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Group Decis Negot (2014) 23:10131045 DOI 10.1007/s10726-012-9332-4
Published online: 29 December 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012
Abstract There is an on-going recognition of the need for facilitation to support different group settings. However, the skills and expertise required to successfully facilitate a group of participants to achieve their goal is a challenging task to achieve. There are a number of barriers towards facilitation: A facilitator needs to operate at many different levels at the same time; understand the politics within the group; encourage interaction within the group; and guide participants through tasks and activities, while balancing the needs of the group and the client to reach real outcomes. One of the key competences of a facilitator is exibility, to adapt to varying circumstances. The complexity and dynamic nature of delivering an appropriate and effective facilitation service makes it therefore difcult to assess the facilitators performance in any facilitated session. In this paper we describe a framework in the form of an artefact developed to aid the facilitators in assessing their own performance in different meetings. Facilitation Service Assessment Framework (FSAF) allows facilitators to dene metrics and measures in the context of facilitators goals. The assessment framework consists of a structure and a process which facilitators use to apply the framework to facilitation scenarios. Finally, the paper describes how experts evaluated FSAF in alternative scenarios by running a survey and then by conducting interviews.
Keywords Facilitation Assessment framework Roles Competencies
A. Azadegan (B)
Shefeld Business School, Shefeld Hallam University, City Campus Howard Street, Shefeld S1 1WB, UKe-mail: [email protected]
G. Kolfschoten
Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5015, 2600 GA, Delft, The Netherlandse-mail: [email protected]
An Assessment Framework for Practicing Facilitator
Aida Azadegan Gwendolyn Kolfschoten
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1014 A. Azadegan, G. Kolfschoten
1 Introduction
Collaboration is challenging, and especially when group size and task complexity increase, teams and groups can benet from collaboration support. In order to achieve effective collaboration, such teams need not only a step-by-step process that directs the group effort towards the goal but also a facilitator to intervene and guide the group to follow the collaborative process.
Teams rely on professional facilitators to design and conduct high-value collaborative tasks. A task is said to be high-value if the...