The importance of full group participation is often overlooked and undervalued, particularly

by groups whose inordinate focus is on the

"results" or product, at the expense of the

process. Often, the damage done bythis

approach is what stimulates a group to seek

expert facilitation. Continued inattention to

process may lead to weakened or strained

relationships between group members, decline

in group effectiveness, decreasing buy-in and

resultant support of decisions made bythe

group, and reduction in group energy, synergy,

and enthusiasm. Not to mention a real lack of

fun participating in such a group!

- Get larger buy-in from group members, which

tend to make the execution of any solutions

more long lasting and efficient.

- Generate fewer opportunities for barriers to

develop. Information withheld bysilent group

members can provide the missing piece

necessary to free up a group that is stuck.

- Lower tendency for group to fall into

groupthink and resultant narrowing of

perspectives and possibilities.

- Get access to the full wisdom and knowledge

available to the group. Often the quietest have

the most to say, as they tend to be more

observant and sometimes more objective

about what's going on in a group.

- Collaboration requires full participation. Just

as good democracy requires hearing many

voices, group problem solving, learning,

visioning, decision-making, etc. is more

effective with full participation.

To assure full participation, I promote the three

“I’s” of participation: 1) Invite, 2) Inspire, and 3)

Incite. These strategies correspond to

engaging people in each of three levels,

physical, mental, and emotional.

We can “invite” participation in a number of

ways that can be either direct or indirect. Here

are some examples:

We overtly invite participation byjust

coming out and asking for it—asking

questions, to the group at large or to

specific individuals, setting up exercises

and activities and asking for full

participation.

We invite participation also bycreating the

“space” for it, both physically and

emotionally. Make sure everyone can hear

and see what’s going on in the room.

When you ask for input, give people time

to respond. Be comfortable with silence

Program extra time in your events so that

you’re not always rushed to move on.

Designing your events with plenty of

places for input and activity sets up an

sets a tone that enables it.

Be genuinely interested in what your

participants have to share. If you see

yourself as smarter, more knowledgeable,

and more interesting than them, then it will

be hard for you to honestly take this

stance. You must come to understand that

everyone has some unique idea,

perspective, or attitude valuable to others.

Practice holding this perspective until you

experience its truth. When you believe it,

your participants will begin to believe it

too.

Participants are more likely to take enough

interest to get involved if they are

emotionally inspired. To be inspired, they

first must have identified some payoff for

being involved. This payoff will take the

form of some new information or skill they

want, and the experience must “feel good”

at some level.

This implies that at least one thing you

must do to inspire your group is to respond

to their needs and desires. So make sure

you’ve sought their desires prior to

designing the group activity. Throughout

the meeting, check in to make sure you’re

still on track to getting them what they

came for.

If you’re not inspired bythe content and

delivery of your material, then no one else

will be either. Do what you must to design

and adjust your content and delivery so

that it’s fun and exciting for you. This might

mean incorporating your passions into the

material, sharing inspiring experiences

and stories, or changing your topic

altogether to align with whatever excites

you.

As a facilitator, consider yourself an

instrument of group process. You can use

this instrument to “move” your participants

in many ways. The strategies of inviting

and inspiring notwithstanding, you’re

energy, voice, attitude, and actions can be

used to impact participation as well.

Just as people have been known to incite

riots based on their passion and message,

you can incite healthy participation in your

groups bybeing provocative and

stimulating. What if you’re not a

provocative or stimulating person? Well

here’s your chance to experiment!

Sometimes you have to search for an

opening in your group’s psychosocial

armor. People are afraid of losing control,

being wrong, or looking foolish. From my

own personal experience, I can tell you

that when I lose control, make a mistake,

or play “the fool,” I create the space in the

when I start a group is to make the following

speech asking each participant to commit to

fully participating in the event. I say something

like this:

”I’d like to take a minute and ask each of you

to commit to fully participating in this event.

This is important because sharing your input,

questions, and experience will not only help

you get the most from this group, but sharing

your unique perspective will help everyone

else as well. For a large group with limited

time, this might mean that you all won’t get a

chance to say a lot, but you’ll find that taking

notes, and jotting down comments and

questions as we go along will spark your input

in this meeting or via some other form of

contact after our meeting. Full participation

doesn’t always involve your vocal input. It can

include being fully present and paying attention

to our work here together. The quality of your

listening, your attitude, and your presence will

contribute to our results together. I also ask

your permission to call on you byname for

input and ideas. May I have a show of hands

for those willing to agree to these guidelines?”

