Facilitation is a key skill for a Scrum Master. Great Facilitators help achieve consensus in decision-making. They see that everyone in the meeting gives their best thinking and contributes to the decision-making. As a Facilitator, you may need to facilitate between the Product Owner and Developers, Product Owner and Stakeholders, within the Developers for various occasions such as release planning, Sprint planning, Sprint retrospective, or any other. However, every meeting is not the same, as there may be different individuals, different understanding levels, different grasping levels and so many other differences in the people involved in the meeting. It is the responsibility of the Facilitator to identify and address the dysfunctions. This article helps to understand various dysfunctions/challenges for the facilitation and learn how to address them as a facilitator.
| Challenge/Dysfunction | Description | Solution |
| Group thinking over individual | Participants in the meeting keep the group ahead of their own thoughts or suggestions to preserve unity. | Dedicate time for individual thought/brainstorming around views/ideas for a specific question/topic. You can use quiet writing and silent thinking options with a timeboxed duration to encourage individual idea/suggestion generation. |
| Words over meaning | The participants focus on discussing the words in a document (such as mission/vision) instead of understanding and come to a consensus on the meaning of the individual words. | Check if there is a problem in clarity of terms that requires further definition/clarification in order to move on with decision-making.
If the group is clear with the meaning, admit the final words need to be worked out. If the group needs additional clarity on meaning, set a time limit to the discussion. Ask which of the words need a clear definition for all the participants and provide the same to move on with the further decision making.. |
| Jumping over stability | Moving off the topic, i.e., participants bring up unrelated topics during discussion. | At the beginning of the meeting, set the expectations and also create a “Parking Lot” for unrelated questions that distract the discussion focus. If it is easily answered, answer the question.
If the topic is related to a later portion of the agenda, ask them to place it in “Parking Lot”. If the topic is not at all related to the meeting agenda, gently remind the participants to move on with the agenda topics. |
| Friction between time management and being flexible | Difficulty in knowing when to move on to the next topic or allow a group to discuss more fully to maintain the flexibility. | When you schedule the meeting, decide the duration based on the agenda points and the number of people going to attend. During the meeting, remind people with the remaining time. Also use short timebox sessions within the meeting to get attention and focus. If more time is needed, ask the room and get agreement before spending more than allotted time. “This seems to be an important conversation. Do we want to spend a few more minutes on this?“. Getting consensus is always important in a group meeting. |
| Handling the disagreement, conflicts, anger and personal attacks | Disagreement is where the Participants do not have consensus on the approach or next steps. In disagreement people are willing to talk to each other to get to a win-win outcome.
Conflict is deeper than a disagreement about content,in conflict people will not be willing to talk to each other and they may make assumptions on each other. Anger is an emotion where a participant is raising his/her voice, and displaying other signs of anger. Personal attack is where a participant damages the character of another participant or someone not in the room. |
Disagreement: First, find the source of disagreement. Facilitate a discussion about the difference by helping them to create pros and cons of each opinion to come to a win-win outcome. If not possible, then schedule a separate time to work through differences.
Conflict: Keep it in the “Parking Lot” and move on with the next agenda. Check with the affected participants individually about how to handle the conflict in order to move forward with the group discussion. A separate meeting may be scheduled to facilitate a conflict resolution exercise. Anger/personal attacks: Working agreement at the beginning of the meeting will help. Announce a break and meet the person individually to address the issue. Remind him/her that personal attacks are breaking the “working agreement” of the group. In rare situations if the meeting has to continue then ask individuals to move out from the meeting. |
| Side track over main track | Participants are not focused on the main content discussion at hand and they start individual conversations separately while the meeting is going on. | Go and stand near the conversing individuals to provide a hint that they are creating disturbance.
Ask them if they have any questions. Check if he/she can share to the group because it may probably be important to the entire room. Take a 5-minute break and when the participants come back, rotate the places of the people in different seats (tell them as it helps to get to know new people). Ask participants to move out if it is highly disruptive. |
| Change directions over carefully planned agenda | The participants are not at the place you thought as per the planned agenda, or an unplanned/unexpected event caused a change to the agenda. | Announce a short break and discuss the change in approach with the group. Check if the agenda change is the only option and whether the remaining time is sufficient to continue with a new agenda or a separate meeting is to be scheduled. |
| Poor engagement/ participation | Few participants do not actively participate in answering the questions or providing their perspectives/opinions. | The reason may be people are exhausted due to long discussions without a break. So, a short break may be announced. Pairing, small group discussions, or round robin techniques to bring them back into discussion. |
| Dysfunctional nonverbal actions | People sitting with crossed arms, looking at the phone/ laptop, eye contact missing, deep exhales, etc. | Meet and check with the participant in a break. Ask if he/she has any concerns or questions to identify what the source of the cues are.
