The Skilled Facilitator: A Comprehensive Resource for Consultants, Facilitators, Coaches, and Trainers

Help groups deliver results with an updated approach to facilitation and consulting The Skilled Facilitator: A Comprehensive Resource for Consultants, Facilitators, Trainers, and Coaches, Third Edition is a fundamental resource for consultants, facilitators, coaches, trainers, and anyone who helps groups realize their creative and problem-solving potential. This new edition includes updated content based on the latest research and revised models of group effectiveness and mutual learning. Roger M. Schwarz shows how to use the Skilled Facilitator approach to: boost improvement processes such as Six Sigma and Lean, create a psychologically safe learning environment for training, and help coaches work with teams and individuals in real-time. This edition features a new chapter that explains how to facilitate virtual teams using conferencing technology. Facilitation skills are essential in many kinds of work, and if you are looking to bring your skills up to date it is critical that you rely on trusted information like the knowledge offered in this go-to reference. Develop the facilitative mentality and skills that enable you to help groups get better results, even in the most challenging situations Help groups achieve greater performances, stronger working relationships, and higher levels of individual well-being Quickly develop productive and trusting work relationships with the groups you help Establish the functions of your facilitative role Implement a research-based, systematic approach to diagnose and intervene in groups and improve their performance and results The Skilled Facilitator is a practical resource for corporate, government, non-profit, and educational practitioners, as well as graduate students in group-focused programs. This edition contains up-to-date material, based on recent studies, to help facilitators move beyond arbitrary tactics to utilize cutting edge, research-based strategies that improve group processes, relationships, mindsets, and outcomes.

Table of Contents:
Preface to the Third Edition xvii What The Skilled Facilitator is About xvii Who This Book is For xix How the Book is Organized xix Features of the Book xxii What’s Different in the Third Edition xxiii Part One The Foundation 1 1 The Skilled Facilitator Approach 3 The Need for Group Facilitation 3 Most People Who Need to Facilitate Aren’t Facilitators 3 Is This Book for You? 4 The Skilled Facilitator Approach 8 Experiencing the Skilled Facilitator Approach 10 Making the Skilled Facilitator Approach Your Own 11 Summary 12 2 The Facilitator and Other Facilitative Roles 13 Choosing a Facilitative Role 13 Basic and Developmental Types of Roles 23 Serving in Multiple Facilitative Roles 25 When It’s Appropriate to Leave the Role of Facilitator 25 The Group is Your Client 28 What is Your Responsibility for the Group’s Results? 29 Summary 33 3 How You Think is How You Facilitate: How Unilateral Control Undermines Your Ability to Help Groups 35 How You Think: Your Mindset as an Operating System 36 Two Mindsets: Unilateral Control and Mutual Learning 37 How You Think is Not How You Think You Think 37 The CIO Team Survey Feedback Case 38 The Unilateral Control Approach 41 Values of the Unilateral Control Mindset 41 Assumptions of the Unilateral Control Mindset 45 Unilateral Control Behaviors 46 Results of Unilateral Control 50 Give-Up-Control Approach 55 How Unilateral Control Reinforces Itself 55 How Did We Learn Unilateral Control? 56 Moving from Unilateral Control to Mutual Learning 57 Summary 58 4 Facilitating with the Mutual Learning Approach 59 The Mutual Learning Approach 59 Values of the Mutual Learning Mindset 61 Assumptions of the Mutual Learning Mindset 75 Mutual Learning Behaviors 77 Results of Mutual Learning 80 The Reinforcing Cycles of Mutual Learning 84 Are There Times When Unilateral Control is the Better Approach? 