"Thanks so much for presenting your
program Facilitation Skills for Self-Assessment Auditing
to our group last week. It was truly one of the most outstanding
seminars that I have ever been part of...we particularly appreciated
your taking time up front to determine our needs and understand
our process. Your leadership and adaptability in discussing
our audit process, the OptionFinder system, and related CSA
processes was truly outstanding and very much appreciated...I
anticipate our working together again in the future."
O. Dale Jeanes
Director, Risk and Audit Practices
Branch Banking & Trust (BB&T)
"On behalf of our Internal Audit Department, I'd like to
thank you for the excellent job you did to train us on Facilitation
Skills for Auditors...prior to the session, many expressed
concern about spending three days in training and were skeptical
about the applicability to their job...afterwards, I heard nothing
but positive comments on the value of the material, your great
personality and teaching techniques."
Elaine C. Kruzynski
Training Coordinator
Aluminum Company of America
"I would like to thank
you for taking time to train our staff in facilitation skills
for Control Self-Assessment. We have found the training valuable
for not only CSA, but also for facilitating meetings in other
aspects of our work. The audit-related information compiled
through the exercises during the training has also been beneficial.
The exercises helped us to brainstorm ideas for overcoming what
we saw as barriers to the process. I have only heard positive
feedback from the staff who participated in the training."
Lori Oakes, Coordinator, Internal
Reviews
BlueCross BlueShield Association
"Thank you for the excellent
training on Negotiation Skills for Auditors. I attended
and enjoyed it very much. Your techniques and suggestions will
be very helpful in dealing with my audit clients, my colleagues,
and my staff. In addition, this was a very successful seminar
for our Sacramento Chapter. It helped that so many of our local
auditors were familiar with your outstanding work in this field."
Coez Bradshaw
The Institute of Internal Auditors, Sacramento Chapter
"We have had a very good
experience with using Joan Pastor of Joan Pastor & Associates.
Joan not only teaches techniques for facilitating meetings,
her classes actually teach quality tools. Her approach can help
your employees understand the way businesses have used team
problem identification and problem solving tools to address
their company's process improvement needs. I highly recommend
Joan's facilitation skills class."
Sally Dix
Director, Auditing & Security Services
AirTouch Communications
Sample Article
EFFECTIVE FACILITATION: Interpersonal Radar
by Joan Pastor
During facilitation training sessions, people
often ask me: "Do I have what it takes to be a good facilitator?"
This is an important question, and credible methods do exist
for formulating an answer. The best response, though, is probably
the simplest one. For just a moment, throw out all the models,
the facilitation techniques, and the psychological tests. Knowing
who you are, your strengths and weaknesses, and using them to
your advantage is the key behind being an effective facilitator.
Learning to facilitate can be anxiety provoking,
because it calls on so many internal and external faculties
that must be used simultaneously. Facilitating can be equated
to a juggling act; one must listen to ideas being offered, animate
quiet people, contain dominant participants, and think about
what question should be asked next - all at the same time!
Dr. Susan Jasin, a senior trainer, gives an
excellent, comprehensive definition of what it means to be an
effective facilitator: "A great facilitator weaves overriding
strategies with specific facilitation tools, while monitoring
the group process using interpersonal radar." Fortunately, Dr.
Jasin reminds us that "you don't have to do it perfectly to
do it well!" The idea in this last sentence usually provokes
a reaction. Most people argue: "If I'm going to the trouble
of standing in front of a group of people, I need to do it perfectly!"
In fact, this sentiment often echoes inside the heads of new
facilitators during the workshop process: "You idiot! Why did
you ask them that question?" and "Oh no! No one is talking!
What should I do?" That mean little voice can be quite effective
at letting us know when we are performing at a less than "perfect"
standard.
Perfection in facilitation isn't necessarily
the same thing as effective facilitation, however. As a result,
one of the first major factors in becoming an effective facilitator
may simply be to learn how to ignore that negative voice, the
voice that demands some vague standard of perfection in facilitation.
Effective facilitators develop techniques and strategies for
making that inner voice work for them instead of against them.
No standardized test consistently determines who will or will
not be an effective facilitator. The answer lies in how you
interact with people; your willingness to keep practicing, make
mistakes, and continue practicing; and your ability to trust
yourself, as well as the people you are facilitating. Taken
together, proficiency in these areas will create effective facilitators.
What psychological and other inventories can
help you with is achieving greater understanding of your personal
facilitation style - your own unique approach to working with
others, effectively infusing all of who you are into the facilitation.
For example, a popular, worldwide personality test is the Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator. This inventory can help you determine whether
you are an introvert or an extrovert. A person who is introverted
by nature is one who becomes energized through his or her own
ideas. The extroverted person, on the other hand, gains energy
from interaction with other people.
THE MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE
INDICATOR
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is
a popular personality type indicator. Although many tools are
available for assessing facilitation style, some organizations
have found the MBTI to be a valid tool for identifying personality
types in general. The MBTI tests individuals on four different
sets of preferences, which generates a four-letter personality
type. A series of questions are asked to delineate a personality
preference between: ¨ Extroversion vs. Introversion," ¨
Sensing vs. Intuition, ¨ "Thinking vs. Feeling, ¨ and "Judging
vs. Perceiving." With the exception of intuition - designated
by the letter "N" - each preference is represented by the first
letter in its name.
For example, an ESFP personality type would
indicate someone who is extroverted, sensing, feeling, and perceiving.
