Facilitation

Carter & Associates, Inc. understands the pressing priority to improve performance, quality, timelines, and efficiency of organizations and, at the same time, optimize the resources of the organization. This small, women-owned business is known for its ability to bring practical, results-oriented techniques and processes to its clients. Among its many products, the following examples of key services have been mainstays of its exceptional customer outcomes.

Facilitation
Facilitator responsibilities are to provide feedback and guidance during problem resolution and decision making. They assist the leader, and even train the leader when necessary. Their role is to maintain an open and supportive atmosphere, be a resource person for the team, maintain “focus” on activities as needed, ensure that clear goals and team ground rules are created, be an active listener/good communicator and move the group to effective decisions. The facilitator is a vital factor in helping groups work better together.

An effective facilitator is sensitive to both individual and team issues. He/she understands the stages of team development and supports the team appropriately as it matures. As a neutral third party, the facilitator is the one who has no vested interest in the outcome. Rather, the facilitator has a vested interest in providing ways to ensure effective team decision making process.

Once the issue to be discussed has been identified, the facilitator works with the team leader or steering team to develop a process to lead the decision making group toward possible solutions/goal achievement.

Some of the facilitation techniques used are structured brainstorming techniques, such as nominal group technique and affinity diagramming. Others include rational thinking tools such as criteria matrix diagramming.

One other, large search conferencing, is used when very large numbers of people are to be involved in the decision to be made or the direction to be taken.

Structured Brainstorming
During structured brainstorming, guidelines include recording all ideas on flip chart or on index cards, never criticizing or evaluating ideas, building on each other’s ideas and encouraging creativity. There are many structured brainstorming techniques. Some are described below.

Nominal Group Technique
This is a round-robin approach where each person gives an idea in order. If they don’t have one when their turn comes up they can “pass”. The session continues until everyone in the group says “pass”. A multi-voting technique or consensus building tools can be used to determine the final ideas to address.

Affinity Diagramming
With this technique, ideas, opinions, issues, etc., are solicited and organized into groupings based on the interrelationships among the items. It is largely a creative rather than a logical process. The goal of affinity diagramming is to sort through large volumes of information efficiently and identify new patterns or categories of information. Affinity diagrams are used when ideas need to be organized and when new solutions (breakthrough thinking) are needed.

Criteria Matrix Diagrams
This tool can be used when the organization is trying to prioritize new actions to be taken. It can organize large amounts of information, graphically show the logical connecting point between any two or more items, reveal related items in each set, and code each relationship to show its strength. A cumulative numerical “score” of each option against the decision criteria allows a comparison between any combination of the given items at one time. Groups then make a subjective decision based on the “quantitative” outcomes driven by the tool.

Large Search Conferencing
Also called “Future Search” or “Open Space” technology, this facilitation technique can be used in larger groups (50, 100, 200 people) when involvement in the outcome is crucial and enlisting the spirit of many employees is deemed important prior to determining direction.

An open forum is created that feels like a town hall meeting, but once the issues to discuss have been developed, small group interaction and their feedback is reported back to the large group. Several iterations may take place to narrow the field of options to take. This technique originated in community development initiatives and brings a sense of community to the people involved.

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