APMG International Webinar

Why All Managers need to be able to Facilitate Workshops and Meetings Effectively

Wednesday 28 May 2014 / 12:00 AEST

Presenter: Dan Skelsey, Project Laneways

Agenda

Welcome & introduction

Mark Croxford – APMG International

Why All Managers need to be able to Facilitate Workshops and

Meetings effectively

Dan Skelsey

CMBok Author & Lead Trainer at Project Laneways

Q&A

Further information

Close

About APMG International

Global examination & accreditation institute Examination Institute (EI) for the AXELOS Global Best Practice

portfolio (ITIL, PRINCE2, MSP, etc) Extensive portfolio of professional management certification

schemes aimed at improving business processes, capability and results

Work with key industry partners (e.g. AXELOS, CMI, DSDM Consortium, IAITAM, IPMA, ISACA, itSMF) to promote best practice

300+ Accredited Training (ATOs) and Consulting (ACOs) organizations with 1500+ approved trainers and consultants

18,000 candidates per month Full details at www.APMG-International.com

Your presenter….Dan Skelsey CMBoK Author and Lead Trainer at Project Laneways

One of four authors on the recent Change Management Body of Knowledge

He wrote a number of chapters including the one on facilitation chapter

Currently writing a chapter on facilitation for forthcoming text book

Lead Trainer at Project Laneways for Facilitation™

The first to offer the Practitioner Certification in Australasia Change management™

The first to offer the Practitioner Certification in Australasia PRINCE2®

What we’ll cover today

• What is facilitation

• What is it good for

• Why group work matters

• Barriers to effective group work

• Consequences of ineffective group work

• Improving your facilitation skills

What is Facilitation? A facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them without taking a particular 

position in the discussion.

Where is the facilitator?

What is Facilitation?

Creating effective group work….

• Understanding the objectives• Planning the process• Managing the process• Changing the process if needed• Intervening if necessary• Independent facilitators

– Remain independent of content– Concentrate on process

What is facilitation good for?

• Setting goals

• Planning

• Risk management

• Problem solving

• Stakeholder engagement

• New ideas / products

• Regular team meetings

Who should use facilitation

Everybody! For example:-

• Project Managers

• Change Managers

• Line Managers

• Team Managers

• Consultants

• Business Analysts

• Voluntary committees

Are many heads better than one?

=

The Research

Psychologists

We found that groups of size three, four, and five outperformed the best individuals and attribute this performance to the ability of people to work together to generate and adopt correct responses, reject erroneous responses, and effectively process information

Patrick Laughlin, Erin Hatch, Jonathan Silver, and Lee Boh, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 90, No. 4

The Research

Banking

– Two laboratory experiments – Groups vs individuals– No significant difference in time to make decision– Group decisions are on average superior to individual

decisions– The results are strikingly similar across the two

experiments

Blinder, Alan S. and John Morgan. "Are Two Heads Better Than One? Monetary Policy By Committee," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 2005, v37(5,Oct), 789-811.

The Research

From the world of Management Science

Research shows that for top management teams, groups that debate issues and which are diverse make decisions that are more comprehensive and which even help the bottom line in terms of profitability and sales. 

Simons, T., Pelled, L.H., & Smith, K.A. (1999)

Why group work matters

• Better decisions

• Solves harder problems

• Creates ownership and engagement so…

• Easier to follow through and implement

• Makes the group feel recognised

Barriers to effective group work

• Fuzzy objectives• No process for gaining input into discussion

– e.g. Only some do the talking

• No process for reaching conclusions e.g.

– Endless talk going nowhere – Differences of opinion without a process for reaching agreement

• One person imposing their beliefs on others• Groupthink

– a unreal world – squashing dissent

Consequences of ineffective group work

• Wasted time (and money)

• Poor decision making

• Lack of ownership of decisions

• Increased cynicism

• Reduced engagement by those involved

Improving your facilitation skills.

One of the Lego bricks.....

Improving your facilitation skills?

The Foundation Course (over 3 days)

• What is facilitation

• How to assess objectives

• How to assess groups

• How to plan a workshop

• How to manage a workshop

• When and how to intervene

• How to review a workshop

• Over 25 tools and structures– When to use them

– How to use them

• Over 7 hours practical work and exercises

Improving your facilitation skills

Practitioner course (over 2 days)

• More tools

• More exercises

• Greater depth on subjects covered in Foundation

• Challenges in Virtual Meetings and what to do*

*Note this material was researched, developed and tested by Project Laneways

Q&A

Facilitation Foundation course – Melbourne CBD– Monday 18th – Wednesday 20th August 2014– Normal price

• $1,795+GST for new customers• $1,595+GST for existing customers

– 10% Off for people who watch this webinar i.e• 10% off for new customers• 10% off for existing customers

www.project-laneways.com.au

Quote promo code Facilitation Promo #3

Note: APMG rules cap the Facilitation course to just 12 participants.

Special Offer – 10% Off “Thank you making this course part of your course offerings.  I 

enjoyed it very much and will be able to use so much of what we covered across many 

aspects of my role – not just workshop facilitation." 

Anna from Melbourne