Facilitation Techniques

There are a wide variety of techniques that facilitators can use to ensure that meetings run smoothly and that people are effective in their collaboration. At the beginning of the meeting, the facilitator should review the meeting objective, agenda, ground rules, assumptions and roles of the participants. It is also useful to put up a definition for consensus so that people understand exactly what the term means.

We like the definition of consensus to be: It is not necessarily my most preferred choice, but it is one that I can live with and support when I leave today.

3 Part Test:

1) Can I live with it or am I going to go home and not sleep tonight because I am in such violent disagreement.
2) Can I support it and apply resources to it.
3) Can I not talk badly of the decisions made here today.

If the answer is no to any of these questions, the dissenting participant will be asked to communicate their reason for disagreement which should be put into a Parking Lot to be addressed later. Also, ask that participant to propose a solution to their concern rather than just documenting their disagreement.