Based on this simple distinction, it appears at first glance
that the extroverted person would be the better facilitator.
After all, one of the "golden rules" of facilitation is to demonstrate
good interpersonal skills. An extroverted person would tend
to focus more on the group participants and listen more closely
to what they have to say, instead of retreating inside themselves
to their own thoughts. Although this theory may be true, it
has never been proven; there is no data to suggest that introverts
can't also be exceptional facilitators.
The Unlikely Facilitator
One of the best facilitators I ever observed
- someone who originally thought she could never be a good facilitator
- was a quiet, introverted young woman I will call "Carol."
When facilitating, Carol would position herself between the
flipchart easel and the group, a "cardinal sin" of facilitation.
She would ask the group a few intelligent, provocative questions
to get them started and then simply record the discussion on
the flipchart as the participants took off on her creative questions.
She would also sense when the discussion on a topic began to
wane. Politely, in a quiet voice, Carol would jump in and ask
the next question, once again eliciting a round of responses
from the group. She would then turn around to the flipchart,
writing with her back to the group, instead of maintaining eye
contact with the participants.
Once again, Carol broke another important
facilitation rule: always maintain good eye contact.
Interestingly, Carol's tactic had the effect
of forcing the group to talk to each other, which was needed
at this particular point in the meeting. As she wrote with her
back to them, Carol would continuously nod her head as they
made pertinent points, occasionally turning to the group to
interject a question or clarification. She did this just often
enough to let them know she was still present. It was the combination
of both turning her back, while still maintaining contact in
these other subtle ways, that made her facilitation so effective.
At the end of a ten-minute session, she turned
away from the flipchart and back to the group, showing them
what she had captured from their discussion. The group was astounded
at the amount of information she had collected in such a short
period of time. In addition, she had been so unobtrusive that
after a while they almost forgot she was present during their
discussion.
When the group is so involved in carrying out
the task that the facilitator exists almost solely to capture
their ideas, it represents facilitation at the highest level.
At these moments, the whole group experiences a synergy that
feels energizing, highly creative, and purposeful. To the facilitator,
it feels effortless.
Interpersonal Radar
What we are witnessing in scenarios like this
one is the ability of a person to take a potential liability
or "imperfection" for facilitating - Carol's introverted nature
- and turn it around for everyone's benefit. In other words,
Carol used her interpersonal radar to detect what would and
wouldn't work in the facilitation. Her innate talent for creative
thinking framed ideas and questions that kept the conversation
on track. She took advantage of her quiet, less social nature
basically to stay out of the group's way, maintain her neutrality,
and act as a conduit between the group's ideas and the flipchart.
There was yet a third obstacle that Carol used
to her advantage. Carol is very short in stature, and research
suggests that short people command less power and authority
in managing a group's dynamics than their taller counterparts.
Once again Carol broke the "rules," using her height to her
advantage. Because she was so short, she was able to pull the
flipchart very close to the group to hear them better in the
slightly noisy room. Later, when her proximity to the group
was brought to their attention, group members either did not
notice it or, if they did, they did not feel that it was obtrusive.
In fact, they felt a closer bond to her, because it seemed to
balance her otherwise more distant nature.
The Effective Facilitator
Instead of trying to present herself as something
she was not, Carol decided to use all of herself in the facilitation
to as much advantage as possible. She broke some rules, but
because she trusted that her group had the knowledge to provide
the needed information, she was able to latch onto the value
of their ideas instead of her own. This was not easy for her
to do; it took a concerted effort to focus outward. Because
she focused on the group's ideas, however, it became easier
and easier as time went on. By the end of the facilitation course,
she was beginning to develop an effective facilitation style
that was uniquely hers.
A week later, Carol's director called me to
express his surprise. He had sent Carol to the course because
he knew she was an excellent auditor, despite her reluctance
toward presenting information to groups. The director noted
that since her return, Carol had co-facilitated a portion of
a company-wide audit conference to rave reviews. I last heard
that she and other co-workers who attended the training were
taking turns facilitating the department staff meetings to keep
their skills fresh.
While it appears that this is an isolated example
and a unique event, the fact is that it could hold true for
any other facilitator. Carol was bitten by what I call the "facilitation
bug," and she definitely isn't the first. Many technical professionals
become quite dedicated and skilled at facilitation and begin
applying its principles to many areas of their lives. In my
opinion, these people are effective because they are committed
to developing and refining their facilitation skills. They practice,
practice, and practice. Effective facilitators are also supportive
co-facilitators, who do whatever they can to make their partners
look good and make their partner's job easier when they work
together.
Effective facilitators are risk-takers, willing
to stretch as they apply their facilitation skills and previous
experience to a variety of group situations. For example, a
number of organizations that have been running facilitation
workshops are beginning to facilitate all types of meetings
in their organizations, often at higher levels. Many facilitators
find that as they broaden their endeavors, they need to increase
their understanding of organizational culture and dynamics to
handle the more challenging situations they encounter. Facilitation
requires practitioners to use all dimensions of their personalities.
As the situations become more challenging, growth must occur
to meet new opportunities.
Anyone - introvert or extrovert - may have
what it takes to be an effective facilitator. It is more an
issue of personal interest, dedication, and willingness to meet
a substantial challenge. It doesn't always require extensive
technology, though knowledge of technological options is always
useful. It doesn't take an advanced degree. Effective facilitators
believe in the value of facilitating and, most importantly,
they have fun with it.
