Other Services   >   Facilitator Services

People come together and meet for a variety of reasons. The basic assumption underlying meetings is that two (or more) heads are better than one, and better decisions can be made if there is more input. However, to assure that better decisions are made, the meeting often needs to be facilitated. In fact, a well-facilitated team meeting generally is both more effective and more efficient.

Facilitation can involve many different levels of knowledge and skill, can include work on all kinds of problems and challenges, can assist the group in fulfilling its desire, or can include pushing participants to new levels of understanding. Most importantly, however, facilitation includes both an ability to recognize when effective meeting processes are needed and an ability to provide those processes.

Meetings occur for a number of reasons where participants are called upon to:

1. Make decisions
2. Share information
3. Plan work
4. Learn from one another
5. Create buy-in
6. Solve problems

The results of these actions may be seen in the design of a new product, improvements to a system, development of marketing, business, or strategic plans, or suggestions for improving work conditions. In some cases, the meeting may have more than one purpose or the purpose may shift over time. For example, after designing the plan, the meeting discussion may move on to creating buy-in for the plan.

The role of the facilitator is to help the participants learn how to work together by providing the structure (process) while they remain focused on the content. In any meeting, the facilitator must constantly balance process with content. Facilitators can serve many different roles including developmental intervention in meetings, running workshops, conducting experience-based training, and guiding team development.

For more information or to schedule a facilitation session, please contact us at info@icisys.com or 202.887.0510.

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