FREE MEETING FACILITATION LEARNING PATH

WikiFree original practice workbook

The decision forum

CASE STATUS: fictional/synthetic teaching material. Do not present the example as real research, employment experience or measured business performance.

OUTCOME
Design and facilitate a short practice decision meeting with inclusive participation, a decision record and clear follow-up.

BEFORE YOU START
Basic workplace communication. A solo simulation or a small willing practice group; no paid meeting tool.

CASE
The fictional Maple Volunteer Team must choose one of two workshop dates. Six volunteers have different availability, the room has a fixed booking deadline and the meeting lasts 25 minutes. The facilitator does not own the decision alone.

INPUTS
Agenda item,Minutes
Purpose and decision rule,3
Evidence and constraints,5
Options and concerns,8
Decision and owners,6
Recap and feedback,3


ENTRY CHECK

Question: Is an agenda just a list of topics?

Self-check: A useful agenda also states outcomes, time and responsibility.

Question: Does silence always mean agreement?

Self-check: No.

Question: What makes a follow-up actionable?

Self-check: An owner, action and due date.

STAGE 1: Define the meeting outcome

Prerequisite: Basic workplace communication. A solo simulation or a small willing practice group; no paid meeting tool.

Instruction: A meeting earns its time when the needed interaction is clear. State the decision, constraints, participants and decision rule before inviting discussion. The facilitator manages the process; the designated decision owner makes the final choice according to the agreed rule. Some information can be read beforehand, leaving meeting time for resolving differences.

Practice task: Write the purpose, desired decision, participants and a pre-read for the date choice.

Deliverable: A meeting brief with decision authority.

Acceptance check: The brief names who decides and what evidence must be considered.

If stuck: Do not invite a discussion when the decision has already been made without saying so.

Record your work, decisions and evidence:




Record your result against the acceptance check:



STAGE 2: Build a timed agenda

Prerequisite: Bring your previous output: A meeting brief with decision authority.

Instruction: Allocate time to the work needed for the decision, not equally to every speaker by habit. Put constraints before option debate and reserve time to record the outcome. A parking list keeps unrelated topics from consuming the decision window, but each parked issue still needs a later owner or disposition.

Practice task: Adapt the 25-minute agenda and add expected outputs and facilitation prompts for each item.

Deliverable: A timed, outcome-based agenda.

Acceptance check: The times total 25 minutes and decision recording is explicitly allocated.

If stuck: If all time is spent presenting, shorten the pre-read discussion and protect decision time.

Record your work, decisions and evidence:




Record your result against the acceptance check:



STAGE 3: Make participation easier

Prerequisite: Bring your previous output: A timed, outcome-based agenda.

Instruction: Use a neutral question, a short quiet thinking period and a round of contributions to surface different views. Summarize positions without endorsing one prematurely. Invite concerns about the proposal rather than treating quiet participants as automatic agreement. Participation methods should fit the group and accessibility needs, not become a rigid performance.

Practice task: Write three neutral prompts and practice summarizing two opposing date preferences.

Deliverable: A facilitation prompt and participation plan.

Acceptance check: Both preferences are represented accurately and the plan includes a way to contribute without interruption.

If stuck: Replace leading questions with prompts that allow more than one legitimate answer.

Record your work, decisions and evidence:




Record your result against the acceptance check:



STAGE 4: Handle a disagreement and decide

Prerequisite: Bring your previous output: A facilitation prompt and participation plan.

Instruction: Separate the underlying constraint from the proposed solution. A volunteer may prefer a date because of transport availability, not resistance to the event. Restate the shared goal, compare options against agreed criteria and apply the decision rule. If essential evidence is missing, record a bounded follow-up instead of manufacturing consensus.

Practice task: Run the supplied disagreement role-play and record a decision or a clearly owned evidence request.

Deliverable: A decision record with rationale and dissent.

Acceptance check: The record names the chosen option, owner, rationale and any unresolved concern.

If stuck: Do not write everyone agreed when the group actually used a designated decision owner.

Record your work, decisions and evidence:




Record your result against the acceptance check:



STAGE 5: Close the loop and reflect

Prerequisite: Bring your previous output: A decision record with rationale and dissent.

Instruction: End by reading back actions, owners and due dates. A decision note should be concise enough to use and specific enough to prevent conflicting interpretations. Reflect on whether the process produced the needed outcome, who had difficulty participating and what to change next time. A solo simulation offers practice evidence, not proof of real team consensus.

Practice task: Create the follow-up note and a three-question reflection. Verify each action with its intended owner in a real practice session, if one occurred.

Deliverable: An action log and facilitation reflection.

Acceptance check: Every action has an owner and due date, and the session type is labeled honestly.

If stuck: Do not send a follow-up to real participants as part of a solo exercise.

Record your work, decisions and evidence:




Record your result against the acceptance check:



WORKED CASE
The agenda totals 25 minutes. A valid outcome may be a date decision with one named booking owner, or a short evidence request with a deadline. Both are clearer than ending with an unowned statement that the team should discuss it later.

FINAL PROJECT
Deliver the brief, agenda, prompts, decision record, action log and reflection. Replan the meeting for 15 minutes while preserving the essential decision and close-out steps.

REQUIRED CRITICAL CHECK
Decision authority is explicit and the final record accurately distinguishes agreement, dissent and unresolved work.

SCORING
Score each of the five stage acceptance checks from 0–16 (0 missing/incorrect; 8 partially supported; 16 complete and evidenced). Score the final integrated project from 0–20 (0 missing; 10 incomplete handover; 20 complete, reproducible and consistent with the case). Target: at least 80/100 AND the critical check must pass. A total score never overrides a failed critical check.

SCOPE LIMIT
This is facilitation practice, not formal mediation certification or a guarantee of consensus.

SOURCES AND ACCESS
Assigned public videos can be watched free. Complete the original case in a text editor, on paper or in a spreadsheet you already have. No paid course, exam or provider certificate is included.

Free MIT Course: Facilitative Leadership in the Public Sector
WikiFree: https://wikifree.com/courses/mit-facilitative-leadership-in-the-public-sector/
Official source: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUl4u3cNGP60O02XvPeXfmDpv3Dir9q0T
Why selected: MIT public facilitation lessons cover concepts, scenarios, micro-skills and reflection, followed by an original volunteer-team simulation.

Stage 1 selected lessons:

1. Session 1: Concepts and Theories of Facilitative Leadership in the Public Sector (32:39)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idZoHI9dLsk&list=PLUl4u3cNGP60O02XvPeXfmDpv3Dir9q0T&index=1

Stage 2 selected lessons:

2. Session 2: Hypotheticals (42:42)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VQ8oSasaRQ&list=PLUl4u3cNGP60O02XvPeXfmDpv3Dir9q0T&index=2

Stage 3 selected lessons:

3. Session 3: Microskills for Facilitative Leaders (40:01)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IaCINjMWrI&list=PLUl4u3cNGP60O02XvPeXfmDpv3Dir9q0T&index=3

Stage 5 selected lessons:

4. Session 4: Do You Really See Yourself as a Facilitative Leader? (28:26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZW2A2z7zcI&list=PLUl4u3cNGP60O02XvPeXfmDpv3Dir9q0T&index=4

REUSE
Original WikiFree teaching text and synthetic fixtures are supplied for personal learning and adaptation with attribution. Provider lessons remain on their original sites and retain their own terms. No provider certificate is included.