Facilitation Patterns

Table of Contents

• Purpose
• When to Use
• What Is It?
• Workflow
• Common Patterns
• Guardrails
• Quick Reference

Purpose

Facilitation Patterns provide structured approaches for running productive group sessions—from quick standups to multi-day workshops. This skill guides you through selecting the right format, designing agendas, managing participation dynamics, making group decisions, and handling difficult situations to achieve session objectives.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Planning sessions: Design meeting agenda, choose workshop format, estimate timing
• Running meetings: Daily standup, 1:1s, team sync, all-hands, board meeting
• Facilitating workshops: Brainstorm, design sprint, strategy offsite, training session
• Team decisions: Need structured decision-making (voting, consensus, delegation)
• Retrospectives: Sprint retro, project postmortem, quarterly review
• Stakeholder engagement: Kickoff, requirements gathering, alignment session
• Conflict resolution: Tensions between team members, opposing viewpoints, stuck decisions
• Participation issues: Some dominate conversation, others silent, sidebar discussions, low energy
• Remote facilitation: Virtual meetings, hybrid sessions, asynchronous collaboration

Trigger phrases: "facilitation", "workshop design", "meeting patterns", "how to run", "session planning", "effective meetings", "group discussion", "team collaboration"

What Is It?

Facilitation Patterns are proven formats and techniques for structuring group interactions to achieve specific outcomes (decisions, ideas, alignment, learning, etc.).

Core components:

• Format selection: Which pattern fits your goal? (divergent brainstorm, convergent decision, alignment, learning)
• Agenda design: Time-boxed activities in logical flow (diverge → converge, build → test)
• Participation techniques: Ensure everyone contributes (round robin, silent writing, breakouts)
• Decision methods: How to choose (consensus, consent, vote, delegation, advisory)
• Energy management: Pacing, breaks, energizers, transitions
• Difficult dynamics: Handle dominators, silent participants, conflict, tangents, groupthink

Quick example:

Scenario: Product team needs to prioritize features for Q2 (8 people, 90 minutes).

Pattern selected: Effort-Impact Workshop (diverge → assess → converge)

Agenda:

1. Frame (10 min): Present context, Q2 goals, constraints
2. Diverge (20 min): Silent brainstorm on sticky notes (what features could we build?)
3. Cluster (15 min): Group similar ideas, clarify duplicates
4. Assess (25 min): Plot features on effort-impact 2×2 matrix (in pairs, then discuss)
5. Converge (15 min): Dot voting on "quick wins" (high impact, low effort)
6. Decide (10 min): Top 5 features by votes → facilitator makes final call with input
7. Close (5 min): Summarize decisions, next steps, feedback on session

Outcome: Prioritized list of 5 features, buy-in from team (they contributed), completed in 90 min.

Core benefits:

• Structured productivity: Clear process prevents aimless discussion
• Inclusive participation: Techniques ensure quiet voices heard, dominators managed
• Better decisions: Multiple perspectives, bias mitigation (group vs individual), explicit criteria
• Time efficiency: Time-boxing prevents overruns, focused activities
• Psychological safety: Ground rules, equal participation, separated idea generation from evaluation

Workflow

Copy this checklist and track your progress:

Facilitation Planning Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Define session objectives
- [ ] Step 2: Select facilitation pattern
- [ ] Step 3: Design agenda
- [ ] Step 4: Prepare materials and logistics
- [ ] Step 5: Facilitate the session
- [ ] Step 6: Close and follow up

Step 1: Define session objectives

What outcome do you need? (Decision, ideas, alignment, learning, relationship-building). Who attends? How much time? See resources/template.md.

Step 2: Select facilitation pattern

Based on objective and group size, choose pattern (Brainstorm, Decision Workshop, Alignment Session, Retro, Design Sprint). See Common Patterns and resources/methodology.md.

Step 3: Design agenda

Create time-boxed agenda with activities, transitions, breaks. Follow diverge-converge flow. See resources/template.md and resources/methodology.md.

Step 4: Prepare materials and logistics

Set up space (physical or virtual), prepare slides/boards, send pre-work if needed, test tech. See [resources/template.md](resources/tem

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