• Home
  • Agile Services
  • Scaled Agile
  • Delivery
  • Consulting
  • Capability Uplift
  • Training
  • Services

PM Partners

  • What We Do
  • Success Stories
  • Insights
  • Resources
    • Capability Hub
    • eBooks & White papers
    • Checklists & Infographics
    • Learning Pathways Quiz
  • Contact
  • Training Courses
    Promotions & special offers
    Promotions & special offers
    • Course list
    • Group bookings
    • Learning pathways

    MOST POPULAR COURSES

    • Scrum Master Certified (SMC™)
    • Agile Project Management
    • PRINCE2®
    • Project Management Fundamentals
    • Business Analysis Fundamentals
    • Leading SAFe® 5.1

    POPULAR PAGES

    • Corporate in-house training
    • Training reinvented
    • Training schedule
    • Room hire
    • Meet our trainers
    • eLearning courses
  • Project Delivery
  • Project Management Consultants
  • Agile Services
  • Scaled Agile
  • Capability Uplift
  • Home
  • Insights
  • Learning and Development
  • A BA’s guide to effective facilitation skills in a hybrid world
August 9, 2022

A BA’s guide to effective facilitation skills in a hybrid world

A BA’s guide to effective facilitation skills in a hybrid world

Thursday, 05 May 2022 / Published in Learning and Development, Projects and Programmes
BA facilitating hybrid

With hybrid now the norm across many industries, business analysts need to bolster their facilitation skills to meet the changing nature of the new workplace.

As one of the core competencies of every capable business analyst (BA), effective facilitation is even more important in the hybrid workplace. Facilitation skills are also essential for BAs to drive their company’s digital transformation.

Here, PM-Partners Senior Consultant Stephen Howard clarifies what facilitation means in the context of BAs, and discusses ways to strengthen your facilitation skills to ensure virtual and hybrid meetings remain as constructive as they do when everyone is in the office.

What does ‘facilitation’ mean in the context of business analysts?

Facilitation means different things depending on who is ‘facilitating’. In general terms, it is the process by which an individual helps a group work together more cohesively. Business analysts often act as facilitators of small groups within an organisation, whether it’s during a typical morning meeting, a team-building exercise, or an environment where the employees need to be more collaborative or agree on a strategy.

Depending on the industry and the size of the organisation, the facilitator may be either internal (a salaried employee) or external (a hired professional). Whatever the case, they act purely as ‘process leaders’, which means they have no decision-making authority, nor do they contribute to the substance of the discussion. Instead, they help the group stay on task and be more productive and results-driven than they would otherwise be without the support of a facilitator.

How BA roles have changed with the shift to hybrid

Pre-COVID, a BA’s role as facilitator was fairly straightforward. The group would gather in a face-to-face setting – typically in a meeting room where they could address the topic without external distractions – and work together until a consensus was reached and/or objectives achieved.

Today, however, many meetings now take place in a completely virtual environment, or with participants split between office and home. As a result, BAs facilitating in this setting are facing a raft of inherent challenges, including:

  • Diminished quality of communication as BAs have lost the ability to read non-verbal cues. Most significantly, it’s harder for BAs to empathise with participants, which is an essential quality of good facilitators.
  • The lack of structure of digital sessions means it’s harder to hold everyone’s attention.
  • ‘Home office’ distractions, such as children arriving home from school, construction noise.
  • Not being in the same room as everyone else makes it easier to lose concentration, with participation levels often falling as time goes on.
  • Problems with technology can cause the meeting to cut out, participants to lose video and/or audio, or other complications that hamper good facilitation.

Despite these barriers, BAs must still be able to ensure their hybrid meetings are as productive and constructive as possible. Some smart ways to do this are to shorten the length of time of the meetings. Keeping them ‘segmented’ means there’s less chance for participants to lose track of the meeting’s purpose. It’s also worth creating an outline and sharing it with the team before the meeting begins – and making sure that what you working on during the session is visible to everyone. This way everyone is aware of what will be covered and there’s less chance of conversations diverging into unnecessary topics.

Establishing the ‘basic needs’ of remote sessions

To support your teams through the transition to hybrid and remote sessions, a good facilitator needs to establish some basic needs:

  • Technology: Not everyone will be proficient at using digital tools to participate in meetings, especially if the organisation has traditionally relied on legacy systems and processes. If someone is unable to use the video/audio features, then perhaps they can share their thoughts in text via the chatbox.
  • Group size: Be aware that the larger the group, the more difficult it is to facilitate. This is true in a face-to-face environment, but even more so in the online world – 10 people (or under) is a good number to aim for, with fewer participants allowing more time for everyone to contribute.
  • Preparation: It is the BA’s job as facilitator to adequately prepare for each session. Take the time to understand the unique dynamics of your upcoming session, and plan for it to be as inclusive as possible for the different personalities who will be joining. Also be sure to solidify the objectives for the session, what tools you will be using, what level of collaboration you expect, and whether there any risks to the type of environment you will be facilitating in.
  • Tools: Experienced BAs use a range of tools that fulfill a specific purpose when facilitating meetings. In the best-case scenario, these will be unobtrusive to participants. Think about how you want to integrate tools like videoconferencing, whiteboards and Kanban boards, as well as specialised tools to help stimulate brainstorming sessions. And make sure all participants know how to use these tools beforehand.

