Gossip often gets a bad rap in professional environments, viewed as a source of negativity…
Fairness & Facilitation
Fairness & Facilitation
Whether you are running a team meeting or supporting a roomful of people to make a decision – you are facilitating. How you prepare for your meeting, manage distractions and organize idea generation all impact the outcome. Using these FAIR steps below will keep your meeting on track.
1. Framework
Establishing a facilitation framework is critically important. The framework is the procedural roadmap of your meeting – it guides the discussion and warrants all participants are on the same page. Ensure you set an easy, collaborative tone and touch on timing, your role, participants roles, the process, breaks, guidelines and confidentiality when required.
2. Agenda
If you have not received agreement from the group on the Agenda prior to meeting then this should be the next undertaking. Giving authority to the group to build the Agenda creates buy-in and ensures topics of concern are discussed. The Agenda should be stated in neutral terms. Eg. Roles & Responsibilities vs Jane’s concerns with who’s not working on the Project
3. Inquiry – Building understanding.
Often this stage is overlooked – little time is spent here as we are eager to move to finding solutions. For successful facilitations, solutions come at the end and the majority of the time should be focused on building understanding. This involves asking open questions, acknowledging emotions and paraphrasing or summarizing what was heard.
4. Reflect & Results
Take time to recap what took place during the meeting and what each participant noticed. Seek solutions together and set the stage for collaboration. Brain-storming and innovation occurs when people feel safe and non-defensive.
The Workplace Fairness Institute works to support organizations to facilitate FAIR conversations to build consensus.
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