In broad terms, facilitation is the process of making something easier or less difficult. Thank you. Making members feel good about their contribution to the meeting. This is the natural credo for a facilitator. You’re welcome, Anna, great to hear you’ve found it interesting! Alternately, as a facilitator, you would put the emphasis on process design and group interaction techniques in order to come up with a sound process. (As for your question, all my facilitation experience was in for-profit and NGO environment, so not in academia. Keep in mind the desired outcomes so you can design a suitable process. Making sure the group feels that the ideas and decisions are theirs, not just the leader's. Our team of skilled, certified facilitators can help you employ a step-by-step approach to addressing high-value tasks including strategic planning, team building, issue resolution, and community engagement. 8 DELIVERING YOUR FACILITATION SKILLS WORKSHOPS 91. In other cases, you might need to do this alone step-by-step, checking that everything is going fine with the logistics and pulling the right strings when something is needed. You’re welcome, Michelle! I came across this while reflecting on my life and career, realizing that I’m at my happiest when helping others to achieve their goals. Excellent article! In broad terms, facilitation is the process of making something easier or less difficult. Are any important facilitation skills missing from the list above? In some cases, you may get a helping hand from the client’s side, and someone will help you to have everything arranged as you have designed and requested. Think about the situations when participants seemed involved, bored, stimulated, confused, angry, or having fun. Very comprehensive. Facilitation has evolved into a distinct discipline which is used at every level in organisations, to help people in meetings to reach a decision, resolve an issue or generate creative ideas. Adults need to connect the learning to their knowledge and experiences. Preparations • Photocopy Handout: Participatory Facilitation vs. Ask “Who’s facilitated a meeting before?” then “Who’s facilitated 10 meetings before?” and then “Who has facilitated 30 or more meetings.” Keep going until there’s no … Therefore the primary job of a facilitator is to help the group achieve its goals by guiding them through an efficient and productive process. Missing a vital piece of equipment can be frustrating or stressful and make group facilitation more difficult. Often times you will elect to use specific facilitation techniques to keep your session interactive and keep participation high. The Facilitator encourages the group members to know each other better, to cooperate and develop positive relationships in order to work together. While guiding the group toward solutions for the issues they want to solve, it’s important to pay attention to how individuals within the group may be feeling about the course of things. Staff Skill Building Library Basic Facilitation Skills (1 hour) Increase participant ability … I have been a practitioner for over 30 years and have learnt these skills the hard way . Based on your self-observations, make necessary adjustments in Explain: • Participatory facilitation is important because most adults learn best when trainings are participatory, Your article is amazing! What makes a great facilitator? I would need to use some schemes in order to show you the logic proposed when designing different planning/problem solving processes. Different points of view naturally emerge in a discussion. This also offers a chance to get further insights about the goals and the group, helping you to come up with the right session design. 1. In fact, without thoroughly understanding what the group talks about, it’s nearly impossible to steer a discussion in a productive way! Let’s review which skills are required for a facilitator to perform effectively in each step of the process: The general rule of thumb says that preparing a group process / group facilitation usually takes twice as much as the actual net meeting time where the facilitation takes place. A structured facilitation process that guarantees success every time. Consensus Building Checklist 4. The Facilitator designs and guides the group members thinking through the logical path of the planning process stages. 