What an effective facilitator can get out of their teams

When a BA uses all their facilitation skills effectively, the group can reap a variety of benefits – whether they are in a face-to-face, hybrid or online-only setting. These include:

  • Motivation: Group members want to support the decisions made because of their investment in the process.
  • Results: When the group works together, they typically generate better results than they would working on the task individually.
  • Productivity: The more that group members want to participate, the more productive they become.
  • Contribution: When all members of the group feel they have the opportunity to contribute, that naturally makes them feels like they are an essential part of the team.
  • Conflict resolution: The ‘meeting’ becomes a place where conflicts are resolved more constructively and misunderstandings are clarified with minimal friction.

Facilitation skills to adopt in 2022 and beyond

Beyond facilitation in the context of managing groups and running meetings, this skill is also essential for BAs who are helping their companies embrace digital transformation. As the Harvard Business Review puts it: “The rapid spread of technology accelerated by the pandemic has led to a pressing need for businesses and governments to adapt.”

As a business analyst, it’s your job to facilitate these transformations and ensure they result in a successful deployment. From being well prepared and adaptable, to knowing how to set guidelines and manage time, BAs need to adopt core facilitation skills in order to drive their company into the digital future.

An effective business analyst is always learning and looking for ways to improve themselves. In the context of facilitation, you need to constantly upskill yourself to maintain your effectiveness in a group setting and guide your organisation towards its goals. Particularly in a hybrid environment, where you may be managing groups split across the physical and virtual world, building up a solid facilitation foundation and reflecting on the business analysis fundamentals can help you thrive in the post-COVID workplace.

To become a more proficient facilitator or further develop your skill set as a BA, contact the facilitation experts at PM-Partners or call us on 1300 70 13 14 today.

 

Stephen Howard

About The Author

Stephen Howard

Senior Consultant, Facilitator and Business Analysis Practice Lead, PM-Partners 

Steve has extensive experience consulting, facilitating, and mentoring in disciplines such as strategic IT management, portfolio, programme and project management, business analysis, Agile and team development. Working across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Europe, his audience includes those looking to uplift their skills in leadership, strategic planning, time management and other areas. Steve draws on real world experiences and facilitates a transfer of skills and knowledge through his passionate delivery style. 

What you can read next

project skills project management skills
Project skills: opening new doors beyond traditional sectors
which project delivery framework is best for your organisation
Which project delivery framework is right for your organisation?
Managing remote work and teams effectively
Managing projects effectively in a remote work environment

GENERAL ENQUIRY
1300 70 13 14

CONTACT US
Send a message

FOLLOW US

Subscribe for industry news and insights
Registered Project Management Education Provider

PM-Partners group is a DASA training partner, a Project Management Institute (PMI)® Global Registered Education Provider (R.E.P), an APMG-International Accredited Training Organisation (ATO), an AXELOS Certified Partner, an accredited partner of PeopleCert (Partner ID: 3800), an Endorsed Education Provider™ (EEP™) for the International Institute for Business Analysis™ (IIBA®), a Scaled Agile Silver Partner and a Microsoft® EPM Solution Partner. PMI, CAPM, Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), PMP, Project Management Professional (PMP), PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) and PMBOK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc. PRINCE2®, AgileSHIFT®, MSP®, P3O®, MoP®, ITIL® and PRINCE2 Agile® are registered trade marks of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved. The Certified Partner, Partner Programme Logo and Swirl Logo™ are trade marks of AXELOS Limited, used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved. AgilePM®, AgilePgM®, AgileBA® and DSDM® are registered trademarks of Agile Business Consortium Limited. All rights reserved. APMG International Change Management, APMG International Facilitation and APMG International Lean Six Sigma are trademarks of The APM Group Limited. All rights reserved. The APMG-International AgilePM, AgilePgM, AgileBA, Change Management, Managing Benefits, Facilitation, Lean Six Sigma and Swirl Device logos are trademarks of The APM Group Limited, used under permission of The APM Group Limited. All rights reserved. SMC™ and SPOC™ are trademarks of SCRUMstudy. Scaled Agile Framework® and SAFe® are registered trade marks of Scaled Agile, Inc. IIBA®, the IIBA® logo, BABOK® Guide and Business Analysis Body of Knowledge® are registered trademarks owned by International Institute of Business Analysis. CBAP® and CCBA® are registered certification marks owned by International Institute of Business Analysis. Certified Business Analysis Professional™, Certification of Competency in Business Analysis™, Endorsed Education Provider™, EEP™ and the EEP logo are trademarks owned by International Institute of Business Analysis.

Privacy Policy | Sitemap | Timesheets | Terms & Conditions | Capability Hub
Copyright © 1996-2022 PM-Partners Group. Delivery Advisory Capability. All Rights Reserved.

TOP