being violated or the facilitator is becoming too controlling or inappropriately involved in the content of the discussion, the leader should intervene. By raising concerns when the facilitator is inhibiting group participation or violating ground rules, the leader keeps the focus on both the content of the facilitation and the group’s process of problem solving or reaching consensus.

       Helping a group reach consensus requires effective facilitation. Consensus is defined as, “a point of maximum agreement so action can follow.” (Rees, 2001, p.139). Consensus is achieved by encouraging group members to openly communicate their ideas, express their disagreements with others’ ideas, and seek shared understandings. Voting, pressuring people to give in or dictating a decision does not lead to consensus. Consensus occurs when “You may not think it’s the very best solution, but you can accept it without feeling that you are losing anything important.” ( Doyle & Strauss, 1976, p.56).

            Building consensus is particularly important when groups are making decisions about their future. Strategic plans works best when group members are committed to the mission, vision, goals, strategies, and action plans. Commitment requires understanding. When group members are given the opportunity to discuss and debate their ideas, to listen to the reasoning of others, and to have an influence on the decision, they are more likely to participate in building a consensus, and committing themselves to implementing the actions that lead the group to future success.

 

 

 

 

  Discussion Questions

1.    Who should intervene to try to get this strategic planning session back on track? If you were Marlene Lewis, what would you do?

 2.  What causes resistance to change in organizations? What can managers do to build commitment to change?

 3.   Assume you have been asked to conduct a post-meeting evaluation of this strategic planning session. What went well? What went wrong? What does the group need to do differently?

 4.  How you would plan to facilitate a similar meeting?

 5.  What is consensus? How is consensus achieved?

 6.  What facilitation techniques would you use if participants object to the process you are using to reach consensus?

 



 


 

      
 

References and Resources

 Anson, R., Bostrom, R. & Wynne, B. (1995). An experiment assessing group support systems and facilitator effects on meeting outcomes. Management Science, 9, 75–95.

Chilberg, J. (1989). A review of group process designs for facilitating communication in problem-solving groups. Management Communication Quarterly, 3, 51–71.

Fisher, R., Ury, W. & Patton, B. (1991). Getting to yes. (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Penguin Books.

Hayne, S. (1999). The facilitators perspectives on meetings and implications for group support systems. Database for Advances in Information Systems, 30, 72–91.

McClemon, T. and Swanson, R. (1995). Team building: An experimental investigation of the effects of computer-based and facilitator-based interventions on work groups. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 6, (1) pp. 39–58.

Miranda, S. M. & Bostrom R. P., (1999). Meeting facilitation: Process versus content intervention. Journal of Management Information Systems, 15, (4) 89–114.

Sawyer, J. E., Ferry, D. and Kydd, C. (2001). Learning about and from group support systems. Journal of Management Education, 25, (3) 352–371.

Schwarz. R. M. (1994). The skilled facilitator. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Thiagarajan, S. (2000). Freelance facilitators. Simulation & Gaming 31, (3) 417–421.

 Burns, G. (1995, November). The secrets of team facilitation. Training and Development, 49) 46–52.

Clark, J. & R. Koonce. (1995, November). Meetings go high-tech. Training and Development, 49, 32–28.

Doyle, M. & Straus, D. (1976). How to make meetings work. New York, NY: The Berkeley Publishing Group.

Hunter, D., Bailey, A., Taylor, B. (1995). The art of facilitation: How to create group synergy. Tucson, AZ: Fisher Books.

Kaeter, M. (1995). Facilitators more than meeting leaders. Training, 32, (7) 60–64.

Rees, F. (2001). How to lead work teams: Facilitation skills. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass/Pfeffer.

Tropman, J. E. (1996). Making meetings work. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Weaver, R. G. & Farrell, J. D. (1997). Managers as facilitators. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

 Web Resources

 Strategic Planning: <http://www.allianceonline.org/faqs/sp_main.html>

 Facilitator.com: <http://www.thefacilitator.com/>

 Electric Power Industry Restructuring and Deregulation:

<http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/page/restructure.html>