Facilitating Meetings and Work Groups


Overview/Description
Target Audience
Prerequisites
Expected Duration
Lesson Objectives
Course Number



Overview/Description
This situation is most likely familiar. You dread holding a meeting so much that you have butterflies in your stomach. People showing up whenever they get there. Trying to get everyone to agree or make a decision takes hours of discussion. No one is willing to take responsibility for action items. In this course, you will learn to avoid these and other pitfalls of work groups so you can approach your meetings without dread. You will start by identifying different types of groups: internal, external, on going, single-purpose and their characteristics. By knowing whom you are going to be facilitating and the inherent group characteristics, you will be able to prepare for the meeting, establishing clear expectations and a realistic agenda. You can also determine if you are a match for this assignment, or if it would be better to find someone else. You will learn techniques to start and end meetings for groups of various sizes and purpose. By learning why, when and how to intervene in meetings, you will establish ways to get groups to work through the problem-solving process so they can agree and make sustainable agreements and decisions. You will finish this course by learning how to end meetings and, with action items assigned, everyone knowing what the meeting accomplished and what they need to do next.

Target Audience
Managers, team leaders or anyone who will conduct/lead meetings or workgroups.

Prerequisites
The Role of the Facilitator; Facilitative Fundamentals: Techniques and Tools

Expected Duration (hours)
4.5

Lesson Objectives

Facilitating Meetings and Work Groups

  • recognize the value of preparing for work groups and meetings.
  • apply the principles of effective contracting to example scenarios.
  • sequence the process of creating an effective, mission-based agenda.
  • identify the principles of meeting room arrangement.
  • recognize the significance of effective meeting structure.
  • determine if the guidelines of effective facilitation to begin a meeting are followed, given a scenario.
  • use effective intervention techniques during a meeting in a given scenario.
  • follow the steps to end a meeting for a given scenario.
  • recognize the value of the problem-solving process as it applies to work groups and meetings.
  • differentiate the "either/or" mindset from the "both/and" mindset as it relates to effective problem-solving.
  • determine whether a facilitator effectively defined a problem and established criteria for evaluating solutions in a given scenario.
  • apply the steps to effectively solve problems, given a scenario.
  • recognize the importance of achieving sustainable agreements in work groups.
  • identify issues of facilitated group decision-making.
  • identify principles for setting decision-making rules.
  • identify methods to help participants see problems from a common perspective.
  • determine whether a facilitator used the techniques to cultivate inclusive solutions in a given scenario.
  • apply the steps for providing closure for a meeting in a given scenario.
  • Course Number:
    mgmt_08_a03_bs_enus