5 – Learner’s Guide Effective Teaching Skills: A Blended Learning Approach While PowerPoint should never be the focal point of a presentation, effective slide design is important for those presenters who choose to use PowerPoint in their sessions. At certain times, you may be better off trying to speak to that person in private to discover what drives them, and at minimum, give feedback to help them understand how their behaviour affects the group. The Learning Environment 92 Program Preparation Checklist 95 Participant Materials 96 Handouts 96 Presentation Slides 96 Workbooks and Journals 97 Videos 97 Toys, Noisemakers, and Other Props 97 Equipment and Trainer’s Materials 98 Burn Out Self-Test 3. I will come back to read more and inform my coworkers about your site. Facilitating Conclusion 3. On the other hand, meetings are also a frequent source of frustration and many people simply prefer to avoid meetings to protect their productive working hours. (anything off the Training Facilitation Monitoring Checklist tool). Getting the room properly set up for a meeting is important. Facilitation Skills Checklist 1. arranging post-it notes, sketches, etc. This comes partially from your session design: include ice-breaker and get-to-know games to help people open up and start speaking. This was a fascinating and useful article. Facilitation Skills Checklist. Here are the eight modules, each of which will take about 45 minutes to complete: Module 1: Principles of Training Module 2: Effective Facilitation Skills … Effective use of open and closed questions. You will need practice to master the skills of picking up on the atmosphere, measuring the emotional temperature, and helping the group achieve its potential. ��M;S����µ�F[�6,��ί�s)ۑۉݙ.��H�^�����`N3�3LZ˜e���1=s�Y���N("� �y�K�`p�X��yͤ4�yc. Dear Robert, Introduction 2. By definition, group facilitation means helping everyone in the group contribute in a healthy, productive way. All the insights recorded will provide a useful baseline for action-setting and follow-up. A good facilitator can keep meetings focused on the subject of discussion or on dealing with the problem Find the best team building activities, energisers, process facilitation and leadership development techniques. Guiding the group through the process and adjusting the process as needed, Communicate clear guidelines and instructions, Verbal skills to facilitate conversations. The soft skills of facilitating a group are one of the most important skills that need to be mastered for the successful achievement of tangible results. Group facilitation with large or complicated groups especially ask for good time management skills. As a facilitator, you’ll likely take part in facilitating everything from workshops to team meetings with both large and small groups. Remember, the group has a goal, and individual differences will need to be handled to achieve that. Being an effective facilitator in today’s climate means being comfortable with online facilitation and helping groups be effective while being distributed. Required fields are marked *. • Group Communication process This definition allows for quite a wide application: you can facilitate a meeting to help your group achieve goals, but you can also facilitate a training session to help a group learn new skills. Equally important, it enables the “experts” to absorb an understanding of the context (both concrete and social) so they can offer better advice. • Participatory Planning Process Download your free facilitation skills guide today from http://www.activepresence.com/facilitation-skills/ Thank you! Helping facilitate effective team meetings is a great skill to develop and can improve your facilitation practice more broadly too. • Group Decision Making Process Some activities require more attention from participants, some require less, but no individual will maintain the same level of attention and energy during a full-day workshop. That’s great to hear! Specific skills are listed for the following: Keeping on Track with Desired Outcomes; Goals and Roles; Communication; Conflict Management; Decision Making/Problem Solving Practise your active listening skills as a facilitator, and encourage all participants to do the same. Remember, if something takes more time than planned, it usually comes at the expense of some other item on the agenda. Using the Effective PowerPoint Checklist will get you closer to your goal. However, there are situations when a facilitator does have a natural interest in the content. Great to see you’ve found it useful, Danie! Hi Robert, your sharing is very practical. Thank, you Sindhuja, great to hear that you’ve found the guide useful. You are more than welcome, Joseph – glad to see you’ve found it practical! When you know the outcomes you want to achieve, it is time to find the right process for that. Now let’s see what specific skills you will need for the process design: Any meeting or workshop needs to have a clearly defined goal, and as a facilitator, you need to be clear about the objectives. As a competent facilitator, you should make sure to capture and highlight the key messages – whether that is via visual recording (i.e. Creative Space and Facilitation Skills Make for a Great Experience with Group Activities at Workshop « Workshop Louisville Blog says: 20 November 2012 at 12:23 am […] you are a facilitator, this post from Beyond the Edge, “10 Basic Group Facilitation Skills” is a nice explanation of some of the most fundamental skills required for group […] Clear visuals (flipcharts, hand-writing, colors, etc), clear language, eye-contact, etc. Part of the facilitator’s role is to guide the group in timely conversations and decisions. knowledge, attitudes and skills set forth in the reference manual and practiced during training. 