NUR 2407 Module 7 Assignment Interdisciplinary Communication

NUR 2407 Module 7 Assignment Interdisciplinary Communication

You have been invited to assemble a task force to design a medication assistance program. You need to submit a proposal, regarding who you would invite, to the CEO. Consider the perspectives of prescribers, discharge planners, financial navigators, patients, suppliers, book keepers and subsidizers. If you were to seek the input of 5-7 stakeholders, who would you invite to the planning table, and why? Consider the need for a group facilitator. Who would that person be, and why?

Submit a 2-3 page APA style response to this query. Open with a paragraph of purpose, dedicate a paragraph to each stakeholder that you would invite, and close with a summary of what you hope to accomplish with the group, within a designated time frame.

Community organizations are geared towards action. There are urgent problems and issues we need to tackle and solve in our communities. That’s why we came together in the first place, isn’t it? But for groups to be really successful, we need to spend some time focusing on the skills our members and leaders use to make all of this action happen, both within and outside our organizations.

One of the most important sets of skills for leaders and members are facilitation skills. These are the “process” skills we use to guide and direct key parts of our organizing work with groups of people such as meetings, planning sessions, and training of our members and leaders.

Whether it’s a meeting (big or small) or a training session, someone has to shape and guide the process of working together so that you meet your goals and accomplish what you’ve set out to do. While a group of people might set the agenda and figure out the goals, one person needs to concentrate on how you are going to move through your agenda and meet those goals effectively. This is the person we call the “facilitator.”

SO, HOW IS FACILITATING DIFFERENT THAN CHAIRING A MEETING?

Well, it is and it isn’t. Facilitation has three basic principles:

• A facilitator is a guide to help people move through a process together, not the seat of wisdom and knowledge. That means a facilitator isn’t there to give opinions, but to draw out opinions and ideas of the group members.
• Facilitation focuses on how people participate in the process of learning or planning, not just on what gets achieved
• A facilitator is neutral and never takes sides

The best meeting chairs see themselves as facilitators. While they have to get through an agenda and make sure that important issues are discussed, decisions made, and actions taken, good chairs don’t feel that they have all of the answers or should talk all the time. The most important thing is what the participants in the meeting have to say. So, focus on how the meeting is structured and run to make sure that everyone can participate. This includes things like:

• Making sure everyone feels comfortable participating
• Developing a structure that allows for everyone’s ideas to be heard
• Making members feel good about their contribution to the meeting
• Making sure the group feels that the ideas and decisions are theirs, not just the leader’s. Supporting everyone’s ideas and not criticizing anyone for what they’ve said.

WHY DO YOU NEED FACILITATION SKILLS?

If you want to do good planning, keep members involved, and create real leadership opportunities in your organization and skills in your members, you need facilitator skills. The more you know about how to shape and run a good learning and planning process, the more your members will feel empowered about their own ideas and participation, stay invested in your organization, take on responsibility and ownership, and the better your meetings will be.

HOW DO YOU FACILITATE?

Meetings are a big part of our organizing life. We seem to always be going from one meeting to the next. The next session in the Tool Box covers planning and having good meetings in depth. But here, we’re going to work on the process skills that good meeting leaders need to have. Remember, these facilitation skills are useful beyond meetings: for planning; for “growing” new leaders; for resolving conflicts; and for keeping good communication in your organization.

CAN ANYONE LEARN TO FACILITATE A MEETING?

Yes, to a degree. Being a good facilitator is both a skill and an art. It is a skill in that people can learn certain techniques and can improve their ability with practice. It is an art in that some people just have more of a knack for it than others. Sometimes organization leaders are required to facilitate meetings: thus, board presidents must be trained in how to facilitate. But other meetings and planning sessions don’t require that any one person act as facilitators, so your organization can draw on members who have the skill and the talent.

To put it another way, facilitating actually means:

• Understanding the goals of the meeting and the organization
• Keeping the group on the agenda and moving forward
• Involving everyone in the meeting, including drawing out the quiet participants and controlling the domineering ones
• Making sure that decisions are made democratically

HOW DO YOU PLAN A GOOD FACILITATION PROCESS?

A good facilitator is concerned with both the outcome of the meeting or planning session, with how the people in the meeting participate and interact, and also with the process. While achieving the goals and outcomes that everyone wants is of course important, a facilitator also wants to make sure that the process if sound, that everyone is engaged, and that the experience is the best it can be for the participants.

