Effective Facilitation Guidelines:

1. Respect everyone’s contributions.
   Encourage all participants to express their opinions, ideas, and feelings so that they can be effectively processed towards unified alignment, committed membership, and creative solutions in order to accomplish meeting objectives.

2. Practice the qualities and behaviors of effective facilitators:
   
   1. create group rapport
   2. gain agreement on expectations
   3. provide instruction on effective feedback guidelines
   4. clearly state objectives and purpose of the event
   5. build trust and a safe environment for meaningful dialogues
   6. tie discussions to the larger mission and vision
   7. remain impartial of outcomes
   8. direct discussions to include all members
   9. allow for discussion while keeping on topic
   10. remain open-minded
   11. use empathic listening
   12. ask open-ended questions to enable contributions
   13. summarize main points
   14. stimulate creative thinking
   15. explore options and alternatives
   16. use effective brain storming techniques
   17. keep focus on others, not on facilitator
   18. bring closure to discussions
   19. create actionable next-step plans
       
3. Prepare participants for the normal pitfalls of group dynamics.
   
   1. fearing honest contributions about what they think or feel
   2. withholding candid feedback
   3. taking conversation off-topic
   4. soapboxing—using the event as a forum for personal agendas
   5. generalizing points without enough detail
   6. unprepared—lack of facts to support viewpoint(s)
   7. hiding (avoiding participation)
   8. over-contributing (not allowing others to participate)
   9. withdrawal/victim mentality
   10. critical of others’ ideas during brainstorming
   11. ranging behaviors from protective to boastful
   12. lack of patience for the process of discovery
   13. judgment of others
   14. wandering attention

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