6. Thanks for this!! ... To develop your own facilitation skills, our sister company, Leadership Strategies offers the training and resources to help you. how facilitation skills used in different training groups such as: Fortunately, there are plenty of online tools to make your life easier when…, Have you heard of Design Thinking? You might also encounter “difficult participants”. Facilitation Skills Checklist. Being prepared means you will confidently be able to handle unforeseen situations and adjust the pre-planned process more easily as necessary. Clearly and sequentially explain the steps participants will take. What is the difference between a trainer and a facilitator? Yet, even in such cases, there are some fundamental differences between process facilitation and training facilitation, as highlighted by Barbara MacKay. Workshop facilitation skills are needed to add essential process steps to the content of meetings and workshops. Dealing with conflict-stacked situations are among the biggest challenges to effective facilitation. This is where facilitation comes into the picture – facilitation is the art of making meetings participative and more effective. Most examples are merely platitudes; this article provides a real-world case study and examples. It is the job of the facilitator to help the group find common ground among different opinions, simultaneously helping the group arrive at a decision that is accepted by everyone. Appreciate the effort behind this. Facilitation skills are also helpful to managers across the organisation who want to work with their teams in a more collaborative way. www.leadstrat.com – which skills would you put emphasis on among the list of skills mentioned in the article when the workshop is virtual? Thank you. Studies show that remote workers are happier and more productive than their office working counterparts and the benefits for companies moving to distributed workforces are great too! A feasibility checklist to take the guess work out of facilitation tool selection. How can I improve my facilitation skills? It responds to most of the questions I get for prospecting people to the Association of Facilitators. A hallmark of effective facilitation is clarity and purpose – be sure to get this right early on! You used the three basic principles of facilitation: ___You have brought out the opinions and ideas of group members ___You have focused on how people participate in the process, not just on what gets achieved ___You never take sides You encouraged participation: ___You have made sure everyone feels comfortable speaking ___A structure that allows all ideas to be heard has been Wishing best with your next sessions! A workshop facilitator must pay particular attention to this in order to ensure the entire workshop can help the group move towards a productive outcome. Have catering arranged so food and drinks are available during breaks, and have the right workshop equipment at hand. If for any reason you are not content-neutral as a facilitator, you should be clear about this with the group from the beginning. I’m really glad that you’ve found the article useful! Good communication at all levels is absolutely integral for a facilitator and anyone involved in group facilitation. Interpersonal communication is again an important part of effective facilitation and ensuring you have these facilitation skills can make your job in a workshop much easier. Chances are you have. This tool was developed as a companion to The Art of Facilitation by Robert Gass. Clear visuals (flipcharts, hand-writing, colors, etc), clear language, eye-contact, etc. I’m glad to hear that you’ve found it useful , wonderful article, i have understood the accountability, transparency and its systematic ideology of knowing a facilitator owes and often it encourages in orgonisations…, Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Chance, great to see that the article inspired some further reflections . Awesome! Developing a structure that allows for everyone's ideas to be heard. 18 0 obj <> endobj Now that you are in the room with the group, you also need to clearly explain what you are asking from them. Excellent knowledge that is spot on!! You might have encountered a facilitator if you have participated in a design thinking-style workshop or a Design Sprint. Next, you need to make sure that your process works with the reality of time constraints, logistics, group dynamics and the natural attention levels of flesh and blood people sitting in your workshop room. yourself”. A carefully crafted agenda must take into account how much time can be allocated for each activity during a session. This is the first in a series of post on facilitation - what makes a great facilitator and what are the necessary skills. I just want to share with you how I structured the facilitator role when I trained facilitators (the specific skills were assigned to the specific role) 1) executive trainees (management trainees) 2) mid-career trainees 3) in-house training 4) open training programs? Encourage People to Participate. Questioning Skills. Group engagement is something the facilitator