Facilitation Tips & Tools

"The facilitator's job is to support everyone to do their best thinking. To do this, the facilitator encourages full participation, promotes mutual understanding and cultivates shared responsibility. By supporting everyone to do their best thinking, a facilitator enables group members to search for inclusive solutions and build sustainable agreements" - Kaner

The basic skills of a facilitator are about following good meeting practices: timekeeping, following an agreed-upon agenda, and keeping a clear record.

The higher-order skills involve watching the group and its individuals in light of group process and dynamics.

In addition, facilitators also need a variety of listening skills including ability to paraphrase; stack a conversation; draw people out; balance participation; and make space for more reticent group members.

It is critical to the facilitator's role to have the knowledge and skill to be able to intervene in a way that adds to the group's creativity rather than taking away from it.

• Sam Kaner with Lenny Lind, Catherine Toldi, Sarah Fisk and Duane Berger (Authors); Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, Jossey-Bass; ISBN 0-7879-8266-0 (2007)