Examples of Ground Rules. Tips for Facilitators

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What are Ground Rules? When you're going to participate in some form of group activity, it's a good idea to agree beforehand upon some rules all participants must follow. Such agreements are called: Ground Rules (GR). GR are the standards of conduct for meetings, brainstorming sessions, trainings, workshops, mediation, arbitration and other forms of consensus building. They may cover the behavior of the participants, the role and behavior of the facilitator, the methods and process to be used, and the substance of the discussions. Ground Rules Synonyms GR are also being called: discussion guidelines, community norms, participation agreements, a protocol, or rules of engagement. Why are Ground Rules Important? GR help improve the efficiency of the entire process making up the event and also to ensure all parties they will be treated equally and fairly during the process, by anchoring the respect attendants should have towards each other, towards the facilitor and towards the (...) Read more? Sign up for free

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		Tom Wilson, HR Consultant, United States
	Facilitation as a Performing Art: Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Facilitation is a performance art. Establishing cl (...)

		Gary Wong, Consultant, Canada
	On Ground Rule #12 for Consensus For years I have used a ground rule to help a grou (...)

		Ivan Kohlinsky, Management Consultant, United Kingdom
	On Ground Rule #8: No Monopolizing: Don't Allow Self Interested Groups to Sit Together One practical point to avoid 'monopolising' by a g (...)

		Charles Tombazian, Management Consultant, United States
	On Facilitation Ground Rule #9: Challenging Respectfully I borrowed one from a Peter Senge Principal. "Prod (...)

		nuria bages
	On Facilitation Ground Rule #7: Get Involved A variant of the ground rule you have mentioned is (...)

		Yvette Elcock
	Better Name for Facilitation Ground Rules - Some great ideas here! I especially like Gary's (...)

		Andrew Blaine, Business Consultant, South Africa
	Another Ground Rule: Observe Time Limits There is another ground rule that we should apply: (...)

		Garth Nowland-Foreman
	How Ground Rules Can Hurt Paul Gorsky, otherwise a strong supporter of GR ar (...)

		Arif ur Rehman, Professor, Pakistan
	The Ground Rules Crest GR equip any group activity to move ahead without (...)

		Kees van der Zanden, Consultant
	Ways of Maintaining the Ground Rules Dear Jaap and commentors, in my experience, the mo (...)

		Maggie Golding, HR Consultant, United States
	Potential Extra Ground Rule - Be Accountable @:One of our standard ground rules is: "Be account (...)

		antonio esquivias villalobos, Teacher, Spain
	Additional Ground Rules: End of Course and: Breaks I add to the rules : END OF THE COURSE, to have co (...)

		M Banville
	Additional Ground Rule: Have Fun I always suggest the group to add a last one to th (...)

		Tom Wilson, HR Consultant, United States
	Thumbs: Up, Down or Sideways @: Adding to your remarks on achieving consensus, (...)

		Gwande, Project Manager, Zimbabwe
	On Ground Rule #8: No Monopolizing I totally agree. Participants should sacrifice per (...)

		Mrs. Josephine Idele, Partner, Nigeria
	Additional Ground Rule: Appoint a Timekeeper In meetings there is often a tendency by certain p (...)

		Arif ur Rehman, Professor, Pakistan
	Allowing Ground Rules to Rule As Controller of Examinations, at a leading privat (...)

		Tom Wilson, HR Consultant, United States
	It's Like Getting to Carnagie Hall... @: ... Practice. Practice. Practice. You and your (...)

		Jagdish B Acharya, Consultant, India
	Keep Minimum Number of Ground Rules What we expect from group members can be described (...)

		Steven Keleman, Ed.D., Management Consultant, United States
	On Rule #9: Consider Using the 'But Out' Rule The word "but" is often used to disagree with the (...)

		Tom Wilson, HR Consultant, United States
	The 'This AND That'-rule @: As you observed, Ram Dass said that "Everythin (...)

		Yemi Smith, Management Consultant, Nigeria
	A Variant of Ground Rule #10: One House The article and comments are quiet enlightening. M (...)