Han Ngi Juan

The statement emphasizes the significance of group dynamics in facilitation. It will render more impact by incorporating insights into motivational value systems to enhance understanding of collaboration and conflict resolution. Additionally, it highlights the need to consider how diverse motivational styles impact group interactions and the facilitator's adaptability. Evaluating interventions with relevant tools can further improve facilitators' effectiveness in managing group dynamics.

While SMART criteria are valuable, they can sometimes limit creativity and flexibility. Rigid goal-setting may lead to a focus on quantifiable outcomes at the expense of qualitative insights, which are equally important in evaluating effectiveness. Intangible values, such as team cohesion, employee morale, cross functional collaboration can be challenging to frame using the SMART criteria, as they are often subjective and harder to quantify.

One example of why participant satisfaction is important can be seen in the context of a facilitation workshop. Let's say the predefined goals of the workshop is to evaluate on the options on ‘the how’ to improve participants' knowledge and skills for the future of work in an emerging AI Era. While analyzing whether these goals were met through quantitative data capturing the ‘Need’ is essential, it doesn't necessarily capture the participants' subjective experience such as the ‘want’ which is very individual. The ‘want’ is usually the emotional component which cannot be captured in large group facilitation.

In addition to observing participant engagement, another crucial aspect to critique during a session is the level of understanding and comprehension displayed by the participants. While high levels of engagement indicate the interest in conducive facilitation style, it is equally important to assess if the participants are grasping the concepts and content being presented. While process facilitation may be engaging but sometimes the content facilitation falls short of quality. It is the content that define the quality and strategic way forward.

Focus on participant experience as a priority in addition to evaluating the facilitator's effectiveness. Prioritise the understanding the participants' experience, what they gained from the session, and how they plan to apply their collective wisdom and shared path forward. This helps to create a more learner-centered approach and identify areas of improvement that directly impact participants' learning outcomes. Focusing just on effective of facilitation is more of self orientation and not participants centric.

Large group facilitation fails due to poor communication and inadequate planning. Ineffective communication hinders idea sharing and understanding, while insufficient planning leads to disorganization and unclear goals. This lack of structure makes it challenging to achieve meaningful outcomes, hindering the success of large group facilitation efforts.