What is Facilitation ?

'Most meetings I attend are a complete waste of my time…the agenda is not clear, we get side tracked and dominant people get all the air time…we sit there for hours, run over and still don't seem to make progress and achieve anything...'

We've all experienced how draining, negative and uninspiring many meetings can be; how workshops accomplish little because people don't feel safe, the right people are not there, the airtime gets hogged, there is no commitment to the topics, there are people doing emails etc etc

Through well planned and efficient facilitation, Grape helps you create an environment where all of your people can truly participate - voice their needs, concerns, aspirations, uncertainties and ideas with real honesty and clarity - therefore providing the basis for fundamental commitment and additionally real breakthroughs and the insights needed to take projects forward.

So, What is Facilitation ?

Facilitation is a set of tools and philosophies that organises and encourages total people participation. It draws from concepts originally created in group dynamics, in creative problem solving, in search conferences, in sociotechnical work systems, in anthropology and in action research.

In traditional facilitation, the facilitator focuses on the process of a meeting or workshop and serves as a moderator. The facilitator helps the group create alternatives, make decisions, solve problems, and develop and implement plans within the structure of a meeting.

A good facilitator will help ensure high levels of attendance, full participation during the meeting, good generation of possibilites and solid support of the decisions made in all meetings and workshops.

Facilitation is an essential competence

• in empowering organisations
• for learning organisations
• for agile, flexible, creative organisations

Roots of Facilitation >

The concept of facilitation and facilitators is as old as mankind. On this page you can read more about the frameworks and how facilitation evolved.

Our Favourite Group Tools >

In facilitation we use many group tools. Here you can find the list of our favourite ones.