Not Just Another Meeting: Creative Strategies for Facilitation

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SOLVING PROBLEMS AND SETTING PRIORITIES

This first group of designs addresses the most common team activities we find in the working environment—solving problems and figuring out what to do first, with our ever-shrinking time and personnel resources. Problem solving on an individual basis is relatively straightforward—you just have to make a decision (or a series of decisions) and then see it through. Simple. But group problem solving is an entirely different animal. Without facilitation, even a group that is highly skilled in problem-solving techniques will struggle to make decisions efficiently, because we are all human beings with our own agendas, egos, and ways of seeing the world. The facilitator’s role is crucial in both mediating individual ...