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Effective Meeting Planning with a Facilitator
Today, because of technology advancements, many feel that actual meetings will lose their value, since most of the discussions, decisions, planning and strategizing are done on real time. Services such as telephonic conferencing, video conferencing, video chatting, and even plain intranet or internet chatting can be seen as eroding the importance of meetings. Despite technology becoming more complex and management solutions getting more complicated, the basic tools for effective planning, namely the conventional physical meeting, have remained steadfast and relevant.
Many meetings, apart from having participating members and a leader, can incorporate a facilitator. The role of a facilitator involves planning and holding an effective meeting that achieves the desired outcome.
Why a Facilitator?
Teams and groups of individuals come together to decide important issues in an organization. Often, personal emotions, ego, and other human psychological issues play a dominant role, sometimes affecting the outcome of meetings adversely. On such occasions, an external and totally neutral facilitator could help to provide the optimum environment for maximum results. An efficient facilitator not only conducts a meeting effectively, but also plans for and handles different situations with great care.
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Role of a facilitator
Many meetings prove to be futile efforts because their members fail to adhere to a positive and productive course of action, and resort to name calling, finger pointing, I-told-you-so's and other forms of petty squabbling. When employees view meetings as forums for addressing unresolved personal differences, they effectively compromise their integrity. These are becoming a problem to hold a meeting effectively and have a desired outcome. Tremendous work related pressure, extended working hours, the need for punctuality and others factors are taking their toll on the mental well-being of professionals. These issues crop up in places like a group meeting and affect it adversely.
A facilitator is a person who helps a group to reach its desired goals at a meeting. He is neutral. He does not act like the chairperson of the meeting. This makes him superior in the eyes of the participants. Since he is not the decision- maker, he will not be resented by the participants when a decision is rendered.
Making a meeting effective is the ultimate goal of a facilitator. He plans for different stages and situations beforehand. During a meeting, he just guides the group members, impartially and efficiently, to achieve the maximum benefit for the organization.
What are the typical Responsibilities of a Facilitator?
1. A facilitator focuses the group on the agenda of the meeting
2. He summarizes what each participant has said to remind others of their thoughts
3. He ensures that group members refrain from making personal remarks, using abusive language, and teasing, while keeping the meeting on track to fulfilling its agenda.
4. He suggests discussion methods which will evolve a solution from a problem. Helps steer the discussion clear of bottlenecking.
5. He guides each of the members to contribute substantially to the meeting
6. Prohibits entering into a situation where group members dwell on 'what happened before' and focus on problems rather than solutions and current issues.
7. Creates a post-meeting that hi-lights the major points and is distributed to the participants.
What is Effective Meeting Planning?
At the end, we can discuss how to actually plan a meeting and how we can make it effective. Agenda fixation and asking each participant to contribute substantially and positively are the most important 'Dos' of an effective meeting plan.
Time management and creating a congenial meeting environment are the demands of an effective meeting plan.
Decisions and suggestions to maximize the profit of the organization are the key factors of an effective meeting and its planning must be done professionally.
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