Being a Facilitating Project Manager

If you have studied for the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam you will, more than likely,
remember Facilitation Techniques and Facilitated Workshops. Facilitation Techniques were used
in developing both the Project Charter and the Project Management Plan, while Facilitated Workshops
were recommended when collecting requirements and defining scope.
The Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) offers little in the way of
explanation of facilitation techniques. Instead it gives four examples Brainstorming, Conflict
Resolution, Problem Solving and Meeting Management. Facilitated workshops are better explained,
again offering examples, such as JAD (Joint Application Design), QFD (Quality Function Deployment)
and VOC (Voice of the Customer).

While this level of understanding is sufficient to pass the PMP exam, the burning question for novice
Project Managers in particular will be: what is my role in the facilitation process? In other words, what
must I contribute to make facilitation work?

The ultimate goal of any facilitation technique, including facilitated workshops is to bring key
stakeholders together and to agree a course of action. There might be technical issues to sort out
how can we achieve the necessary tensile strength while still meeting our weight target? We might
have marketing decisions to make what demographic group should we target? Or we must decide
what to do what features need to be included in this release?

Although the PMBOK Guide lists facilitation in the integration and scope knowledge areas, for the
Project Manager, this is very much a communications and stakeholder management task. Facilitation
is all about ensuring that people who have something to contribute (stakeholders) are given the
opportunity to make that contribution. The delicate job is getting to a conclusion, when several
competing options are on the table, without alienating any of the participants.

The important thing for any Project Manager to realize when chairing one of these facilitation sessions
is that s/he is not there to contribute to the meeting. Instead the Project Managers role is to set the
objectives clearly and to ensure that everyone contributes before ultimately arriving at a conclusion.
The secret to success is in planning. The Project Manager needs to decide what issue is to be
addressed. There should only be one. Of course this one can be a big one such as determining the
requirements for the project but the objectives of the session must be extremely clear because it is
up to the Project Manager to keep the meeting focused on the issue at hand. We have all attended
meeting where stakeholders draw the meeting off on tangents a single, clear objective helps to keep
concentration.

This objective needs to be stated precisely in the meetings agenda. The agenda also needs to outline
what the participants will be expected to contribute. They might need to do technical research and
bring along supporting evidence for their point of view. Having done the background work, the
participants should be better able to assess ideas they hear at the meeting, as well as to support their
own suggestions.

During the meeting, the Project Manager acts as the chair. In other words, the Project Manager should
stand back from the discussion and ensure that everyone participates. While this sounds easy to do,
in practice, the Project Manager will often have to restrain dominant characters and encourage shyer
attendees. There is a delicate balance needed to allow frank and open debate while all the time
directing the discussion to an agreed end-point.

The goal of any facilitated meeting is to come up with new knowledge. This is not a rubber stamp
exercise, where the Project Manager forces or cajoles the stakeholders into agreeing with a pre-
determined course of action. The meeting needs to generate ideas and the Project Manager, as
facilitator, needs to ensure that these ideas are discussed, analysed and dismissed when necessary.
Ideally, someone in the meeting will tentatively suggest a course of action and others around the table
will seize on it and elaborate it into a viable approach. It is this building on ideas that makes facilitated
workshops so useful creating new knowledge by pooling ideas.

For the Project Manager, the exercise involves restraining the urge to take charge, to lead the
discussion. Instead s/he must control the debate by observing the dynamic of the room. Long, rambling
anecdotes need to be cut short, but embarrassed, hesitant contributions need to be brought out into
the open. Far from being the leader, the Project Manager can prove more useful by taking a nave
outsiders perspective and asking stupid questions How would that work? How does that meet the
overall objective we are trying to meet? Another way the Project Manager can assist is by recording
the ideas on a whiteboard or flipchart. However, anyone with a suggestion should be free to take over
the marker and contribute. Many creative people think in pictures, so they can be more comfortable
explaining a sketch than trying to articulate an idea in words alone. The Project Managers feeble
attempts at a diagram can overcome shyness and get an unlikely contributor to stand up and lay out
an idea.

Of course, not every idea will be developed. This is another area where the Project Manager can assist
in the meeting by letting contributors down easily. Dominant stakeholders can destroy others
confidence by openly scoffing at their ideas. The Project Manager needs to confront this behaviour by
demanding of the critic what exactly is wrong with the idea. Often, stakeholders will condemn an idea
because they do not like the person with the idea, rather than the idea itself. If they can show good
reasons why the idea will not work, then the Project Manager can ask what their own solution is. As it
is always easier to destroy than to create, the harshest critics rarely are willing to propose ideas
themselves for fear of getting the same treatment they deal out.

