Imagine you’re in a meeting that is going absolutely nowhere. Instead of working together to resolve an issue, there are two or three key contributors bantering back and forth while everyone else remains silent. Other members of the group are refraining from offering valuable input to avoid being bombarded with conflict. If you find yourself in this type of situation, it’s likely that you have a facilitator who hinders meeting performance.
A facilitator that helps meetings will achieve a remarkably different outcome than one who hinders. A facilitator that helps will create a trusting environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. They remain completely neutral and manage conflict as it arises. These types of facilitators often ask questions in the format of feeling-finding and tell-me-more. For example, “How do you feel about the effectiveness of our current strategy?” or “Can you elaborate more on that?” The environment that this kind of facilitator creates finds solutions to the problems at hand.
Still unsure of what kind of facilitator you have?
Here is a checklist of behaviors of facilitators that may help or hinder your meeting:
Behaviors that help:
- Listens actively
- Draws everyone into the discussion
- Asks relevant and probing questions
- Manages conflict
- Remains neutral
- Calm and pleasant attitude
- Warm body language
- Controls time and pace
Behaviors that hinder:
- Poor listening
- Allows people to dominate
- Strays off topic
- Ignores conflict
- Attacks/criticizes others
- Negative or sarcastic tone
- Oblivious to concerns of group members
- Not conscientious of time
For more information on how to properly facilitate meetings, please reach out to Genesis HR Solutions at AskUs@genesishrsolutions.com or 800-367-8367.
Genesis HR Solutions is the premier PEO provider for Massachusetts based businesses.
