Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal
Issue 8, 2007
The Use and Documentation of Facilitation Techniques
Gwendolyn L. Kolfschoten, Marielle den Hengst, Gert-Jan de Vreede
ABSTRACT
Groups often rely on the expertise of facilitators to support them in their collaboration processes. The design and preparation of a collaboration process is an important facilitation task. Although there is a significant body of knowledge about the effects of facilitation, there is a dearth of knowledge about the ways in which facilitators design collaboration processes. Increased understanding in this area will contribute to the effective design and use of collaboration support and to the development of collaboration process design support. The research reported in this paper explores how facilitators could benefit from libraries of facilitation techniques and what is required to support facilitators in selecting and using new facilitation techniques, we sampled perspectives on the use of facilitation techniques from a large number of professional facilitators using a survey. We found how facilitators use and document facilitation techniques and offer suggestions for the documentation of facilitation techniques.
KEYWORDS
facilitation, facilitation techniques, collaboration process design, Collaboration Engineering, design and preparation, Group Support Systems.
Report on the 2006 Survey of Australian Facilitators
Jane Elix and Colma Keating
ABSTRACT
A survey was conducted of facilitators working in Australia and New Zealand in 2005-2006. The purpose was to gather information about the background, training, experience, practice and expected remuneration of the respondents. Key findings were that there were some differences between female and male facilitators particularly in relation to their desired daily pay rates and education levels. Women respondents valued themselves less highly than male facilitators. The results also showed that more respondents identified their skills to be in the training and planning areas, rather than the areas of conflict resolution or consensus building on difficult and contentious issues. This is the first survey of this type conducted in Australia, and it provides an interesting set of information for practicing facilitators, and a platform for future research in the area.
KEY WORDS
Facilitation, education, training, remuneration, gender, training, education
Examining the Effect of Marginal Members in Information Sharing Groups
David Dryden Henningsen and Mary Lynn Miller Henningsen
ABSTRACT
Not all members of decision-making groups necessarily contribute to the task. In the present study, we examine the effects of group size (four or eight person groups) and decision type (intellective or judgmental decisions) on the number of members who drop out of the decision-making task. These non-contributing group members may be viewed as marginal group members. Both group size and decision type influence the number of marginal members in groups. Furthermore, marginal group members negatively affect the proportion of shared and unshared information pooled by group members.
KEY WORDS
Functional Group Size, Group Decision-Making, Information Sharing, Marginal Group Members
Article
Functional Roles of Group Members
Kenneth D. Benne and Paul Sheats
INTRODUCTION
I am looking at a handout I preserved from a group facilitation workshop I attended some time ago. It lists the various “roles” or “behaviors” of group members, presenting them in three categories: those related to the accomplishment of the group’s task, those aimed at building and maintaining the group per se, and those aimed at satisfying individual needs that are irrelevant to the group. It is a handy checklist, but without much context or explanation. Many of the books on my shelf, some very recent, have similar lists, characterizing group-member behaviors as the initiator, the encourager, or the blocker. Many of them cite the original source for these insights, an article entitled, “Functional Roles of Group Members,” published in 1948 in the Journal of Social Issues by Kenneth Benne and Paul Sheats. Paul Sheats, who died in 1984, and Kenneth Benne, who died in 1992, were both professors of adult education, Sheats at the University of California and Benne at Boston University. They collaborated, with others, in the early development of the “T-Group” and were instrumental in founding the National Training Laboratory, now the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science. This article, reprinted with permission of the publisher, is one of their legacies. The article, which provides context for the often-used list of group-member roles, is best understood in yet the larger context of group effectiveness and democratic ideals. Kenneth Benne, with his coauthors in The Improvement of Practical Intelligence, expressed it this way: The ideal goal of democratic cooperation is a consensus in the group concerning what should be done—a consensus based on and sustained by the deliberation of the group in the planning, execution, and evaluation of the common action of the group. No other method … depends so crucially on the deliberation of the whole group … [nor] so centrally upon the responsible discipline of all of its members in conscious, habitual methods of deliberation, discussion, and decision (Raup, Axtelle, Benne, and Smith, 1950, p. 35). In that context, the following article is not simply about training leaders or training members, but highlights the functional roles that are needed in, or detract from, group effectiveness, creating consensus, and fulfilling democratic ideals. —Sandor Schuman, Editor
Book Review
Coaching in Depth: The Organizational Role Analysis Approach
John Newton, Susan Long, and Burkard Sievers, Editors.
Karnac Books, London, 2006. 230 pages. ISBN 1 85575 328 6
Reviewed by Kate Dempsey
Book Review
The Change Handbook: The Definitive Resource on Today’s Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems
by Peggy Holman, Tom Devane, Steven Cady and Associates
Berret-Koehler Publishers, Inc; 2007; 732 pages; ISBN 10: 1-57675-379-4
Reviewed by Lisa Locke
Book Review
The Art of Facilitation: The essentials for leading great meetings and creating group synergy.
By Dale Hunter (with Stephen Thorpe, Hamish Brown, and Anne Bailey)
Random House, Auckland, New Zealand, ISBN-978 1 86941 817 5
Reviewed by Glyn Thomas
