ABSTRACT
How can meeting facilitators sustain collective sensemaking in management teams? Management scholars have recently called for the development of a “meeting science” (Allen et al., 2015), which examines how managers interact in such gatherings, and how their collective sensemaking can be better supported (Schuman, 2005). Accordingly, a concern for articulating guidelines for facilitators of team meetings has rapidly gained traction. This work has resulted in two broad types of prescriptive frameworks: competence and design. Competence frameworks characterize the skills and knowledge that facilitators should possess to best do their work (e.g. Azadegan and Kolfschoten, 2012; Gregory and Romm, 2001; Hunter and Thorpe, 2005; Kaner, 2007; Lieberman Baker and Fraser, 2005; Schein, 1998, 1999; Schwartz, 2002). Design frameworks, on the other hand, are those that offer guidelines for the design and conduct of facilitated team meetings (e.g. Ackermann, 1996; Kolfschoten et al., 2007; McFadzean and Nelson, 1998; Phillips and Phillips, 1993; Schein, 1998; Wardale, 2013).
