Describes and defines facilitative leadership, explains the Conditional Leadership Theory (style due to task, relationships AND favorability of conditions), discusses teams and experiential learning, and presents with practical exercise the six techniques to facilitative leadership: fundamentals, funneling, frontloading, freezing, focusing (solution vs. problem), and fortifying.

1. FACILITATIVE
Leadership
Simon Priest
simonpriest.com

2. Gone are the days when a leader was expected to be a team’s
superhero, to always have the
right answers and to manage
in a highly directive manner
Today’s leadership is
shared by a team &
is FACILITATIVE
Facilitative Leaders ask
great questions
?

3. FACILITATIVE Leadership is shared so that everyone on the
team contributes. The Facilitative Leader does not have to:
know the right answer, make any decisions, or solve all the
problems. The Facilitative Leader need only enable the team
to achieve these outcomes by sustaining their processes
LEADERSHIP:
a process of social influence
expressed through a “style”
FACILITATIVE:
to make easier; anything done before,
during or after a learning experience,
to enhance, accelerate, and/or ease the
process of learning leading to change

4. LEADERSHIP STYLE is defined by who (leader or
team) controls the decision making power:
AUTOCRATIC (leader holds power)
DEMOCRATIC (power is shared)
ABDICRATIC (power given to team)
Choice of style depends on a leader's concern for:
TASK (getting the job done)
RELATIONSHIPS (healthy team interactions)
CONDITIONAL FAVORABILITY (degree to which circumstances are good)
Conditional Favorability is composed of five factors:
GROUP UNITY (cohesion of members – storming / performing)
TEAM COMPETENCE (skill of members – novice / expert)
LEADER EXPERIENCE (database for judgment – rookie / veteran).
DECISION CONSEQUENCES (results of a wrong choice – minor / major)
ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS (potential for loss due to dangers – severe / mild)
These five factors can have individual and/or
combined values of low, medium, and high
As these values shift, the influence of Conditional
Favorability can bend leadership style expression
Style bends from its normal distribution in the middle
to its extremes patterns at either end of this graph
STYLE

5. Facilitative leadership can take place in
one or more TEAMS / functional groups
A team is a group of 2+ people who
shared a common task and maintain
healthy relationships in support of all
efforts toward accomplishing that task,
with or without a designated LEADER
A leader is the person responsible for
and/or to that same team; Therefore, the
leader is facilitating team PROCESSES in
order to generate better OUTCOMES: In
other words, attending to relationships
as well as the tasks completed by a team
A Facilitative Leader makes relationships
and tasks go more steadily and smoothly
than these would be without a leader
In this workshop, you will learn six
facilitation techniques that can be used
with the Experiential Learning Cycle
TEAMS

6. ACTION
CONTINUATION
REFLECTION
INTEGRATION
All learning is experience-
based in a type of ACTION
It becomes experiential
when three elements
are added…
REFLECTION: highlights
lessons learned,
identifies new and
clarifies old concepts
INTEGRATION:
transfers this learning
to daily life through
use of metaphors
CONTINUATION:
maintains and sustains
change in the face of
erosive forces
FACILITATIVE LEADERSHIP
enhances, accelerates, and eases this four element experiential learning cycle
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

7. I want to
CHANGE
the way
people…
FEEL THINK BEHAVE
RESIST
CHANGE
I will emphasize
this part of the
Experiential
Learning Cycle
Action &
Activities
Reflection &
Discussion
Integration &
Metaphors
Continuation
& Support
and use these
Facilitation
Techniques
Not
Needed
BASIC:
Fundamentals
& Funneling
INTERMEDIATE:
Frontloading &
Freezing
ADVANCED:
Focusing &
Fortifying

8. 6
Techniques
BASIC
Funneling
FundamentalsBASIC: after the
experience =
Fundamentals
(conversations)
& Funneling
(debriefing)
1
2
ADVANCED
Focusing
Fortifying
ADVANCED: any
time, all the time =
Focusing (problem
vs. solution) &
Fortifying (dealing
with resistance to
change - stepwise)
5 6
INTERMEDIATE
Frontloading
Freezing
INTERMEDIATE: before and during
the experience = Frontloading (pre-
briefing) & Freezing (time-out)
3
4

9. Refer to your textbooks as needed throughout the workshop

10. FISHBOWL PRACTICE ROLES
PARTICIPATING CLIENT
We will invite some of you to participate in exercises and to be
observed, listened to & questioned by others in facilitator roles
PRACTICE FACILITATOR
We will invite some of you to participate in exercises in the role
of facilitator, where you observe, listen to & question others
You may receive feedback from your peers & coaching from us
FEEDBACK (ACTIVE OBSERVER)
We will invite the rest of you to provide feedback to those who
take the risk of practice facilitating with these techniques
Feedback should be: about something that can be changed,
descriptive, specific, well-intended & non-judgmental
US (PRESENTERS)
We will instruct, coach, demonstrate and
model the six techniques (plus more)

11. FUNDAMENTALS
Know why you are doing this and what your clients’ need
Suit facilitation to fit the purpose and collective clients’ needs
Stay neutral in order to be mobile (know your own values)
Be ethical (competence, integrity, responsibility, respect, concern, recognition, objectivity)
Discuss processes (not outcomes)
Ask open-ended questions (avoid statements)
Gestalt WHAT? SO WHAT? NOW WHAT?
Form circles (warm, inviting, good hearing, eye contact, observe body language, etc.)
Single speakers (right to pass, confidentiality, positive, etc.)
DO (enough time, balance doing & talking, recency, proximity, distraction free, etc.)
Don’t (answer for clients, worry about right answers, compare to others, judge, false feedback,
assume you know best, focus on the negatives too early, etc.)
Everything takes place within groups and/or teams

