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-{{tag>decision_making facilitation}}
-====== Advice & tools to assess and improve the group dynamic ======
-The Heterotopia Tour largely revolves around community living: this involves times for discussion between the participants or with external partners. It is crucial to put some facilitation into place to allow a variety of participants with their specific needs and preferences to express themselves and to make the most of each activity.\\
-This article will present a few things to be aware of in order for the facilitator:
-  * to know when the group is getting bored or tired so they can react and maintain an interesting pace and group dynamic.
-  * to design better facilitation from one trip to the next after monitoring what improved or destroyed the dynamic.
-  * to take into acount different types of people so they feel listened and respected.\\
-Ie: this piece of advice mostly applies to discussions within the whole group or with partner organizations. But the principle can be adaptedto any activity.\\
-===== 1. Let different voices be heard. =====
-During a discussion, some people will remain silent for most of the session. It doesn't necessarliy mean they have nothing to say!  By using a variety of facilitation techniques, you maximize your chances of reaching every participant along the trip. This includes: spoken, written or silent activities, using gestures, using art, music, games, using activities with fast or slow pace…
-Tool: Sociocraty gestures\\
-{{:contributions:gestures.png?200 |}}
-Gestures in particular can help the facilitator understand the reasons behind somebody being silent for the whole activity: \\
-It can be that the participants were speaking too low and they couldn’t hear: after asking 2 times if people could speak up, they stopped so they wouldn’t annoy the group. With a simple gesture they can express their problem without interrupting the discussion.\\
-Some people might need a change of pace, someone to rephrase what the topic or want to express their frustration after the group has been repeating the same thing several times or gone off-topic. The gesture will help them express those things without interrupting so the group can immediately react, which will help them get back into the discussion.\\
-ie: those signs are an example found for the Occupy movement, you can find others and/or create your own. Having a poster with the different signs you intend to use will help people remember what options they have.
-You should also make sure all the participant involved in the discussion can see each other.
-Using „roles“ during decision-making discussions will also help some people take part into the activity: it is sometimes more fulfilling for some people to have a specific mission during a discussion in order to stay focused. You can have two people keeping the same role at different times so they can change point of view on what is going on.\\
-They are also used in professional environment to make meetings more efficient. The usual roles in that case are Time-Keeper, Facilitator, Leader and Recorder.\\
-In the case of an Heterotopia Trip you can come up with other roles more suited to the activity! \\
-examples of roles: Time-Keeper and Decision-pusher\\
-The Time-Keeper is responsible for keeping the group aware of the time remaining for the activity regurlarly. Usually the facilitator will also deal with time management – having a participant plays this role allows the facilitator to focus on the group dynamic.\\
-The group may decide to use this role for an activity and stick to it: the purpose is to avoid endless meeting and accept the fact that a decision could or couldn‘t be made in this time, and reflect on the reasons why. Was the group going off-topic? Was the set time for the meeting too short to reach an solution? Did the facilitation manage to use the right pace and tools to help the group focus?\\
-Being aware of the time factor means the participant expect the discussion to end at a specific time: they are responsible for beeing focused and try to be as clear as possible so each item is addressed in the most efficient way. \\
-The Decision-pusher is helping in that matter. Its role is to have an overview of the arguments and be able to sum-up the different propositions clearly and start a vote. He will force the group to close one topic (with a decision/vote) before addressing another topic. When the time is almost up, he will sum up the propositions for the last topic addressed and propose a vote. If the propositions are not satisfying for most of the group, he and the facilitator can propose to add 15 minutes (maximum) to close the topic efficiently.\\
-The facilitator, time-keeper and decision-pusher should work together and if possible, take a few minutes to overview the schedule for the meeting beforehand. \\
-Facing an unfinished decision will be frustrating for the group, but it will be even more painful if the discussion has lasted for hours with no-one knowing when the decision will be reached. Being firm on the time schedule allows for the group to rest after this intense meeting and to learn to make concessions for the sake of the group. \\
-(EST-CE QUE JE DEVRAIS RAJOUTER UN POINT SUR LE ROLE DU FACILITATOR DANS CE CONTEXTE?)
-===== 2. Observe and analyse =====
-In order to evaluate the effect of your facilitation on the group dynamic, you should observe what happens. Seeing that the group is very focused or very bored is a thing, but the real question is to determine how you as a facilitator as well as the whole group helped or impeded this process. Not to forget: external causes such as tiredness, weather, expectations…\\
-In order to get an idea on how to improve the dynamic of your group, you should:\\
-  * Create some factual criteria to observe (number of questions or breaks asked,  suggestions made, yawning, people chatting without the group...)
-  * Set a time-period  to make the observation (one hour everyday, 3 hours every 3 days, the whole day on the first, middle and last day of the trip…). You should use the program to assess which days will be best suited.
-  * Pay extra attention when changing pace in the facilitation (energizer, ending the discussion,  going from a manual to an intellectual activity): did the participants react well to the change? Was it welcomed or did it break the flow of the group?
-  * Try to write down any comment you might hear to get a better idea of how some individuals feel (“I’m bored”, “i can use this tool at home!”, “i need a smoke”, “we said this already”, “what is on the menu for lunch?”).
-(the next chapter will deal with the participants and how you can listen to their impressions and advice, now we are just observing what happens when we don’t ask anything.)
-  * If you intend to learn more about each participant, especially their expectations and previous community living experiences, it might be worth observing each person’s behavior within the group and link it with their “profile”: maybe it’ll raise questions to address for your next project.
-Tool: Speech report\\
-Example:\\
-Person A , who is new to community living,. He hasn’t talked much on day one. On day 7, he asked several questions and made a suggestion. On day 15 he was speaking a lot more, making suggestions and clarifying topics for the group. It seems the trip managed to raise his confidence within the group.\\
-Person B, who is experienced in community living.  On day one, she was participating a lot, and making many suggestions. On day 7, she participated a bit less and asked more questions. On day 15 she was making suggestions again and clarifying things for the group. We can suggest that she had a preconceived idea of what the trip should look  like thanks to her past experience, but was open to reconsider it – she trusted our team and the group and got invested even more in the end. We managed to gain her trust… how? (that’s when interviews can help)\\
-===== 3. Ask for a second point of view =====
-Tool: attention over time + comments (specific questions)\\
-ie: The second point of view can be one of the roles seen in 1.

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