Facilitation techniques involve getting people together to create new knowledge. As the facilitator, the
Project Manager needs to encourage all ideas, resolve conflicts between contributors and achieve the
goal of the exercise be it a set of requirements or a Project Charter. Suggestions need to be
encouraged, while criticism must remain objective. No idea is so ridiculous that it should not get a
hearing something that is totally crazy might trigger an ingenious idea from someone else around
the table. A successful facilitation session should have surprising results!

Project Facilitation Definition, Role and Skills

I can hardly image effective project management (PM) without good facilitation.
As my experience proves, project performance considerably depends on how the team is facilitated
to make decisions, solve problems and respond to risks and changes. PM facilitation provides a
teamwork improvement mechanism that constitutes attitudes, performance, abilities, cultural
patterns and results of the team.
In this article, Id like to focus you on the meaning of facilitation, what the facilitator role involves, and
what skills a candidate to this role should obtain.
Facilitation In Project Management
Some projects come up with a need for facilitation when there is lack of effective decision making
and problem solving. I give the following definition of facilitation:
Facilitation in project management means a process of intervention in the working environment to
increase productivity and efficiency of the team and to prevent project failure. This process aims to
ensure success in project delivery. It should result in forming a well trained and experienced team
committed to the implementation of the approved recommendations.

The process of PM facilitation uses the following main tools:

Training, incl. coaching, workshops, seminars, brainstorming
Analysis, incl. root cause analysis
Consulting, incl. presentations, demonstrations, recommendations
Overall guidance, incl. supervision reports
Facilitation in managing projects favors smooth development of teams. Its benefits to the project
environment are as follows:
Development of collaborative skills and abilities
Ensure reduced number and cost of outside consultants
A higher level of commitment to the team goals

Facilitator Role
The Role of Project Facilitator includes a series of duties and responsibilities to favor the
development of a team by providing training, analysis, consulting and guidance to team members. It
aims to ensure effective problem solving and decision making throughout the implementation life
cycle.

A person pretending to the project facilitator role should be agreed upon and acceptable to all team
members. He or she will assist the group in solving problems and making decisions but will have no
authority to make decisions.
Often the role of PM facilitation is carried out by the team leader who has to facilitate the
development of teamwork and the implementation of required philosophies within the collaborative
environment.
However, in larger teams where team leaders cannot perform the facilitation role there is obviously a
need to hire an independent person who could provide assistance to the leader and advise
regarding best practices of teamwork.
A candidate to the role should be able to:
Analyze and understand current issues and conflicts
Recommend right techniques/tools for team improvement
Provide training and support
Participate and manage team meetings
Ensure time keeping throughout the project
Ensure effective communications
Top 5 Skills
In order for a person assigned to the PM facilitation role to be effective in project management, he or
she should obtain a number of skills and abilities, such as the following:
Neutrality
Project facilitator cares that the team moves toward the desired goals, while maintaining neutrality to
the results obtained. In other words, the facilitator should be skilled in managing teamwork process
rather than result.
Planning
For some people facilitation might look easy, but in fact it is hard work that required good planning
skills. Project facilitator needs to plan things ahead in order to be prepared for teamwork sessions.
The planning skill means being able to understand the team and its issues and to develop a flexible
action plan which could help team members achieve their goals and objectives.
Energizer
As mentioned, facilitation involves a portion of neutrality but it does not mean project facilitator
should be inactive and comatose. Quite the reverse, that person should be energetic and bring
energy to the team.
Being energetic makes it easier for the facilitator to keep people focused and engaged. This ability
allows fostering good attitude and ensuring team commitment.
Communicator
Good facilitation in project management cant exist without effective communications. The ability of
being an effective communicator means that project facilitator contributes to reaching mutual
understanding between teammates, so that the team could create and share right meaning of same
information, without any distortion.
A group facilitator cares that each team member can smoothly communicate with the management
and colleagues and that there is no conflict in the team environment.
Positiveness
Being positive is a kind of art that requires a facilitator to pro-actively promote an idea, encourage
the team and address a problem. It involves a great effort and much energy.
An effective facilitator in project management makes team members want to accomplish the shared
goals and to deliver the project on time, under budget and as per specification. A positive tone and
active position should be the major habits of that person.