Facilitative Leadership
SCRC Planning Conference
Cambria
June 12, 2011
Presenter:
Dr. Diane Hollems
Welcome
and
Introductions
Find Your Style
Let’s Play QuickDiSC®
What does the word
“Leadership”
mean to you?
Definition
Facilitative Leaders:
Empower people to
work together to
achieve a common goal.
Find Your Style
Based on the cards you selected in the
game, here is some information that will
be helpful to you as we go along today….
About Your Style
Dominance (green cards)
Emphasis
Shapes the environment by overcoming opposition to
accomplish results.
Tendencies
Get immediate results
Question the status quo
Cause actions
Take authority
Accept challenges
Manage trouble
Make quick decisions
Solve problems
About Your Style
Influence (red cards)
Emphasis
Shape the environment by influencing or persuading others.
Tendencies
Contact people
Entertain people
Make a good impression
Be optimistic
Be articulate
Participate in a group
Create a motivational environment
About Your Style
Steadiness (blue cards)
Emphasis
Cooperates with others within an existing environment to
carry out tasks.
Tendencies
Demonstrate patience
Show loyalty
Develop specialized skills
Be a good listener
Help others
Create a stable
Perform in a consistent manner
work environment
About Your Style
Conscientiousness (yellow cards)
Emphasis
Works conscientiously within existing circumstances to ensure
quality.
Tendencies
Concentrate on key details
Think analytically
Be diplomatic
Use direct approaches to
Check for accuracy
conflict
Adhere to key directives &
Use a systematic approach
standards
to situations
Overview of Today
Adapted from: Facilitative Leadership,
©Interaction Associates
• Roles of a Leader
• Profile of a Facilitative Leader & 7
Practices of Facilitative Leadership
• Building and Facilitating Agreement
• Dimensions of Success
• Levels of Involvement in Decision Making
• Pathways to Action
Roles of a Leader
• Team Leader (manages the process)
• Coach (guides individuals to higher
performance)
• Change Agent (encourages continuous
improvement)
A Facilitative Leader is:
1) Collaborative
• creates opportunities for people to work
together
• Shares the power of decision making
• Promotes the value of win-win solutions
Covey’s Quadrants
•
•
•
•
Win-Lose
Lose-Lose
Win-Win
Lose-Win
A Facilitative Leader is:
2) Receptive and flexible
• Actively encourages others to contribute
• Accepts others’ ideas and feedback in a
non-defensive way
• Adjusts plans to meet changing needs
A Facilitative Leader is:
3) Strategic
• Reminds others of the big picture and the
important goals
• Keeps attention focused on high-leverage
issues and activities
• Provides perspective at critical moments
Activity
Given the 3 elements of the profile of a facilitative
leader……
You are the administrator of a college unit where: a) you
have department chairs and some staff who are resistant
to change; b) you face extreme budget cuts which
dictate major class reductions; and c) you have been told
to submit a comprehensive plan of change within a
week.
Using the 3 elements, propose a process for getting buyin and implementation.
Seven Practices of
Facilitative Leadership
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Share an Inspiring Vision
Focus on Results, Process and Relationship
Seek Maximum Appropriate Involvement
Facilitate Agreement
Design Pathways to Action
Coach for Performance
Celebrate Accomplishment
Focus on Results, Process
and Relationship
Facilitative leaders know that achieving
outstanding results is only one dimension
of success. Success should also be
measured in terms of how the work gets
done (process) and the way people treat
each other in the workplace (relationship).
Your Social Style
• Are you…..
(green) A Driver? (dominance, fast-moving, Type A)--results
(red) An Influencer? (social, gregarious, creative)--ideas
(blue) Supportive? (empathetic, team player)--relational
(yellow) Conscientious? (details, correctness)--process
• Your style will be a factor to consider when trying
to balance: getting results…with good
process….and healthy relationships.
Measuring Success
• Results—are they of high quality?
are they timely?
do they meet internal & external
requirements?
• Process—is it clear and logical?
is it efficient?
is it appropriate for the task?
Measuring Success
• Relationship—do team members feel
supported?
do they trust each other?
do they trust you?
do they feel valued?
REMEMBER….YOUR SOCIAL STYLE IS
A FACTOR WITH THESE QUESTIONS.
Measuring Success
Answer (honestly) to Yourself….
You might answer “yes” to the questions on
the last slide, BUT….would your
employees/faculty answer “yes”?
Ask yourself….Why or why not?
The Green Tail
• If someone says you have a green tail, the
person is crazy,
• If two people say you have a green tail, it
is a conspiracy,
• If seven people say you have a green tail,
you turn around and look!
Measuring Success
Activity
• Scenario…..you are the Director of a college
unit. You supervise 10 staff and 30 faculty. You
report directly to a supervisor whose
management style is dictatorial, punitive and
micro-managing. You and your peer-Directors
(who also report to the same person) are
struggling with “how to survive” in this
environment. Your staff is demoralized.
