Facilitation Skills

Duration: Offered as a 90 minute webinar or 2 days in class

Course Overview

It is impossible to be part of an organization today and not attend meetings. Staff meetings, project meetings, and planning and coordinating meetings all take time.

There has been a growing realization that we have to pay attention to the process elements of meetings if we want them to be effective. With its focus on asking rather than telling, and listening to build consensus, facilitation is the new leadership ideal, the core competency everybody needs. Managers and supervisors are often asked to facilitate rather than instruct or manage their meetings and training sessions.

How can you facilitate, rather than control, group decision-making and team interaction? With no formal training, people may find it difficult to make the transition from instructors or managers to facilitators.

This course has been created to make core facilitation skills better understood and readily available for your organization. It represents materials and ideas that have been tested and refined over twenty years of active facilitation in all types of settings.

Learning Objectives

  • Distinguish facilitation from instruction and training
  • Identify the competencies linked to effective small group facilitation
  • Understand the difference between content and process
  • Identify the stages of team development and ways to help teams through each stage
  • Use common process tools to make meetings easier and more productive

Course Outline

1. Course Overview

2. Defining Your Role

  • Facilitation, Training, and Chairing
  • Making Connections

3. How Facilitators Work

  • Key Skills
  • Facilitation Skill Levels
  • Facilitation at a Glance

4. Establishing Ground Rules

5. Content and Process

6. Types of Thinking

  • Divergent Thinking and Convergent Thinking
  • Grey Matters

7. Handling Controversial Issues

8. Communication Skills

  • Getting Started
  • Active Listening
  • Asking Questions
  • Non-Verbal Messages

9. Listening For Common Ground

10. Common Facilitation Techniques

  • Top Techniques
  • Making Connections

11. Providing Effective Feedback

  • Giving Feedback
  • The Feedback Process
  • One Step Further

12. Managing Divergent Perspectives

13. The Language of Facilitation

  • Applying the Language
  • Case Study

14. Building Agendas

15. Dealing with Difficult Dynamics

  • Mix and Match

12 Easy Ways to Intervene

16. Building Sustainable Agreements

17. Stages of Team Development

  • The Five Stages
  • Making Connections

18. Analysis Tools

19. Personal Action Plan