12. Exercise 1
Participating Client (n=?): should be comfortable with
their fundamentals and volunteer to engage in this next
activity, once it has been explained to your satisfaction
Practice Facilitator: please observe and listen to clients,
as they participate in this activity, and write down
questions about what you see and hear during the action
Participating Client: please be prepared to sit in a circle
and answer some of the questions that are posed to you
Practice Facilitator: volunteer to sit in the “hot seat” and
ask your single best question, then observe and listen
Observer: observe and listen to the facilitator and to the
clients answering the question, then provide feedback

13. FUNNELING 1. REPLAY: can you recall the order of
events for that last experience? -OR-
can you review the elements needed for
__(name the learning outcome here)__?
2. REMEMBER: do you remember a
critical incident (or example) regarding
this element (or event)?
3. AFFECT/EFFECT: what was the
impact of that incident (or example) on
the task (or you, your group, etc.)?
4. SUMMATION: what did you learn
from this impact?
5. APPLICATION: how does this
learning relate to changes in your life
(or work, school, family, etc.)?
6. COMMITMENT: what will you do
differently to ensure this change in
your daily life (or next experience)?
Ask these 6 questions
in sequence after the
learning experience

14. Exercise 2
Participating Client (n=?): should be comfortable with
their funneling and volunteer to engage in this next
activity, once it has been explained to your satisfaction
Practice Facilitator: please observe and listen to the
clients, as they participate in this activity, then write
down a sequence of funnel questions to be asked later
Participating Client: please be prepared to sit in a circle
and answer some of the questions that are posed to you
Practice Facilitator: volunteer to sit in the “hot seat” and
ask your funnel sequence, then observe and listen
Observer: observe and listen to the facilitator and to the
clients answering the question, then provide feedback

15. FRONTLOADING
1.REVISITING: what did we say we were going to
do differently in this upcoming experience?
2.MOTIVATION: how might learning in this next
experience be useful in your life (work/school)?
3.OBJECTIVES: what learning do you think this
experience is designed to teach us?
4.FUNCTION: what positive actions will we need
to succeed and how can we do more of these?
5.DYSFUNCTION: what negative actions might
bring failure and how do we avoid these?
6.PREDICTION: what do you think is going to
happen next (or during this experience)?
Use sparingly, 10% of the time, with clients’ best interests
in mind and not as a power play to control the group

16. Exercise 3
Participating Client (n=?): NONE
Practice Facilitator: please write down
your own examples of the six
frontloading questions
Then take turns rolling the dice and
share your frontloading question that
corresponds to the resulting number
you rolled
Observer: watch the facilitator and
listen to the question, then provide
feedback

17. FREEZING When clients appear to be
“stuck in a rut” & unable
to extricate themselves
CALL A “TIME-OUT” TO
FREEZE THE ACTION
ASK A SINGLE
PROVOCATIVE
QUESTION and…
Then move on!
by continuing action

18. Exercise 4
Participating Client (n=?): Role play being stuck in a rut
while working on a particular problem; We can give you
one or you can go with a powerful example from memory
Practice Facilitator: Call a time-out and ask the single
question that gets this group back on track
Observer: listen to the exchange and provide feedback

19. FOCUSING
PROBLEM Focus
Centers on reducing problems
Looks at what clients are doing
wrong & incorrectly
Emphasizes what they don’t want
Highlights what must be done better
Seeks to eliminate weaknesses
Interested in WHY the problem occurs
(what causes & sustains it)
SOLUTION Focus
Centers on enhancing solutions
Looks at what clients are doing
right & correctly
Emphasizes what they do want
Highlights what is being done well
Seeks to accentuate strengths
Interested in WHEN the problem
doesn’t happen (what exceptions)

20. Exercise 5
Practice Facilitator: please review your written list of
questions so far and identify or mark these as either
Problem-Focused (P) or Solution-Focused (S) questions
Convert P to S using these guidelines:
• Not just putting a positive spin on negatives
• Consult clients as experts in their own lives
• Vary tense for past, present, and future
• Be curious and inquisitive
• Build on what works or find exceptions
When ready, share one conversion with everyone
Observer: listen to conversion and provide feedback

21. FORTIFYING
To deal with difficulties of client resistance
To change, use progressively (stepwise) and
sparingly (1% of the time) with clients’ best
interests in mind, not as control power play

22. Exercise 6
Form groups of 3-4 people who work with similar clientele
Designate 1 client, 1 facilitator and 1 or 2 observer(s)
Agree on resistance behavior that is familiar to the group
Participating Client (n=?): be reasonably resistant (role
play above behavior); be seriously realistic, not extreme
Practice Facilitator: reduce this resistance by employing
stepwise fortification techniques (begin with clarification,
progress through negotiation & end with confusion)
Observer: provide feedback on fortification performance

23. Facilitative
Leadership
SUMMARY
DEFINITIONS
EXPRESSED STYLE
ROLES WITHIN TEAMS
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
CHANGE: feeling, thinking, behaving, resisting
6 TECHNIQUES & EXERCISES:
1. Fundamentals
2. Funneling
3. Frontloading
4. Freezing
5. Focusing
6. Fortifying

24. QUESTIONS?