#130 - The Art of Great Facilitation for Better Collaboration with Marsha Acker, Founder and CEO of TeamCatapult

#130 - The Art of Great Facilitation for Better Collaboration with Marsha Acker, Founder and CEO of TeamCatapult

Author: User Interviews July 5, 2023 Duration: 51:55

There are 6 key qualities for great facilitation:

  • Starting with your core beliefs
  • Maintaining neutrality
  • Standing in the storm
  • Honoring the wisdom of the group
  • Upholding the agile mindset
  • Honoring the group’s agenda

According to Marsha Acker, Founder, and CEO of TeamCatapult, 

“The job of facilitator is not to become the agile process police that says we have to have a daily standup and every day we have to answer these three questions…Facilitation is all about reading what's happening in a group, [and] tapping into the collective intelligence and wisdom of that group."

In this episode, Marsha sits down with Erin and JH to discuss the art and importance of facilitation in group settings, focusing on the 6 key principles of great facilitation she wrote about in her book The Art and Science of Facilitation: How to Lead Effective Collaboration with Agile Teams.

Tune in to hear her approach to facilitation, including methods, the preparation process, and how to build your facilitation skills.

👇

Highlights: 

[00:01:05] Defining facilitation: the art of leading people through a process towards a goal

[00:04:50] Reading the room and speaking the language of others

[00:06:08] Maintaining neutrality as a leader

[00:14:24]Standing in the storm of conflict and handling differences

[00:20:43] Honoring the wisdom of the group

[00:23:25] Enhancing agile processes with intentionality

[00:28:54] Honoring the group’s agenda 

[00:33:12] Familiarity versus externality: the pros and cons of different facilitator types

[00:35:57] Guidelines for facilitating workshops

[00:44:56] The importance of navigating invisible team dynamics

Sources mentioned in the episode:

About Our Guest

Marsha Acker, CPF, CPCC, PCC, is the author of Build Your Model for Leading Change: A guided workbook to catalyze clarity and confidence in leading yourself and others, available now. She is the founder and CEO of TeamCatapult, a leadership development firm that equips leaders at all levels to facilitate and lead sustainable behavioral change. She is also the author of The Art and Science of Facilitation: How to Lead Effective Collaboration with Agile Teams and the host of the Defining Moments of Leadership podcast. 


Awkward Silences is a conversation about the human side of building things. Hosts Erin May and Carol Guest, both VPs at User Interviews, don't just talk about theory-they get into the messy, real-world practice of talking to users and making sense of what they say. Each episode pulls back the curtain on the craft of user research, featuring candid chats with the practitioners who do this work every day. You'll hear stories about navigating tricky interviews, the weight of interpreting qualitative data, and how genuine understanding directly shapes better products and smarter business decisions. This isn't a dry lecture; it's a geeky, relatable dive into the questions and quiet moments that define UX research. The Awkward Silences podcast lives in the intersection of technology and business, focusing on the people and processes that connect them. Listen for practical insights, empathetic strategies, and the occasional shared laugh about the inevitable fumbles that come with trying to understand anyone. It’s for anyone who believes that building effectively starts with listening well.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

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