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8 Facilitative leadership skills to bring out the best ideas

  

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A business colleague of mine used to have a saying:  “In a perfect world, I get to make all the decisions. In the next-best world, SOMEBODY makes all the decisions.”

While I appreciate the desire for clarity in marching orders, my years of VoicePro® experience teaching leadership skills to organizations confirms it’s not a very effective approach. Good ideas can come from anyone. The ability to tap into the talents of a diverse group to surface those ideas – and build on them – is the hallmark of successful organizations.

That’s where the art of facilitative leadership of groups comes in. Do the job well and you’ll bring out the best. Handle things poorly and you could end up with a free-for-all and a disconnected hash of opinions.

Let’s start at the beginning.

A group’s facilitator is not the leader, the trainer or the control center. You’re not the conductor of an orchestra. Rather, this is a jazz group that’s improvising. You just make sure the beat goes on and everyone gets to play their parts. What does that mean? Your job – from your opening comments to the final wrap-up – is to be sure everyone knows what’s expected, keep the group open and cooperating, and work the planned agenda. In other words, you keep the group cohesive and focused so the objectives are met.

Here are some communication skills for facilitation.

• Begin with the end in mind. Begin the meeting recapping the purpose and goals of the session. That means you’ll need to do some homework to arrive with a clear framework for the process, including a timed agenda.
• Emphasize listening. Help your group understand that the group’s collective wisdom is stronger than any single person. Remind them that listening doesn’t necessarily imply agreement, it just keeps the door open to fresh ideas and points of view. There’s a great quote by Robert I. Sutton in a Harvard Business Review column titled 12 Things Good Bosses Believe:  “I aim to fight as if I am right, and listen as if I am wrong — and to teach my people to do the same thing.”  The last part of the quote is especially good advice in a group session.
• No wallflowers, no stars. Involve everyone. In fact, communicate the importance of  diversity and open communication as part of the opening of the meeting. Sometimes the most effective leadership is letting someone else lead.
• Help people come at issues from different angles. Whether you’re designing a new process or attacking a marketing challenge, try to help people step outside the well-worn paths to think differently. There’s a great book called The Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono that helps the exploration. A group systematically “wears” the different thinking hats – white for facts and figures, yellow for positive speculation, black for caution, and so forth. See for yourself how Dr. de Bono describes the process.
• Check the emotional barometer. Every participant comes to the session with expectations, perceptions, concerns and fears. There will be disagreements. Emotions can bubble over and derail good discussion if you don’t diffuse the situation.
• Clarify, summarize and test for consensus.  Helping keep everyone on the same page is crucial to making progress.
• Shut down the judgment police. There are often a few group members who’ll be quick to explain why an idea won’t work. The facilitator needs to make it clear that ideas need to be nurtured not dismissed. Then, as needed, gently remind participants. One of my favorite methods is to bring a few soft spongy toy balls that participants can pitch at a naysayer in good fun.
• Keep your eye on the clock. You have objectives to meet. Steer the conversation when it starts to get off track. A limited timeframe can actually help focus energy on progress.

Having skills as a facilitator can help you make a difference in your organization as well as increasing your value to them. Learn and practice these tips. And, if you’re interesting in building your capabilities, let’s talk about it.

Image By ripplemdk