If you have time, you may want to get the

group to define for themselves what full

participation means and help them discuss and

resolve any barriers that might stand in its way.

other non-aural means to involve participants.

Use writing, drawing, individual and team

activities. Do round robins or group checkins to

query individuals about what’s happening for

them, to answer a particular question, or to

give their perspective on an issue, etc. Have

them break into dyads or small groups to offer

more opportunity to engage more intimately.

Remember that introverts reflect and process

thoughts internally before speaking (where as

extroverts do their thinking process in the

external world byspeaking). As facilitator,

respect the silence needed for an introverted

person to speak.

Finally, honor other’s desire to participate at

the level that works for them. Some may

participate internally byobserving and

analyzing and though they may not be as

verbal, their focused presence will add a lot to

the group.

people byname. Use more silence. Ask for

input and feedback pre and post-meeting. Let

everyone’s level of participation be their own

responsibility. Use experiential activities that

get everyone engaged. Check out this

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you ask them to volunteer or participate in an

activity, challenge them to “mess up” or

actually try to do it “wrong.” This removes most

people’s greatest fears—looking bad or

making a mistake—and byactually making this

the desired outcome, they succeed! Sounds

strange but it works!

have that they were “obviously not enjoying

themselves?” You may want to check in with

them bymirroring what you’re experiencing

and find out what they need to get value from

the group. Or you could do this one-on-one

during a break, or in a group round prior to a

break to get feedback on class progress.

If someone is upset about being there, suggest

that forced participation doesn’t work and ask

them to choose to stay or leave. Often offering

this freedom will change a person’s mind about

participating.

Finally, there is a type of passive-aggressive

person wedded to playing the victim role in life.

They will intentionally suffer through a situation

they don’t enjoy, resisting all attempts to

relieve the suffering, then hit you over the head

with “your” failure after it’s too late to correct it.

They will not own their own power. In a case

like this, when you’ve done all you can to

empower someone, you need to let their

opinion of you be none of your business. An

opportunity to practice surrendering to that

which you cannot change.

Survey your potential audience first to find out

what’s important to them to know and

experience. Then deliver that. Keep checking

in with them throughout the session to make

sure they’re getting what they need and make

any corrections needed to realign with their

interests and desires. If in doubt about which

way to go during a session, share choices with

your group and let them decide. Make sure to

review the consequences of each choice as

well; weighing them against the results the

group is after.

participation will look for the group. Help

participants come to consensus on them.

Mutual respect and owning one’s feelings

should be in there somewhere. And then the

primary responsibility for enforcing these

ground rules falls on you, the facilitator. Don’t

allow counterproductive comments to continue.

Challenge the participant on them. Ask them to

recommit to the ground rules. Ask them for

permission to coach them in communicating

more positively and the impact a negative

attitude has on the group and on them.

80/20 rule. No more than 20% lecture, the rest

should be participant involvement. Answer preclass

questions so that what you do share is

relevant to your student’s needs. Also employ

discussion to pull answers from the group and

just fill in any gaps they leave. This gets

different perspectives and experience in the

room and allows more advanced students to

teach the lesser experienced, which increases

participation and grounds the learning for

those doing the talking. Some of the best value

I hear my students receive in my Facilitation

Training is how much they learned from the

wisdom, experience, and perspectives of other

participants. Don’t think you need to carry the

whole load. Create a healthy and interesting

process that involves your audience, and then

facilitate it.

direct approach to getting participation from

individuals. Ask the quiet ones directly what

can be done to facilitate more participation

from them. Or ask for their specific input on

what you’re working on. Because this

approach can be uncomfortable and

unwelcome bysome, you should either be

familiar with the group or have elicited

permission from them before employing it

have a leader or upper manager in the group

with whom subordinates distrust, this is liable

to inhibit participation. One way to handle this

is to head it off at the pass. In your premeeting

interview/contracting process, ask if

there is liable to be a problem with trust

between upper management and

subordinates. Or to be safe, work out a plan

with them in case it does show up as an issue.

For example, if the leader is concerned about

getting honest input from the group, then he or

she may have to model this themselves by

sharing their own truth and vulnerability in the

group. Another alternative is to do anonymous

queries in writing before, during, or after the

meeting around those issues that might be

sensitive, to get you more in-depth info and

participation. Finally, it may be appropriate to

speak your perception directly to the group.

“Hey, I sense that there may be some trust

issues here between management and

subordinates. Is this true? What needs to be

done to build a bridge?