Pause the talking during the meeting so that the silence gets people back into the discussion. |
| Closing the meeting without a natural conclusion/decision | The group spends time going through brainstorming and discovery, but there is no clarity on what happens next in order to reach a desired conclusion/decision/outcome. | At the beginning of the meeting itself the facilitator should clearly announce the desired outcome of the meeting and get consensus from the participants. A clear agenda also will help participants to reach a desirable outcome.
During the meeting, check what questions have to be answered in order to get to a conclusion and identify when that conversation can take place. Use “Parking Lot” to keep unrelated discussions/questions out to save time. |
| Not everyone has been heard | During the meetings, some participants process information internally within themselves, while others process verbally. It is common for internal thinkers to get lost in the meeting. | As you observe the group and build relationships with participants, begin to identify how they process information within the meeting.
Check in with participants who have not spoken, or those you observed that they process more internally, to see if they have additional thoughts before going to a new topic/ agenda item. Always build in a Question and Answer section into the end of each agenda topic. Collect feedback from the participants on how to improve the meetings in future based on the current meeting experience. |
| Handling people negativity or people who create resistance | Sometimes few participants show negativity about the content, direction or the people or approach. They pass negative statements and do not even try to understand how the content is relevant to them. This behavior may prevent group consensus and decision-making. | Prior to the meeting try to understand who is in the audience, their expectations and experiences will help you develop an agenda and content that is relevant to them.
If the participants showing negativity are resistant to change, deal with them individually on a break to understand what their challenges are. Keep engaging in a group discussion involving all people so that the majority may help to deal with the negativity. If the negativity is still continued, address the issue with the meeting participants to take their opinion on how they want to continue further by highlighting the impact of the negativity. . |
| Facilitator offends someone in the meeting or crosses a boundary | All the time, Facilitators may not be perfect and it is easy to cross the boundaries or offend someone in the group. It is important to address the issue immediately. | When you realize the boundary has been crossed, it is important to acknowledge and try to rebuild your relationship with the individual. Have an individual conversation to understand the issue as soon as possible. Reaching out and acknowledging the issue will help the individual understand that you did not do it intentionally and you are willing to resolve the issue. |
| Remote Facilitating over Colocated | At times, it is not possible for the group to meet in person due to any reasons. Also, sometimes there might be few people attending in person and some have to join through phone calls or other collaborative tools such as zoom meetings. | At the beginning of the meeting scheduling it is better to know if anyone has to join remotely. Send a reminder with dial-in/meeting information and time, along with any materials little prior to the scheduled meeting time.
At the beginning of the meeting ensure all the people who are supposed to join remotely have joined and ask them to confirm their attendance. Ask if everyone has the required documents/content before proceeding. During the meeting, referring to specific documents/content, describe the document name and page number. Ask all the participants to mention their name when they speak up so that it helps all people understand who is speaking and accordingly they try to respond. Frequently check to ensure if individuals joined remotely have questions or concerns. |
| Balancing diversified individuals in the meeting | It is inevitable you will encounter diversified personalities in the meeting. They sometimes may lead to conflict, or if not addressed, you could lose the participants’ trust as a facilitator. | The job of a facilitator is to know when to address these issues in the meeting or when to have individual conversations. Building relationships/networking outside of the room may help you better understand where these individuals are coming from, and how best to work with them. |
| Busy Bee | Sometimes it is observed in a meeting, a person frequently receives phone calls, and he/she leaves the meeting to answer them or constantly checks his/his email in the meeting. This will make that person not engaged in the conversation. | Let the conversation continue in this person’s absence. One possible issue that might arise is that when the person re-engages he/she may want a recap of what you already covered. Offer to provide the update later to continue the meeting towards the agenda. If this person is important for the meeting, then gently remind how his phone calls and other activities are consuming the time of all other participants.. |
| The loud speaker/hijacker | Sometimes few people in the meeting won’t let anyone else talk, and always try to insist that his/her ideas are most important. | As a Facilitator, you need to remember that this person should be leveraged, but also managed effectively so that his actions do not create dysfunction in the meeting. Know when to move the conversation on to the next topic. Enforce time box and working agreements. Meet the person in a break and thank the person for the contribution and gently remind them of the need to allow others to share their opinions/inputs. During the meeting also you can tell them “Thank you for your inputs, it indeed is helpful. I want to hear from someone else. Does anyone else have a comment?” This will help you to take the control back as a facilitator and make sure every voice is heard in the meeting.. |
Reference Link: https://www.advocacyandcommunication.org
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