Facilitation Skills

You will spend the first part of the day getting to know participants and discussing what will take place during the workshop. Students will also have an opportunity to identify their personal learning objectives.

• Definitions
• Participants will explore the differences between instruction, facilitation, and management in small and large groups.
• What is a Facilitator?
• Through a lecture, participants will learn about the history of facilitation, some key skills, the levels of facilitation, and the facilitation process.
• Content and Process
• It is very important for facilitators to understand the differences between content and process, as they have a different role in each element. These concepts will be explored in a large group discussion.
• Group Norms
• During this session, participants will learn about team norms and set some for themselves to guide the rest of the workshop.
• Types of Thinking
• This session will explore divergent thinking, convergent thinking, the groan zone, and multi-voting tools through a lecture and a large group exercise.
• Controversial Issues
• Facilitators are often asked for their help when a group has a controversial issue to deal with. In this session we will learn about a tool that can help participants facilitate these types of issues: the gradient of agreement.
• Communication Skills
• A key part of the facilitator's toolbox is communication skills. We will discuss how to ask good questions, how to actively listen, how to use non-verbal messages, and how to listen for common ground.
• Common Facilitation Techniques
• We will spend several hours looking at twenty techniques that facilitators often use. First we will explore these techniques through lecture, and then participants will role play the techniques in front of the large group.
• Effective Feedback
• Giving and receiving feedback is an important part of facilitation. We will look at both elements during this session.
• Dealing with Difficult Dynamics
• Participants will work in small groups to complete a mix-and-match exercise on difficult people and how to manage them.
• Sustainable Agreements
• As a facilitator, you want to make sure that all points of view have been considered, so that when an agreement is reached, it is one that everyone is happy with. During this session we will look at the components of a sustainable agreement/