In any effective meeting, the role of the person leading the conversation is important. But in a Collaborative Team Meeting (CTM), the facilitator is not just important—they are critical to the entire process.
In the CTM, a team uses a specific student issue to leverage a discussion about a key issue that impacts multiple students. The goal is to move beyond talking about an individual student to brainstorming strategies that everyone can use in their practice. This process is complex and quickly breaks down without skilled facilitation.
Here's why the facilitator is essential for CTMs, and the key strategies they use to keep the meeting on track with high-impact.
The Difference Between Chairing and Facilitating
We often see a crucial difference between simply "chairing" a meeting and truly facilitating:
Generating Psychological Safety
The facilitator directly impacts the psychological safety of the team, which is vital for effective collaboration. They achieve this by focusing on two key factors:
- Ensuring Approximately Equal Voice: The facilitator must ensure that not just one or two dominant voices are heard. They actively work to bring in the quietest members of the team.
- Active Listening: The facilitator models and encourages active listening by not being distracted. This is why distributing roles (like timekeeper or notetaker) is so important—the facilitator must be fully present to read the room, make eye contact, and listen carefully. When the facilitator is able to focus fully on the flow, tone and progress of the meeting, they are aware of time needed for processing, wait time for responses and adjustments to the cadence of the meeting.
A Google study called Project Aristotle sought to identify the influencing factors that create a successful team. Their research did not conclude that it is the personalities on the team, expertise or leadership (which was their initial hypothesis) but rather how the team interacts with one another is more important than who is on the team. The determining factors for an effective team are how safe members feel in regards to voicing their opinion, ideas or concerns. Effective teams work within structure and clarity in regards to their roles, plans and goals and each team member was dependable in contributing and completing their tasks. It is also important to note that team members need to feel valued by the team as well as understanding that what they are doing is making a difference.
Three Things Every Facilitator Needs to Know and Do
In the Collaborative Team Meeting, the facilitator leads the key issue process, the core conversation that drives shared action and builds collective capacity. In order to successfully lead others through this process, the facilitator must have a solid understanding of the "why" behind each of these three principles to ensure they are carried out with the team for maximum impact.
1. Refining the "Goldilocks Effect" Key Issue
When a teacher brings a key issue forward such as "My key issue is this kid is off task”, A skilled facilitator will ensure the problem is "just right" by asking a few clarifying questions that are pertinent to the situation.
If the key issue is too big, for example “student motivation" then it will be incredibly difficult to generate strategies that are applicable in supporting students and their current needs. The actions will be difficult to articulate and therefore few actions will be identified and will actually work against the intention of the collaborative team meeting.
If the key issue is too small, the team will focus fully on the needs of one student (the kid who is off task) and their surrounding circumstances as the key issue only applies to the needs of that one student. This again will work in a counterproductive manner as one of our core purposes in the collaborative team meeting is to generate and share strategies that will support many.
The facilitator asks clarifying questions to refine the issue: “When do you notice that happening? Is it during independent work, group work, or at the start of an activity?” This helps get to the root of the issue so the team can brainstorm explicit strategies. These questions will help to clarify the key issue and arrive at something more meaningful and operational such as “getting started with independent work” which would be a great refinement on the “student motivation” or the “this kid is off task” previously mentioned.
2. Reinforcing the Norm of "We"
During the critical brainstorming phase, the facilitator must redirect and re-clarify purpose. If a team member turns to a teacher who had initially articulated the key issue and says, "Lorna, you could try..." the facilitator should immediately step in to reinforce that we are generating a list of possible ideas none of which should be directed to any staff member or toward any student. A facilitator might refocus attention on the common set of projected notes to reinforce the idea that we are all working to generate ideas that could be possibilities for any or all students.
The facilitator makes sure the team is generating strategies for the collective ("we"), not for a single teacher or a single student. If the roles are clear from the outset, the redirection is not taken personally, it's simply the facilitator bringing the team back to the agreed-upon process.
It is important to note that when we direct ideas to specific team members we open the door to negating the suggestions or for reasons why those strategies won’t work. When we direct our attention to the brainstorm and the generation of ideas where every idea is accepted and viewed as a possibility, we attempt to create a list of plausible strategies for use with the students we’ve named and many many more. Through this activity, we engage in professional learning that is relevant and actionable in the moment and applicable to many. This is one way we actualize universal design for learning.
3. Ensuring Everyone’s Voice is Heard
To capture the essence of true collaboration and sharing, the facilitator needs surface everyone's thinking. A simple strategy can dramatically increase equal voice and as we’ve noted earlier accessing all voices creates psychological safety:
- Individual Think Time: Once the key issue is refined, the facilitator asks everyone to take one minute to jot down a few ideas on a post-it note.
- Targeted Share Out: The facilitator then intentionally calls on people to share their pre-written ideas: "Alisha, what's one idea you've brought? Lorna, I'm going to come to you next, so be ready."
This approach ensures that the most talkative people don't dominate the brainstorming, the quiet members have time to reflect without feeling on the spot, and the team accesses the full range of expertise in the room.
For schools newly implementing CTMs, it is often beneficial for the administrator to serve as the primary facilitator for the first year. This models the process, ensures fidelity to the collaborative team meeting, and creates a clear understanding of the role before handing the baton to other teachers.
Facilitation is a skill that takes practice. By consciously focusing on equal voice, clarifying the key issue, and reinforcing team norms, the facilitator ensures the Collaborative Team Meeting moves beyond a simple discussion to become a powerful driver of change, professional learning and collective impact for many students across the school.
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Are you still using Google docs, spreadsheets and One Note to record your meeting docs?
Join Jennifer as she walks through the Collaborative Team Meeting process in WeCollab, ensuring that multiple student profiles are updated with the determined supports and actions simultaneously through the collaborative conversation and that staff remain informed through transparent communication processes.