How can you overcome the challenges of a facilitation career?

Knowing the purpose and expected outcome of a presentation is crucial. I always start with the W's (Who, What, When, Why)and then work on the "How" to facilitate it. Having a basic understanding of purpose and expectation/ outcome helps with making a connection between your audience and the content. Purpose- Why is the facilitation needed? For Who? What skill/learning is needed? Outcome- What is the main takeaway? What practical resource(s) will you give? How will they use what you taught? How do you measure and/or track it?

It all really starts with the objective of the workshop. And as a facilitator you need to work on getting that right with your client. This might include speaking to everyone in the senior leadership team if that workshop is for them to get the full picture what people want. And you agree with the client what you want to achieve. Your job during the workshop then is to help them achieve this objective. And it does not matter in what way. If you have designed various tasks but the team is not responding to them or they are in a deep conversation which are necessary for the objective, then give them space. Facilitate the people not the process.

Taking care of one self is very critical as a facilitator or coach. Few practices that have worked for me are as below. 1. I prepare my slides atleast 3-4 days before the session. 2. I read and practice my narrative well and know the audience. 3. Once the base is set, I think of how to keep myself calm and energetic during the facilitation time. 4. I meditate and visualise on the day. I also make sure I have eaten some light but healthy food and I hydrate myself regularly. 5. I make sure I plan my facilitation in such a way that I get breaks from speaking in between and I also get to sit for a while (if it’s an in person session) 6. Taking care of what’s on my mind while I am facilitating is key. I maintain an audience first mentality.

This is vital and yet overlooked often. Taking care of yourself is step one for any successful session. I have developed my Preparation Sequence that has become a habit and my “muscle memory” for my personal preparation helps minimize decisions and managing mental capacity going into a session.

In my two decades in the facilitation space, I’ve learned the more information you can consume makes you better. - genuinely accepting feedback helps to evolve the skill set - reading helps provide “tools” that allow you to relate to learners and builds a story bank

To make the session really impactful and enjoyable you need to bring your whole-self to the session and exude positive energy and respect for the audience in order to connect with each person in the room. Facilitation requires that there be triple-way communication - you to audience, audience to you and members of audience to each other under your stewardship. Setting ground rules jointly is essential for great experience for all.

This article title is misleading or maybe I got it wrong due to not being a native English speaker ?? For me the career challenge is something related to find a professional path that is both sustainable and rewarding. Yet this article focus exclusively on the challenges you may face as a facilitator when hosting a session, these may be career related but in a different way. For instance, one challenge is the ethical dimension of our work as facilitators whenever we are employed by non-ethical companies. A colleague facilitator once told me he would refuse to work for tobacco or the arms industry. In my case I wouldn’t be so strict. It depends on the kind of work you would be doing as a facilitator in those companies.