Facilitation Skills for Team Development

Facilitation skills are in demand. A good facilitator leads a team in ways that have significant consequences for the development of team members and the organisation. It is through facilitation that concepts such as empowerment, responsibility and the learning organisation become real. Top managers know that the key to success lies in the leaders who can help their own teams to deal with change. Facilitation skills are quickly becoming crucial in a constantly changing environment.

Facilitation Skills for Team Development is an accessible guide for those wanting to improve their skills. The book concentrates on sixteen specific and related skills, all of which make up the facilitation process. Also included is a helpful and practical seven-step process. Some of the other topics and skills covered are:

• What are facilitation skills?
• Development through facilitation
• The skills of facilitation
• Understanding the team
• Maintaining control
• Participation
• Clarifying and dealing with problems
• Agreeing action
• Process and content
• Reviewing and evaluation

1. What are Facilitation Skills?
   • Some examples
   • What does facilitation mean?
   • Is the climate right for facilitation?
   • The benefits of using facilitation skills
2. What is a Team?
   • What makes a group a team?
   • Some groups
   • Characteristics of a team
   • Exercise
3. Development Through Facilitation
   • Developing individuals
   • Developing the team
   • Execise
4. The Skills of Facilitation
   • Current skills — en execise
   • Facilitation skills: a summary
   • Skills required — an exercise
5. Listening Skills
   • Listening is a process
   • Listen
   • Hear
   • Understand
   • Accept
   • Respond
   • Exercise
6. Understanding the Team Members
   • Team members as individuals
   • Recognising traits, strengths and weaknesses
   • Execise
7. Being Clear About Objectives
   • Know your objectives
   • Organisational goals
   • Team objectives
   • Exercise
8. Setting the Contract
   • Why a contract?
   • The contract
   • Your contract-setting session
   • Preparation
   • Record the contract
   • Exercise in contract-setting
9. Maintaining Control
   • What kind of control?
   • How to keep control
10. Focusing on Development Opportunities
    • An example
    • Some ideas
    • Learning from specific examples
11. Identifying Issues
    • Who sets the agenda?
    • Exercise
    • The difference
    • Drawing out the issues in the team
12. Participitation
    • Clarifying your own role
    • What does participation mean?
    • Exercise
    • Practice
13. Clarifying and Dealing With Problems
    • Where do problems come from?
    • Clarifying problems with the team
    • Examples
    • Arriving at solutions
14. Summarising Skills
    • The importance of summarising
    • Hearing the summary
    • Exercise
    • Arriving at conclusions
    • More practice
15. Agreeing Action
    • The individual responsibility
    • Team accountability
    • Relevant, realistic and measurable?
    • Exercise
16. Encouraging Responsibility
    • Support and challenge
    • Responsibility and empowerment
    • Applying this to yourself
    • Exercise
17. Distinguishing Between Process and Content
    • The importance of making the distinction
    • Process
    • Execise
    • Content
    • Execise
18. Keeping an Overall Picture
    • Team development and the organisation
    • Organisation development and the team
    • The learning organisation
    • Exercise
19. Dealing With Problems in the Team
    • Types of problems
    • The effects of problems
    • Exercise
    • Dealing with problems
20. Reviewing and Evaluating
    • Why review?
    • When to review
    • What to review
    • How to review
21. A Seven-Step Process For team Facilitation
    • Introduction and preparation
    • Step 1. Presentation
    • Step2. Clarification
    • Step 3. Team summaries
    • Step 4. Summary from the presenter
    • Step 5. Action from the team
    • Step 6. Action from the presenter
    • Step 7. Process review and wider implications
22. An Exercise in the Seven-Step Method
    • Example
    • Practice
23. Conclusions
    • Summarising the key skills
    • Team development
    • Empowerment
    • Developing your skills

A How book. Worthless.