Building Consensus: Better Meetings Begin With Facilitation Training Certification

Building consensus in a meeting is undoubtedly challenging, but facilitation training certification can change everything. Facilitation training programs equip leaders with the most appropriate frameworks, tools, and methods to successfully build consensus and run better meetings. 

Statistics show that 5 million meetings are held a week and of those meetings, 78% of participants believe that the meeting structure is too chaotic. Without a concise and cohesive agenda, meetings result in wasted time and infectivity, as 35% of participants complain they waste 2 – 5 hours of their day on meetings. 

Facilitators that are searching for a way to improve their approach to running meetings can find the answer in facilitation training certification.

In this article, we’ll discuss the following:

• What is Consensus Decision Making?
• The Key to Creating Consensus
• Building Consensus Through Design Thinking
• Find Your Power as a Facilitator
• Fast-Track Your Facilitation Growth
• What to Expect From a Facilitation Course

Building Consensus: Better Meetings Begin With Facilitation Training Certification 

Building consensus in a meeting is undoubtedly challenging, but facilitation training certification can change everything. Facilitation training programs equip leaders with the most appropriate frameworks, tools, and methods to successfully build consensus and run better meetings. 

Statistics show that 5 million meetings are held a week and of those meetings, 78% of participants believe that the meeting structure is too chaotic. Without a concise and cohesive agenda, meetings result in wasted time and infectivity, as 35% of participants complain they waste 2 – 5 hours of their day on meetings. 

Facilitators that are searching for a way to improve their approach to running meetings can find the answer in facilitation training certification.

In this article, we’ll discuss the following:

• What is Consensus Decision Making?
• The Key to Creating Consensus
• Building Consensus Through Design Thinking
• Find Your Power as a Facilitator
• Fast-Track Your Facilitation Growth
• What to Expect From a Facilitation Course

What is Consensus Decision Making?

All meetings generally have the same objective: to productively bring people together to achieve a specific purpose. In a successful meeting, facilitators bring a group together, encourage open discussion, and deliver tangible results. 

Consensus decision-making is a method that requires all participants to collaborate as they problem-solve and eventually reach a consensus. Consensus decision-making is the process the group undergoes to arrive at an agreement. In a traditional political process, the majority wins. This method results in unresolved issues or contentions that are never addressed.

In a consensus decision-making process, all parties work to ensure that everyone is on board with the final decision. This type of process guarantees that all members of the group are heard. These consensus decisions are preferable to vote decisions as participants are more engaged in the process, more likely to implement the decision, and are happier to accept the end result. 

A successful consensus process follows principles such as:

• Consensus decision making
  • Participants make all decisions by agreement

• Commitment to implementation
  • Participants commit to fulfilling their objective

• Ground rules/shared control
  • Participants and the facilitator share responsibility for setting and maintaining ground rules and creating outcomes

• Flexibility
  • Participants design the process and address issues in a format most suitable to their situation 

• Facilitation
  • An impartial facilitator manages the meeting process, ensures that rules are followed, and works to maintain a productive environment conducive to problem-solving and communication

• Accountability
  • Participants must be accountable to the process and the interests they represent

• Inclusiveness
  • All necessary interests must be represented

The Key to Creating Consensus

In the art of facilitation, building consensus is undoubtedly challenging. This is especially true for organizations with contentious company cultures. Experienced facilitators are equipped with the tools needed to build consensus and run better meetings. 

When working to achieve consensus, it’s important to adopt a framework that puts people first, such as design thinking. Ultimately, trust is key to consensus building. All parties involved have to believe that their team and facilitator are reasonable people that have their best interests in mind. 

Building Consensus Through Design Thinking

Design thinking is a powerful way to approach consensus decision-making. This framework helps teams explore and generate ideas to build consensus. Design thinking champions a human-centered approach to problem-solving, making it an ideal framework for building consensus in any type of meeting. 

Design thinking benefits consensus decision making by:

• Encouraging psychological safety by giving people the opportunity to share their ideas

• Validating the rules of all individuals on a team

• Convincing decision-makers to be inclusive and understanding 

• Prioritizing a “how might we?” approach rather than a results-centered one

• Avoiding unintended problems by testing all solutions and allowing for iterative feedback

Find Your Power as a Facilitator

Finding your power as a facilitator starts with strengthening your skills. As you grow, you’ll learn how to get the most from your team while stimulating collaborative problem-solving in an orderly and engaging fashion.

When it comes to leading meetings, expert facilitation is essential. Proper facilitation ensures that your team members can have the most efficient and effective meetings possible. Facilitation training certification hones necessary skills like leadership prowess and creativity. Through facilitation training programs, leaders learn the best processes to run meetings that are engaging, enriching, and innovative. 