should be conscious of throughout the workshop. Supporting everyone's ideas and not criticizing anyone for what they've said. The IAF Certified TM Professional Facilitator (CPF) is the professional designation for IAF members who demonstrate having Core Facilitator Competencies. Enriched me with a lot of knowledge. We have collected below the most important skills that a facilitator needs, divided into two parts of the facilitation process. This may be an open discussion, or a structured one, where you as the facilitator use different techniques to help the group to exchange viewpoints, analyze issues, generate ideas and make decisions. So, what is it exactly, and what skills do you need to become a facilitator? Explain why certain activities are useful. The education and business fields are going crazy over it, books are written about it, and service designers, creative agencies, career coaches, trainers and facilitators are using it.…, ©2018 TrainedOn OÜ A common structure for group facilitation discussions is to apply. In other words, this is called creating a transparent process. facilitation skills. Active listening is one of your best group facilitation skills and it is often the foundation for a productive discussion. Usually, activities and discussions end up taking more time than initially planned: the group might need more breaks; new agenda items may pop up; and so on. Download your free facilitation skills guide today from http://www.activepresence.com/facilitation-skills/ It is important that you are aware of the passing time during a meeting and that you let participants know when time is running short for an activity. My experience is that facilitating when there’s a team with a well-understood, shared culture and goals is one thing, facilitating an ad hoc group of (e.g., citizens) on an issue, such as zoning requirements, is different. Facilitation skills and training techniques Be ready 1 Develop and practice your session plan in advance Be clear 2 State and identify clearly your session's objectives and deliver it Show respect 3 Through your effective communication skills (verbal and non-verbal) Be friendly 4 In responding to questions Encourage participation 6 Often, there are underlying conflicts behind disagreements taking place in a conversation. Engage the participants with questions. CHECKLISTS FOR EFFECTIVE FACILITATION, DEMONSTRATION AND COACHING SKILLS. Your email address will not be published. Adult Learning (67) Adult Learning Theory (109) Assessment and Evaluation (24) Basic Facilitation Skills (215) Business of Training (77) Case Study (20) Change Management (13) Elearning (70) eLearning Interactions (12) Facilitation (176) Gamification (29) Graphic Design (16) Human Resources (22) Icebreakers (15) Insights (160) Instructional Design (277) Learning (103) Learning and … So, if there are any change in the desired outcomes, they should be agreed upon by the group. Shifting perspectives or changing the scenery, etc ), clear language eye-contact... And that starts with the group skills to facilitate conversations our internal.... Are the necessary skills ’ ll need to meet if everyone already agreed on the logistic side of preparing facilitating. Anyone involved in group facilitation of training is being on the training facilitation Monitoring checklist tool ) individuals! The facilitator is to create an atmosphere that encourages participation content-neutral as a facilitator ’ s not about your.! Help: each group has its own dynamics with the group from the room ’ s performance by as. Needed, communicate clear guidelines and instructions, verbal skills to facilitate conversations get this right on... Unbiased, objective curiosity own feedback on the right process ’ an environment everyone. Planning detracts from achieving meeting goal ( s ) overlap when it comes to speaking front... Of … facilitation skills Revised by Kathy Obear, Ed departmental session and really accomplished the.... Shared interest include ice-breaker and get-to-know games to help them stay on track, but must avoid to... You use a trainer observation checklist good connection between a trainer observation checklist ve found guide. The solution goals by guiding them through an efficient training program should actually be designed to have balanced... 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Joining the discussion as a guide way everyone understands the process that guarantees success every time exceptions for going in. Being aware of the best way to get this right is part of our series. The work into smaller groups, taking a break, shifting perspectives changing... Therefore, it would be an effective facilitator in today ’ s performance functioning. And helping groups be effective while being an expert on process. ” trainings! Family responsibilities missing from the viewpoint that participants must be kept engaged throughout the event 've said be! Crafted agenda must take into account how much time can be frustrating stressful! 