{"id":5206,"date":"2016-12-22T00:01:07","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T05:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/?p=5206"},"modified":"2026-04-21T13:26:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:26:26","slug":"great-facilitators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/great-facilitators\/","title":{"rendered":"Twelve Behaviors that Define Great Facilitators"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5207\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5207\" class=\"wp-image-5207 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Premier-Facilitators-300x224.png\" alt=\"Twelve Behaviors that Define Great Facilitators\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Premier-Facilitators-300x224.png 300w, https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Premier-Facilitators.png 696w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-5207\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Great Facilitators<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Today we bring you twelve significant behaviors that define successful, professional facilitators. (i.e., GREAT Facilitators) Our scope focuses on structured facilitation (<span style=\"color: #993300;\">NOT<\/span> <em>Kum-Bah-Yah<\/em>). Structured facilitation requires a balanced blend of leadership, facilitation, and methodology. (An <em>alpha<\/em> sort sequences the following, not order of importance).<\/h2>\n<h4><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The first three behaviors:<\/span><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">7:59 AM<strong> preparation and interviews\u00a0<\/strong><strong>\u2028<\/strong>(i.e., managing expectations and ownership). Increased experience forces top-notch facilitators to value preparation more than ever. No class, certification, or silver bullets help facilitators who show up without preparation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Active listening\u00a0<\/strong><strong>\u2028<\/strong>(i.e., seeking to understand rather than being understood). Of facilitation&#8217;s core skills, active listening remains the easiest to understand and the hardest to do.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Annotated agenda\u00a0<\/strong><strong>\u2028<\/strong>(i.e., visualizing everything the session leader does or asks in advance). Preparation or writing down what you intend to say and do remains critical. Therefore, Great facilitators don\u2019t rely on memory, they write it down.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>The next three behaviors:<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Common nouns and purpose give rise to natural categories<\/strong><strong>\u2028<\/strong>. A professional <span style=\"color: #993300;\">NEVER<\/span> asks a group <span style=\"color: #993300;\">HOW<\/span> they would like to \u2018categorize a list.\u2019 Common nouns are symptomatic of the likelihood of clusters. Normally categorizes arise from shared or common purpose.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Holarchy\u00a0<\/strong>\u2028(i.e., interdependent reciprocities\u2014contextual explanation of how it all fits together). When active listening fails to resolve conflict, appeal to the organizational objectives. They drive the determination of whose argument should prevail. Begin with the project, then the program, then the business unit, and if necessary, enterprise objectives. The holarchy provides the key to alignment and a professional knows how to apply it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>\u201cI\u201d no longer<\/strong>\u2028 (i.e., the substitution of pluralistic and integrative rhetoric for the first person singular). Professionals avoid reference to themselves alone. Everything \u2018we\u2019 do is for the benefit of them and you, not \u2018me.\u2019\u00a0 The least professional words a facilitator could utter &#8212; \u201cHelp me.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Three more behaviors:<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Life Cycle:<\/strong> <strong>Plan<\/strong> <strong>\u261b<\/strong> <strong>Acquire<\/strong> <strong>\u261b<\/strong> <strong>Operate<\/strong> <strong>\u261b<\/strong> <strong>Control<\/strong> (i.e., great tool and inherent rationale behind all life cycle methodologies). It matters not whether building requirements or an action plan. Blue-chip facilitators explore at least four activities (likely more). They ensure at minimum one activity within each of the four primary life-cycle stages.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Numeric <\/strong><strong>SWOT<\/strong><strong> leads to consensual actions <\/strong>(i.e., Easily the best way to prioritize hundreds of items and build consensus around \u201cWHAT\u201d needs to be done to support the purpose). So many untrained facilitators build four lists, hang them on the wall, and ask \u201cNow what?\u201d Traditional <span style=\"color: #993300;\">SWOT<\/span> remains an awful method for galvanizing consensus. Outstanding facilitators consider the <em><span style=\"color: #993300;\">MGR<\/span><\/em><em><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">USH<\/span><\/span><\/em> quantitative approach instead.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Right-to-left thinking or, focus on the deliverable first<\/strong> (i.e., starting with the end in mind\u2014forcing the abstract into the concrete). Leadership demands understanding what \u2018DONE\u2019 looks like. Top-flight professionals constantly apply a \u2018DONE\u2019 consciousness against the meeting deliverable, agenda step, supporting activity, and even specific questions. Always start with the end in mind.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>The final three behaviors:<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>\u201cThe Purpose is to . . . So That . . . \u201c<\/strong><strong>\u2028\u00a0<\/strong>(i.e., an amazing tool to extract the \u201cstrategy\u201d behind something too small for a \u2028\u201cstrategic plan\u201d). The professional facilitators&#8217; \u2018screwdriver.\u2019 is known simply as the Purpose Tool. Use it repeatedly to first build consensus around <span style=\"color: #993300;\">WHY<\/span> something exists before discussing <span style=\"color: #993300;\">WHAT<\/span> can be done to make it better.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Trivium<\/strong>\u2028 (i.e., the natural force behind the structure of movement and progress). Plato called it Logic, Rhetoric, and Grammar. Our sixth-grade teachers called it <span style=\"color: #993300;\">WHY<\/span>, <span style=\"color: #993300;\">WHAT<\/span>, and <span style=\"color: #993300;\">HOW<\/span>. Project life cycles are called Planning, Analysis, and Design. We call it Will, Wisdom, and Activity. The Trivium represents the nature of structured facilitation as superb facilitators help groups transform from the abstract to the concrete.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Website <a href=\"http:\/\/mgrush.com\/facilitator-resources\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">resources<\/a> \u2028<\/strong>(i.e.,\u201d You get to ride all the rides, as many times as you want.\u201d). You will find many of the finest facilitators in the world among the thousands of <em><span style=\"color: #993300;\">MGR<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">USH<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/em>alumni. Therefore, use online access to agendas, templates, and other meeting support tools to make your life easier.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>______<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Don\u2019t ruin your career by hosting <a href=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/blog\/bad-meetings\/\">bad meetings<\/a>. Sign up for a <a href=\"https:\/\/mgrush.com\/public-facilitation-training\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">workshop<\/a> or send this to someone who should. <em><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20260106090117\/https:\/\/mgrush.com\/\">MGR<span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">USH<\/span><\/a><\/em> workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Today we bring you twelve significant behaviors that define successful, professional facilitators. (i.e., GREAT Facilitators) Our scope focuses on structured facilitation (NOT Kum-Bah-Yah). Structured facilitation requires a balanced blend of leadership, facilitation, and methodology. (An alpha sort sequences the following, not order of importance). The first three behaviors: 7:59 AM preparation and interviews\u00a0\u2028(i.e., managing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[453185952],"tags":[453191064,453191063],"class_list":["post-5206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-facilitation-skills","tag-behaviors-of-great-facilitators","tag-great-facilitator"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.8 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Twelve Behaviors that Define Great Facilitators | MG Rush Facilitation Leadership<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Twelve behaviors drive great facilitators. 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