Facilitation is an area of expertise that JRK Consultants are especially skilled in. We regularly facilitate strategy and process sessions, for organisations and projects. Often the facilitation is linked with some team building activity.

Effective facilitation is the combination of many skills and is a way to enable people to get the most out of their meetings, conferences or training events. Facilitation can involve challenging norms and assumptions and providing processes for effective problem solving and decision making within the group.

Facilitation is also energising and creative, enabling all members to have a freedom of expression - with collective ownership of problems and solutions.

The facilitator creates a safe atmosphere that allows for commitment to the process, and often to change. A lot of the success of a facilitation comes from the preparation and the pre-meetings.

Criticism
I guess the main criticism is "why should we pay for someone to help us run our own meetings?". Well, the answer is easy. The professional facilitator frees up all members to be able to participate in the discussions. The leader of the team does not have to worry about the process - they can be involved with everyone else. After all aformal dinner runs much more smoothly with a Master of Ceremonies present.