Transfer of Facilitation Best Practices: From Experts to Novices

Today’s problems are becoming increasingly complex, and therefore rely on a multitude of individuals with diverse backgrounds and expertise in order to be effectively solved. When people work together to achieve a shared goal, such as coming together to solve a particular problem, they are by definition, collaborating. Collaboration creates value that cannot be derived by individual effort. Despite the obvious benefits of collaboration, there is one major downfall: the meeting. A necessary evil, the meeting poses several important threats to productivity. For example, these threats include: miscommunication, digressions, lack of focus, hidden agendas, fear of public speaking, and meeting dominance by one or more group members (White, 2007). Facilitators and technology such as group support systems (GSS) have been used as ways of getting around these issues, but unfortunately they are not always practical due to a lack of facilitation competence in organizations. The purpose of the project was to take a close look at the underpinnings of the collaborative effort and develop a set of tools and recommendations that will make facilitation more accessible in organizations