• With your group….complete the worksheet and
report out.
Seek Maximum
Appropriate Involvement
Consensus
Level
Of
Input from
others &
decide
Ownership
Input from
group &
decide
Decide &
announce
Level of Involvement
Delegate
with
constraints
Seek Maximum
Appropriate Involvement
• Referring back to the previous scenario
and the last slide…..
• What could YOU (the facilitative leader) do
to mitigate the situation with the superior
who is not facilitative?
Activity:
Seeking Appropriate Involvement
1). Describe a situation that requires you to
make some decisions which will impact
other people, and also write down one
decision you have to make related to it.
2). Complete the worksheet and discuss
with a partner.
Building & Facilitating
Agreement
• Remember…”meetings” can be one-onone or larger.
• In a meeting, participants open, narrow
and close on different topics, building
small agreements as they go along.
• Leaders facilitate agreement by keeping
people focused on task and guiding the
process through each of 3 stages: open,
narrow, close.
Building & Facilitating
Agreement
• The “open”
– Make a proposal (limited opening)
– List (moderate opening)
– Brainstorm (wide opening)
– Clarify
Building & Facilitating
Agreement
• Narrowing
– Combine duplicate ideas
– Prioritize (N/3) which means the number of
items divided by 3 = number of votes per
participant
– Advocate (“Let’s take a few minutes to
influence each other’s thinking—make your
case.”)
Building & Facilitating
Agreement
• Close
– Negative poll—to eliminate alternatives that
have low priority and reach quick agreement
on remaining alternatives.
– Build up/Eliminate (i.e., “What could we add to
option A to make it work?”)
– Both/And—to avoid either/or decision or
win/lose solutions (i.e., “Do you need to
choose between these final 2 options or could
we try both?”)
Building & Facilitating
Agreement
• Strategic Moments
– The group is stuck and can’t decide how to
move forward
– People are talking about different subjects or
using different processes
– The group has reached a key agreement and
is ready to move on.
Building & Facilitating
Agreement
• The leader must ask:
– Where are we (in the meeting or decisionmaking process)?
– How do we get to our goal?
– Where do we want to go from here?
Remember: Ask these questions whether you
are facilitating a large meeting or
one-on-one.
Pathway to Action
• The Pathway to Action is a planning tool used by
leaders and teams to plan out work in a way that
encourages collaboration and a maximum
appropriate involvement.
• It is also an assessment tool for determining at
any time in a project or work session: (a) where
the group attention is currently focused, and (b)
what the group should focus on next.
Pathway to Action
The Tool
Problem
Pathway
Solution
Design
Vision
Implementation
Pathway to Action
Vision/Problem Pathway:
Used when it’s important to acknowledge and
understand what’s not working, or to highlight the
gap between present reality and a
needed future state.
Pathway to Action: Vision/Problem Pathway
Space
Agreements
Stakeholder
Involvement
Pathway Design
1. Agreement on how to
proceed
Identify who should be
involved
Vision
2. Agreement on
process—from intake
through fulfillment. What
is/are the desired
outcome(s)?
Identify the stakeholders
who can refine the
process
Problem
3. Agreement on the key
problem(s) and the root
causes
Identify the stakeholders
who can identify the
problem
Solution
4. Agreement on the
strategies or solutions
that will eliminate root
causes of long-standing
problems.
Bring the whole group
back together
Implementation
5. Agreement on an
Action Plan
The whole group
Pathway to Action
What can we do about
MEETINGS!!!!
Time to Brainstorm
Pathway to Action
• Key elements for planning your meetings:
– 1. Stakeholder analysis (who should be there)
– 2. Decision-making method (including levels
of involvement)
– 3. Meeting roles
– 4. Desired outcomes
– 5. Action (next) steps
Pathway to Action
Problem-Solving Meeting
Activity
Using your worksheet with the
sample Problem-Solving Meeting
Agenda attached as an example,
work with a partner to complete
the Handout titled:
“Planning a Meeting.”
Summary
Today we covered:
• Learning about social styles
• The roles of a leader
• The profile of a Facilitative Leader & 7 Practices of
Facilitative Leadership
• The importance of building process & relationships
• How to build and facilitate Agreement
• Measuring Success
• Levels of Involvement in Decision Making
• Creating Pathways to Action, including setting up an
effective problem-solving meeting.
Your Personal Action Plan
• You’ll find the handout in your pink
Resource Materials packet
• Take a few minutes to fill in as much as
you can.
• Don’t forget to complete this tool when you
can. It’s helpful 
THANK YOU!
Contact Information:
Dr. Diane Hollems
Dean, Educational Programs
Santa Barbara City College
(805) 683-8281
hollems@sbcc.edu