In planning a good meeting process, a facilitator focuses on:

• Climate and Environment
• Logistics and Room Arrangements
• Ground Rules

A good facilitator will make plans in each of these areas in advance. Let’s look at some of the specifics.

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

There are many factors that impact how safe and comfortable people feel about interacting with each other and participating. The environment and general “climate” of a meeting or planning session sets an important tone for participation.

Key questions you would ask yourself as a facilitator include:

• Is the location a familiar place, one where people feel comfortable? Face it, if you’re planning to have an interactive meeting sitting around a conference table in the Mayor’s office, some of your folks might feel intimidated and out of their environment. A comfortable and familiar location is key.
• Is the meeting site accessible to everyone? If not, have you provided for transportation or escorts to help people get to the site? Psychologically, if people feel that the site is too far from them or in a place they feel is “dangerous,” it may put them off from even coming. If they do come, they may arrive with a feeling that they were not really wanted or that their needs were not really considered. This can put a real damper on communication and participation. Another reminder: can handicapped people use the site as well?
• Is the space the right size? Too large? Too small? If you’re wanting to make a planning group feel that it’s a team, a large meeting hall for only 10 or 15 people can feel intimidating and make people feel self-conscious and quiet. On the other hand, if you’re taking a group of 30 folks through a meeting, a small conference room where people are uncomfortably crunched together can make for disruption: folks shifting in their seats, getting up to stretch and get some air. This can cause a real break in the mood and feeling of your meeting or planning session. You want folks to stay focused and relaxed. Moral: choose a room size that matches the size of your group.

LOGISTICS AND ROOM ARRANGEMENTS

Believe it or not: how people sit, whether they are hungry and whether they can hear can make or break your planning process. As a facilitator, the logistics of the meeting should be of great concern to you, whether you’re responsible for them or not. Some things to consider are:

• Chair arrangements: Having chairs in a circle or around a table encourages discussion, equality, and familiarity. Speaker’s podiums and lecture style seating make people feel intimidated and formal. Avoid them at all costs.
• Places to hang newsprint: You may be using a lot of newsprint or other board space during your meeting. Can you use tape without damaging the walls? Is an easel available? Is there enough space so that you can keep important material visible instead of removing it?
• Sign-In sheet: Is there a table for folks to use?
• Refreshments: Grumbling stomachs will definitely take folks minds off the meeting. If you’re having refreshments, who is bringing them? Do you need outlets for coffee pots? Can you set things up so folks can get food without disrupting the meeting? And who’s cleaning up afterwards?
• Microphones and audio visual equipment: Do you need a microphone? Video cameras? Can someone set up and test the equipment before you start?

To build a safe as well as comfortable environment, a good facilitator has a few more points to consider. How do you protect folks who are worried their ideas will be attacked or mocked? How do you hold back the big talkers who tend to dominate while still making them feel good about their participation? Much of the answer lies in the Ground Rules.

GROUND RULES

Most meetings have some kind of operating rules. Some groups use Robert’s Rules of Order (parliamentary procedure) to run their meetings while others have rules they’ve adopted over time. When you want the participation to flow and for folks to really feel invested in following the rules, the best way to go is to have the group develop them as one of the first steps in the process. This builds a sense of power in the participants (“Hey, she isn’t telling us how to act. It’s up to us to figure out what we think is important!”) and a much greater sense of investment in following the rules. Common ground rules are:

• One person speaks at a time
• Raise your hand if you have something to say
• Listen to what other people are saying
• No mocking or attacking other people’s ideas
• Be on time coming back from breaks (if it’s a long meeting)
• Respect each other

A process to develop ground rules is:

• Begin by telling folks that you want to set up some ground rules that everyone will follow as we go through our meeting. Put a blank sheet of newsprint on the wall with the heading “Ground Rules.”
• Ask for any suggestions from the group. If no one says anything, start by putting one up yourself. That usually starts people off.
• Write any suggestions up on the newsprint. It’s usually most effective to “check -in” with the whole group before you write up an idea (“Sue suggested raising our hands if we have something to say. Is that O.K. with everyone?”) Once you have gotten 5 or 6 good rules up, check to see if anyone else has other suggestions.
• When you are finished, ask the group if they agree with these Ground Rules and are willing to follow them. Make sure you get folks to actually say “Yes” out loud. It makes a difference!