Board and Staff Facilitations
To have a mission, you must first agree on the vision.
“After Wendy Luke facilitated our first board retreat, the board achieved a far greater cohesion and understanding of the key elements of our mission.”
Bob Baylis
Chairman, Executive Committee
Rubin Museum of Art
When working to define a vision, I serve as the facilitator making certain that the discussions are structured, that all participate, and that the focus remains on the purpose at hand. This includes the mitigation of challenging personal styles outlined below.
| PROBLEM | SOLUTION |
| Arguers | Ask the participants, “Who would like to respond to that?” |
| Clowns | Call on clowns for a serious answer. |
| Complainers | Ask them to become problem solvers. |
| Dig-inners | Ask them to develop another point of view. |
| Interrupters | "It's also important that Mary present her point of view.” |
| Latecomers | Assign them the first item on the agenda. |
| Monopolizers | Refer them to the ground rule to share air time. |
| Non-listeners | Ask them to restate what someone else has said. |
| Non-participators | Call on them directly for their suggestions. |
| Idea-zappers | Ask group how the rest of you see this. |
| Tangent-talkers | “That's very interesting, though we do have to move on.” Or. “Let’s save that for later.” |
For more information on my favorite tools and techniques, please visit: www.grove.com and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_learning