Successful facilitators have the following skills:

• Clear communication
• Active listening
• Time management
• Advanced preparation
• The ability to foster psychologically safe environments
• Group decision making management

Strengthening the above skills will help to grow your facilitation prowess. With facilitation training certification, you’ll learn how to strengthen these skills and learn new tools to improve your practice.

Fast-Track Your Facilitation Growth

The challenge of creating a thoughtful structure that engages participants and encourages creative discourse isn’t easy. Facilitation training certification enables managers, specialists, team leaders, and the like to facilitate events, meeting groups, and remote sessions. With facilitation training, managers and team leaders are equipped with skills, techniques, and tools that are essential to flawlessly run productive meetings. 

Facilitation training certification helps participants progress past the fundamentals of leading meetings as they learn advanced techniques. These skills help facilitators ask the right questions, create consensus around specific topics, and manage participants as they collaborate to develop a solid plan of action. Sign up for the Voltage Control course to learn more about exciting concepts and innovative tools that will help you effectively facilitate any type of meeting.

What to Expect From a Facilitation Training Course

Expert facilitation is an incredible asset to every team, making facilitation training a must for today’s team leaders. In a facilitation training certification program, participants can expect to learn new strategies to lead successful sessions, whether they are remote or in-person. 

Voltage Control’s facilitation training certification course covers the following:

• Preparing for a meeting 
• Customizing an agenda
• Starting a session 
• Focusing the team
• Gathering information
• Handling unexpected incidents
• Building consensus
• Improving engagement
• Closing a session
• Identifying actionable next steps

Our comprehensive facilitation training program is aligned with the International Association of Facilitators competencies to provide participants with the chance to practice during the course. This hands-on experience allows for constructive feedback from other facilitators and colleagues. 

Throughout the program, you’ll have the opportunity to:

• Learn and use the leading facilitation approaches and methods
• Select the most appropriate facilitation methods to meet your needs
• Develop your confidence as a professional facilitator
• Identify areas of personal strength
• Implement the proposed methods to attain the optimal outcome 

While many facilitators choose to lead their sessions without any professional training, with the appropriate coursework, you’ll earn certificates of completion that will strengthen your rapport as a facilitator. After completing the course, you’ll be able to display your full certification on LinkedIn, your CV, and your portfolio for increased recognition in the industry as an expert facilitator. 

Work smarter as a facilitator by learning to build consensus and strengthening other facilitation skills with facilitation training. With our facilitation training certification program, you’ll gain the confidence and experience to lead like a pro. Register for our facilitation certification to learn more about the course and how to get started with training.

FAQ Section

What is the process of consensus building in facilitation?
The process of consensus building in facilitation involves structured methods that encourage open dialogue and collaboration among all relevant stakeholders. Facilitators use consensus-building techniques like the Nominal Group Technique to ensure all individual participants have a voice. This collaborative process leads to decisions that reflect overwhelming agreement, avoiding superficial agreement or majority rule.

What is the importance of engaging all stakeholders in the consensus-building process?
Engaging all relevant stakeholders is crucial in building a successful consensus. By involving diverse perspectives and ensuring that each participant feels heard, facilitators can avoid superficial agreement. This inclusive approach leads to better creative solutions and stronger decision-making processes, fostering neural alignment and behavioral alignment within the team.

How does Voltage Control help leaders improve their consensus-building approach?
Voltage Control offers facilitation training that equips leaders with the tools and frameworks necessary for an effective consensus-building process. Leaders learn to foster a cooperative process, ensuring high-centrality participants and control group participants work towards behavioral and conversation alignment. This structured approach allows the leadership team to navigate brainstorming sessions and reach unanimous agreement.

What techniques are used to achieve creative solutions during the consensus-building effort?
Here, at Voltage Control, we emphasize the use of design thinking and strategic sparring sessions to drive creative solutions. These techniques create an environment of collaboration where intercepts for participant pairs and high-centrality participants can explore alternative solutions. This method ensures that the consensus-building effort leads to win-win solutions for all involved.

What role does consensus building play in decision-making frameworks?
Consensus building is an essential component of decision-making frameworks. Facilitators are trained to use consensus-building techniques that help teams reach unanimous agreement without relying on majority rule. This structured approach ensures all relevant stakeholders contribute, making decisions that reflect the entire group’s interests.

How can facilitators ensure the success of the consensus-building process?
To ensure success, facilitators must create a collaborative environment where structured methods guide discussions. At Voltage Control, we teach leaders how to implement a consensus-building approach that balances creative solutions with the practical needs of the team. The focus on relevant stakeholders, alternative solutions, and a win-win outcome ensures that the process of consensus building remains productive and aligned with organizational goals.