CVS Skills in Facilitation 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A virtual value study workshop has participants across several time zones. Which facilitation practice is most critical?
- Structuring shorter sessions with clear agendas, engagement checks, and shared digital workspaces (Correct answer)
- Running the same 8-hour agenda used for in-person studies
- Disabling cameras to reduce bandwidth issues
- Letting participants multitask freely to respect their schedules
Correct answer: Structuring shorter sessions with clear agendas, engagement checks, and shared digital workspaces
Virtual facilitation demands tighter agendas, deliberate engagement, and shared tools to sustain attention remotely.
Question 2: Which nonverbal cue should prompt a facilitator to check in with a participant?
- Leaning forward while taking notes
- Crossed arms, withdrawal from discussion, and avoiding eye contact after a decision (Correct answer)
- Smiling while presenting an idea
- Standing to write on the flip chart
Correct answer: Crossed arms, withdrawal from discussion, and avoiding eye contact after a decision
Withdrawal signals possible unvoiced disagreement that can resurface later and undermine implementation.
Question 3: In the Evaluation Phase, the facilitator's key process role is to:
- Personally score each alternative for the team
- Eliminate all ideas that were not their favorites
- Ensure agreed evaluation criteria are applied consistently to all ideas (Correct answer)
- Skip evaluation for ideas from senior members
Correct answer: Ensure agreed evaluation criteria are applied consistently to all ideas
Consistent application of agreed criteria keeps evaluation fair and defensible to stakeholders.
Question 4: A sponsor pressures the facilitator mid-study to steer the team toward a predetermined solution. The facilitator should:
- Comply quietly to keep the sponsor satisfied
- Secretly bias the evaluation weights toward the sponsor's option
- Cancel the study without explanation
- Explain that the value methodology requires an objective process and discuss how the sponsor's concerns can be addressed legitimately (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Explain that the value methodology requires an objective process and discuss how the sponsor's concerns can be addressed legitimately
Protecting process integrity while addressing sponsor concerns openly preserves both ethics and study credibility.
Question 5: Which technique helps a facilitator confirm the team correctly defined a function during Function Analysis discussions?
- Restating the function in verb-noun form and asking the team to verify intent (Correct answer)
- Accepting the first phrasing offered to save time
- Writing the function in a long descriptive paragraph
- Asking only the project manager for confirmation
Correct answer: Restating the function in verb-noun form and asking the team to verify intent
Restating in two-word verb-noun form and verifying with the team ensures shared understanding of the function.
Question 6: What is the best way for a facilitator to handle a question they cannot answer during a workshop?
- Invent a plausible answer to maintain authority
- Acknowledge not knowing, capture the question, and assign or seek follow-up for an accurate answer (Correct answer)
- Change the subject quickly
- Criticize the question as out of scope
Correct answer: Acknowledge not knowing, capture the question, and assign or seek follow-up for an accurate answer
Honest acknowledgment with committed follow-up maintains credibility better than guessing or deflecting.
Question 7: After the workshop, the facilitator's role in the Presentation Phase includes:
- Presenting all findings personally while the team observes silently
- Withholding results until the final written report
- Coaching team members to present their own proposals clearly and persuasively to decision makers (Correct answer)
- Editing proposals to match the facilitator's preferences
Correct answer: Coaching team members to present their own proposals clearly and persuasively to decision makers
Team members presenting their own proposals reinforces ownership and carries more weight with decision makers.
CVS Skills in Facilitation 5
A virtual value study workshop has participants across several time zones.
Which facilitation practice is most critical?