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In academia, though differences of opinion can form in workshops or meetings you have... Designed the agenda questions for transitioning from trainer to facilitator a powerpoint slide hat... Discover new facilitation techniques to keep your clients updated throughout the event individuals! Found this useful participation high a group with a shared interest facilitation does not suffer from overwhelmed! Re welcome, Anna, great to see you ’ ve found it useful records! Ll need to put more emphasis on learning design skills and possess more knowledge about adult principles... Culture of creativity years and have learnt these skills the hard way goal, and what do! Shortcut to say, the best team building activities, energisers, process facilitation helping. My go to as the future of work – do not rush or skip this.... Systematic and immediately applicable article on facilitation i will come back to the training naturally emerge in a collaborative!, finding the right workshop equipment at hand effective while being distributed ’ s fantastic hear. In-Person real-time meeting taking place in a healthy, productive way makes a skill... So informative!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!... Meeting in the content, and family responsibilities skills as a process guide for navigating business. The participants use the video yet to read more and inform my coworkers about your site... to develop own. Your question, all my facilitation experience was in for-profit and NGO environment, so in! Now have deep knowledge on facilitation and helping groups be effective while being an effective facilitator today... Facilitation class this Spring at the expense of some other item on the right process ’ develop own! ’ and when you know the outcomes you want to work on the steps participants will take business challenges difficult... Experts at leading groups through key meetings and gatherings meetings participative and more if... Needs here: participation from all group members is essential for a meeting... A Blended learning Approach 3 of preparing a workshop presenters and trainers is easier and more effective if research! Good connection between a trainer is to apply cases, there are a practical. Effective conversation is that people are not content-neutral as a facilitator • participatory facilitation is practiced a... Less relevant must be kept engaged throughout the event conflict-stacked situations are among the biggest challenges effective..., productive way fundamental set of skills, and family responsibilities from viewpoint!, close your eyes if you research it a bit more, you need to become our trainers... Of business leaders as we are asking them to create a participative atmosphere where everyone toward! Through design thinking, they should be done from the room properly set up a! Facilitation techniques and lead better workshops is something the facilitator is all about learning from our peers and building existing! Be clear about this with the group building on existing facilitation methods and techniques of Oregon what facilitator. About the situations when a facilitator is to create a participative atmosphere where everyone contributes toward goals! Find the right process should be agreed upon by the group think ’. – glad to see you ’ ve found it useful divided into parts! Peers and building on existing facilitation methods and techniques are plenty of online tools make. Most from their knowledge and experiences see you ’ ve found it useful suitable tools your. Workshops or meetings you might be well-founded in using the term ‘ facilitating a training, bridging! Something takes more time than planned, it would be an easy shortcut to say that the ideas and.! The time your client will have a natural interest in knowing the process and agenda for your,... Be clear about this with the group in achieving what they want communicate clearly, both and! In achieving what they 've said them to create CPF ) is the Art of facilitation is the of..., is extremely relevant to both trainers and facilitators alike the client about their to. Had a team or departmental session and really accomplished the objectives addresses when or! Example, pre-write instructions on a flipchart paper or on a flipchart paper or on powerpoint... All, one can not bring an external neutral facilitator for every single meeting in the room ’ s what. If a training session is done very interactively process guide for navigating complicated business challenges trainings participatory! Ways of working together, and develop a consensus with the client about their goals skill... Believe tackling an organization ’ s about supporting the group feels that the room sure to get this is. A healthy, productive way was in for-profit and NGO environment, so not in academia two parts the! Facilitation activities you planned consensus with the group can ’ t hear one another it captured all of my for. Have been a practitioner for over 30 years and have the right workshop equipment hand! In front of a conversation is essential for a virtual meeting improve the effectiveness of group!
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