Facilitation for SMEs

If you find yourself wasting valuable time in seemingly pointless meetings or find that the intelligent and experienced people you have brought together do not deliver the results you expected, then it is worth considering facilitation. Businesses depend on meetings to make decisions, solve problems and share information. Getting the right people in the room is only the beginning of being able to work together effectively.

 

Even a common goal is not enough to make such meetings work – more common is that everyone has a good meeting and yet no meaningful change follows outside of the meeting. This is especially a challenge for small businesses, where resources are already stretched and existing patterns of behaviour are hard to shift.

 

A skilful facilitator will cover both process and content, helping ensure that plans and actions to be taken outside of the meeting have sufficient buy-in and resources available and committed. If there are areas of resistance, problems to be dealt with or conflicts to be resolved, these will be uncovered and properly addressed. In this way, a facilitated meeting can save a great deal of time, money and stress and is a highly efficient way of directing outside expertise to achieving specific outcomes.

 

Facilitation can make an excellent contribution to any business for new projects, especially where a group not used to working together is being assembled and will need to meet to start the project and at regular intervals while it is underway. The facilitator will manage the process and content of the meetings, enabling all participants including the project leader to focus their full attention on the issues – especially important where participants have multiple priorities. This helps get the project off to a solid start and maintain momentum

 

The other area in which facilitation can deliver good results is when something isn’t working as well as it should and a fresh perspective is needed. An experienced facilitator will be able to help participants redefine and re-contextualise problems so as to enable new solutions to emerge – both challenging and satisfying in equal proportions.

 

All facilitators should have well-developed process and content skills. Process includes the methodologies and tools used to help participants interact productively while content skills focus on the topics under discussion. They will come across as open, fair, good listeners and enthusiastic – essentially, the kind of person that you would feel comfortable inviting to your meeting. 

 

It is important for the facilitator to create a relaxed environment for the meeting and to direct the energy productively. This can seem paradoxical, how can we work and relax at the same time? There are a range of techniques and activities that can help and these can be discussed with the facilitator in advance - some work better for some groups than others. The operating principle here is that our brains work more effectively when we are calm and able to direct all our energy to the task at hand as opposed to protecting other interests.

 

It is not generally a requirement for facilitators to have an in depth knowledge of the content to be covered in the meeting as their process expertise will enable them to draw out relevant knowledge from the participants. However, they should be able to demonstrate a good understanding of the business context.

 

It is usual for meetings in which there will be a lot of content, such idea generating meetings and brainstorming, to have a lead facilitator and a scribe. This ensures that nothing gets left out and that the facilitator is able to provide accurate notes or minutes to the meeting if required.

 

Facilitation extends beyond the activities at the meeting and should include agenda and goal setting; preparation and planning of participants; and follow up.

 

 

Facilitation costs from £300 per session for up to eight participants and includes a two hour meeting plus the necessary preparation and follow up, £500 if two facilitators are needed.

It costs nothing to ask! Facilitation is not a substitute for long term training needs or coaching to help specific individuals.

If you have an issue you think might like to explore through facilitation, contact Yolanda on 0208 765 1616 or yolanda(at)advizory.com

 

 

 

 

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