DEUTSCH

Step-by-Step

1. A network facilitator should be well prepared for his/her task and pay attention to the following points:

a. Visualizations simplify the understanding of complex issues.

b. Every participant should have a chance to speak, every opinion is important, but participants should be as brief as possible.

c. Mistakes may be made and questions may be asked.

d. The group should always find a balance between having fun and achieving the goal of the meeting.


2. Prepare methodically in advance for the project or network meeting:

a. What basic facilitation techniques can be used? (e.g., single-point/multi-point polling, question types, visualization, etc.).

b. What creative facilitation techniques are available? (e.g., idea carousel, mind mapping, 6-3-5, and pyramid discussion).

c. How do I evaluate discussions? How do I handle difficult facilitation situations and when might they occur?


3. Create a facilitation plan in which you record the individual steps, the respective goal, the methodology, necessary tools, the time period as well as the responsibilities.

4. Start the meeting with a prelude: Greeting, getting to know each other, and ice-breaker methods.

5. Then get into the topic: Identifying the topic, clarifying the problem, presenting today's agenda and, if necessary, adapting it to the participants' wishes.

6. Then work on the topic: group work, discussions, idea generation and evaluation.

7. Finally, secure the results: Recording tasks and responsibilities, reflecting on the process and formulating next steps.

More about the tool

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages:

  • The method leads to increased efficiency through better structure during project or network meetings.
  • Networking and facilitation are good ways to contrast the knowledge from science with the (often routinized) empirical knowledge from practice.
  • Participation of the participants can be made possible by a well-designed network facilitation.

Disadvantages:

  • Depending on the group size and structure, it can be a challenge for the network facilitator to moderate a group.
  • Participatory network facilitation between science and practice does not succeed if only existing knowledge is tested against practice. There should be a real interest in the exchange of experiences between the actors.

Application into practice

Health promotion and prevention has a high priority in Münsterland, therefore many corresponding measures are offered here. But how can the offer with the aim of improving the health of the population and achieving equal opportunities be optimized and made accessible to even more people? Are further offers necessary? The sub-project "Regional Health Promotion in the Borken District" in münster.land.leben is investigating these questions together with the district of Borken and its 17 municipalities in the Westmünsterland region. The project managers want to ensure that the partners network better with each other and have invited them to the first meeting of a health network. A project manager and network developer from the Department of Health at Münster University of Applied Sciences moderated this network meeting. The meeting was designed in a participatory manner with the goal of agreeing on a common topic area that the participants would like to tackle first. Everyone was to participate actively and contribute his or her point of view, which was a central task of the network moderation. After a thorough preparation before the network meeting, during which the network moderator learned some moderation techniques and created a schedule, many moderation and discussion techniques were used, including the brainstorming method, the action plan and the one-point question. This helps to avoid conflicts and made the meeting participatory despite the different disciplines and structural backgrounds of the participants. It was jointly agreed to focus on psychosocial health as the first of many topics likely to follow, with special attention to working family caregivers.

Hints from practice

  • For a participatory involvement of the participants, you should actively invite and involve them in the discussion. You should create an appropriate framework (e.g. trust, openness, equality, etc.) so that the participation of all participants is possible. This is not a matter of course.
  • Test different facilitation and discussion techniques in advance; everyone has different preferences and different techniques work for each topic and in each context.
  • Make sure that the thinking is connective, i.e. the partners should not deal exclusively with the moderator, but in particular with each other.

Testimonial



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