The Facilitation Center uses a guided participatory model for a collaborative approach to meeting design, facilitation, training, and achieving desired outcomes.

Guiding Beliefs

• Meetings should be enjoyable. Successful meetings do not have to be dull, dry, or dysfunctional! People share more and think more creatively in a safe, engaging environment.
• Ask, don’t tell. Facilitators do not make decisions for the group. Instead, they ask key questions and suggest ways the group can move forward. Meeting participants are the experts, and each plays an important role in the meeting.
• A neutral facilitator is essential. Facilitators represent the interests of the entire group and its work rather than one individual or idea
• Visuals are vital to the facilitated process. People work more effectively in groups when they can see the ideas they generate, which we call display thinking. Part of the Center’s magic is our storyboard, a low-tech, highly interactive tool we use to facilitate display thinking.
• We accept responsibility for helping groups accomplish agreed-upon meeting purposes and outcomes.