What are some best practices to prepare yourself and the participants for a successful facilitation?

you need to keep an open mind and be open to learning new ideas also. There is never too much to how much you know. The teacher can also be a low key student in his class

One thing I've found helpful is using small pieces to help understand the large puzzle. For example, my company's order entry system can seem daunting when observed on a macro level, but when broken down into small processes to see how its use comes together overall, representatives adapt quickly after understanding and mastering each small piece.

In my experience, your agenda is best when planned in pieces. You have to factor in the content, the number of participants and their tendencies, and your natural flow to come up with a plan. While doing this, you mustn't lose sight of the overall goal - retention, engagement, and excitement as you facilitate.

I've done 300+ workshops in the last 4 years, remotely and in physical settings. Engaging participants in a program involves connecting with them from the start, and helping them understand its purpose. To achieve this, it's important to explain why the program exists and consider gamifying it by breaking it into smaller, relatable episodes. This approach helps participants feel connected to the program's purpose without being intimidated by its content. Instead, they can meaningfully relate to it and connect with others through team activities and reflection. Ensuring that everyone's opinions are heard is crucial for engagement as it makes a significant difference in their overall experience.

One activity that I do with my participants is to come up with the Rules of Engagement or Ground Rules, that should scope how we engage with one another. An example a participant may contribute is 'Being respectful'. Then as a facilitator, I work with them to break down how bring respectful looks like - for instance, allowing someone to fully express themselves before another participant speaks etc. This informal list then goes up on the wall - and we revisit it from time to time during the session, if needed. This is especially useful when the topic being facilitated is a divisive or a particularly emotive one.

One thing I've found useful when engaging your participants is emotional intelligence and empowerment. Ice-breakers are useful for getting a feel for your participants' personalities. Gamification helps for content retention while keeping the energy up. Open-ended questions empower and challenge participants to think for themselves. All of these things are done in the name of understanding them emotionally and empowering them to believe in themselves.

In my experience, time management is crucial in facilitation as facilitators have set times that they must deliver their content in daily. It is imperative that they facilitator has some type of schedule to stay on task throughout the day. My company has implemented facilitator guides with timed sections to give the facilitator the opportunity to stay on task while delivering their content.

One time at work, I had multiple reports of a certain representative that was doing things that made the others uncomfortable during training classes. Instead of calling the representative out, which may have added gasoline to the fire, I found an opportunity to speak with the representative one on one to understand what was going on and find a resolution to the issue. In doing this, we continued our training session and the representatives were able to successfully co-exists, even collaborating at some points.

you must choose the simplest form of communication understanding that people have different level of assimilation . you need to use simple terms and words to communicate