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Essay / The importance of facilitation in group decision making
The need for a facilitator arises from the dynamics of group decision making. In real and daily life in business, management, politics, crisis conflicts, education, etc. in group meetings, each individual in the group does not think the same way (divergent thinking) in real life, humans tend to go off on tangents, losing the original purpose of the group meeting. Facilitators are needed to bring ideas together to reach the decision point (Doyle and Kaner, 2007). A facilitator is a person who creates an environment that allows groups or organizations to be more effective; to achieve their goals. Facilitators must be essentially neutral in their position and they must also have no decision-making power (Doyle and Kaner, 2007). The conference covers: a) The meaning of facilitation b) The core values of facilitation c) The role of the facilitator d) Key Facilitation skills and methods e) The benefits of facilitation A facilitator is not allowed to advocate a specific point of view during the process. The facilitator can come from both inside the organization and from outside (Schwarz, 2002), however the chosen facilitator must be accepted by all parties involved in the meeting. The literature also suggests that facilitators are only there to direct the process, where process refers to the dynamics of group work such as communication, decision making, problem solving and conflict management and that facilitators do not contribute to the meeting in terms of content. The literature also suggests that facilitators need to improve the structure of the setting in which they operate, where structure can be seen as group composition and group roles, which leads to improvement...... in the middle of document. .... the ground rules for conduct and behavior and the group members agree to them before any meeting even begins. Effective facilitation requires a certain level of awareness or discernment of personalities during the program. REFERENCES Bono, E. (1999). Six Thinking Hats, Back Bay Books Publishers. Doyle, M. and Kaner, S. (2007). Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision Making, Jossey-Bass Publishers. Heron, J. (1999). The Complete Facilitator's Handbook, Kogan Page Publishers. Hogan, C. (2002). Understanding Facilitation: Theory and Principles, Kogan Page Publishers. Rees, F. (1998). The Facilitator's Handbook of Excellence: Helping People Work Together Creatively and Productively, Jossey-Bass Publishers. Schwarz, R. (2002). The Skilled Facilitator: A Comprehensive Resource for Consultants, Facilitators, Managers, Trainers and Coaches, Jossey-Bass Publishers.