85 Summary 86 5 Eight Behaviors for Mutual Learning 87 Using the Eight Behaviors 87 Behavior 1: State Views and Ask Genuine Questions 89 Behavior 2: Share All Relevant Information 94 Behavior 3: Use Specific Examples and Agree on What Important Words Mean 97 Behavior 4: Explain Reasoning and Intent 99 Behavior 5: Focus on Interests, Not Positions 101 Behavior 6: Test Assumptions and Inferences 103 Behavior 7: Jointly Design Next Steps 114 Behavior 8: Discuss Undiscussable Issues 117 Learning to Use the Behaviors 119 Summary 120 6 Designing and Developing Effective Groups 121 How a Team Effectiveness Model Helps You and the Teams and Groups You Work With 122 The Difference between Teams and Groups—and Why It Matters 122 How Interdependence Affects Your Work with Teams and Groups 127 The Team Effectiveness Model 128 What’s Your Mindset as You Design? 132 Team Structure, Process, and Context 133 Team Structure 134 Team Process 139 Team Context 143 Interorganizational Teams and Groups 150 Helping Design or Redesign a Team or Group 150 Summary 153 Part Two Diagnosing and Intervening with Groups 155 7 Diagnosing and Intervening with Groups 157 What You Need to Diagnose 158 What You Need to Intervene 160 The Mutual Learning Cycle 160 Summary 163 8 How to Diagnose Groups 165 Step 1: Observe Behavior 165 Step 2: Make Meaning 171 Step 3: Choose Whether, Why, and How to Intervene 178 Challenges in Diagnosing Behavior and How to Manage Them 186 Summary 192 9 How to Intervene with Groups 193 Key Elements of the Intervention Steps 193 Using the Mutual Learning Cycle to Intervene: An Example 196 Step 4: Test Observations 198 Step 5: Test Meaning 200 Step 6: Jointly Design Next Steps 203 How to Move through the Intervention Steps 205 Choosing Your Words Carefully 209 Summary 212 10 Diagnosing and Intervening on the Mutual Learning Behaviors 213 How Mutual Learning Behaviors Differ from Many Ground Rules 213 Contracting to Intervene on Mutual Learning Behaviors 214 Intervening on the Mutual Learning Behaviors 218 Behavior 1: State Views and Ask Genuine Questions 220 Behavior 2: Share All Relevant Information 220 Behavior 3: Use Specific Examples and Agree on What Important Words Mean 221 Behavior 4: Explain Reasoning and Intent 222 Behavior 5: Focus on Interests, Not Positions 223 Behavior 6: Test Assumptions and Inferences 225 Behavior 7: Jointly Design Next Steps 227 Behavior 8: Discuss Undiscussable Issues 230 Summary 231 11 Using Mutual Learning to Improve Other Processes and Techniques 233 Using Mutual Learning to Diagnose and Intervene on Other Processes 233 Diagnosing and Intervening When Groups are Using a Process Ineffectively 235 Diagnosing and Intervening on Processes That are Incongruent with Mutual Learning 237 Diagnosing and Intervening on Processes That Espouse Mutual Learning: Lean and Other Continuous Improvement Approaches 244 Summary 246 12 Diagnosing and Intervening on Emotions—The Group’s and Yours 249 The Challenge 249 How People Generate Emotions 250 How Groups Express Emotions 252 Managing Your Own Emotions 254 Deciding How to Intervene 256 Intervening on Emotions 259 Helping People Express Emotions Effectively 259 Helping People Reduce Defensive Thinking 259 Helping the Group Express Positive Emotions 265 When People Get Angry with You 267 Learning from Your Experiences 267 Summary 268 Part Three Agreeing to Work Together 269 13 Contracting: Deciding Whether and How to Work with a Group 271 Why Contract? 272 Five Stages of Contracting 272 Stage 1: Making Initial Contact with a Primary Client Group Member 274 Stage 2: Planning the Facilitation 283 Stage 3: Reaching Agreement with the Entire Group 293 Stage 4: Conducting the Facilitation 295 Stage 5: Completing and Evaluating the Facilitation 295 Summary 297 14 Working with a Partner 299 Deciding Whether to Partner 299 Dividing and Coordinating the Labor 306 Allocating Roles within Your Division of Labor 308 Developing Healthy Boundaries between You and Your Partner 310 Debriefing with Your Partner 314 Summary 314 15 Serving in a Facilitative Role in Your Own Organization 317 Advantages and Disadvantages of the Internal Facilitative Role 317 How Your Internal Facilitative Role is Shaped 320 Shaping Your Facilitative Role 321 Changing Your Facilitative Role from the Outside In 329 Summary 330 Part Four Working with Technology 333 16 Using Virtual Meetings 335 Choosing Which Type of Virtual Meeting Technology to Use—If Any 336 The Challenges That Virtual Meetings Create 339 Designing and Facilitating Virtual Meetings to Meet These Challenges 341 Summary 345 Notes 347 Acknowledgments 361 About the Author 363 About Roger Schwarz & Associates’ Work with Clients 365 The Skilled Facilitator Intensive Workshop 367 Index 369