小组讨论引导与参与者守则

In general the goals for small groups include:

To provide opportunities for the participants to integrate the material through discussion of real life application of the material

To provide an opportunity for participants to be seen and heard

To create opportunities for the participants to connect and network with each other, to collaborate, and to share ideas

To achieve these goals facilitators should encourage equality in conversation. Here are some ideas:

Step forward, step back. Encourage participants to see that if they are a person who feels very comfortable sharing, to take note of how often they are sharing, and consider giving time for others to share as well. By all means, they should be present and active in the conversation, but make sure others have the time to do so too. If one tends to be a quiet participant, encourage them to take a chance and “step up” with their ideas, share their concerns and excitement with the group.

Concise is considerate.

Setting forth timing expectations. “We have ten minutes, and there are five of us, so let’s try to keep it to 90 seconds each so that we have time to hear from everybody”.

Be aware of personal bias in regards to race, education, age, ethnicity, gender, etc and work to ensure that we give equal time to everyone, as well as how these factors play in group dynamics

Facilitation Techniques:

Consider beginning your groups with a quick check-in. Check-ins allow people to get to know more about each other and bring people’s attention into the room, so everyone is mentally present for the conversation. This can be accomplished be asking people to write something into the chat, sharing the highlight of their day, describing their emotional state by using a metaphor of weather (I am feeling like a sunset, or a windy day, or it’s foggy), etc

Preview the meeting agenda, structure, expectations, timeframes, desired outcomes, etc

Encourage and balance participation

Provide closure

As a facilitator, be careful about adding your voice to the conversation. After someone shares, commenting on this sharing is often invalidating and disempowering for a particiapnt. We are not there to validate or expand on someone’s thoughts, but rather to facilitate a discussion

There are times I am facilitating a meeting where I also have content expertise. As a facilitator, I try to hold back and refrain from sharing my perspective. It isn’t my place to share my expertise or experience. That’s not what I am there. My job as facilitator is to ask questions to get different data, perspectives or answers. It is quite remarkable when others share and talk, someone often says what I really wanted to say.