You’re thinking of starting a career in facilitation. How can you develop the skills to succeed?

Remember that facilitation is about taking people on a journey. A lot of the time we get so caught up in the detail that we forget its a beautiful dance. So be present, ask questions, engage and enjoy the process. In today's world I strongly suggest you develop your facilitation skills for online engagements, learn how to keep people alive during virtual delivery.

As a facilitator, be your authentic self when doing training. Remember you will learn with your learners as you explore new journeys. Accept that you won’t know everything, and it’s okay.

We like to begin our workshop sessions with a Problem Framing activity. This asks all participants to write down their answers to the Who? What? Where? and Why? questions of the project ahead. The first question is: Who are we solving this problem for? This asks participants to use adjectives and specificity to their descriptions. Then we ask What? the problem is and Where? does it occur. The final and most important question is the Why? Why is this problem important to solve. Articulating the team's why is a very important part of the process. Then all participators are asked to vote on their favorite answers.

Prep, prep and more prep. Don't underestimate the amount of effort involved to facilitate a 'seamless and productive workshop'. Know your audience, including those who are detractors. Plan plenty of breaks and try to keep it as interactive as possible.

I believe the first step when starting a career in facilitating is to know yourself and your message. Who are you? What drives you? What would you like to communicate to your audience? Being passionate about your message makes it easier to cope with the challenges and gives you a purpose to pursue. Next you should have a goal, what do you want to get out of the career? Following the identification of your message and goal you must get mentors. Having mentors allow you to stand on shoulders of people who have walked the road and helps you avoid most of the mistakes that have been made by others before you. Choosing the ideal audience suited for your message comes next. Knowing your audience helps you create a plan and tailor your message.

In my experience a short briefing document or email to participants really helps as part of your planning. Not everyone will be familiar with the issues under review, so this helps everyone to be on the same page. Providing background to the organisation/unit, including the main stakeholders, & putting the issue(s) in context in the briefing document/email goes a long way to giving common ground. For facilitation on larger issues, e.g. a strategic review, make sure you factor in plenty of time to brief key personnel in advance & send relevant documents, e.g. the existing strategy & a current/future trends document, in plenty of time for participants to review.

Be clear about whether you're facilitating, presenting, teaching or training, as each uses similar and yet subtly different approaches. Facilitation is all about your group and not about you. Plan, but be flexible because once you get people talking it always takes much longer than you've planned for. Avoid content overload and have great questions up your sleeve if needed. Avoid too many exercises and ensure you've built in enough time for these to be completed so as to give value. Less is more, always! Keep your involvement with sub-groups while doing activities at arms-length and leave them alone to discuss freely, but be seen and available just in case anyone doesn't understand instructions.

The famous Kirkpatrick Model of Training Evaluation can be a good place to start planning a workshop or training session. I recommend working backward from Level Four: Impact. Clarify: How would you know if this was the best session for this team? What tangible, measurable differences would you see? From there, focus on Level Three: What behaviors would the participants need to implement to increase the probability of achieving the outcome? From there. you can add Level Two (what information do they need to implement the behaviors successfully?) and Level One (how do we make the experience fun - not just the session but any pre-work and follow-up activities?).

Plan ahead and be flexible in the moment. - Work with the group to have a clear purpose and desired outcome of your session. Make sure the right people join the session. Who is the decision maker? Are all voices represented? Then, make a detailed plan of how you intend to reach the meeting goals. What tools and methods will help you get there? How long do you need for each step? And when it's time to run the session, work with the group and where they are at. Don't hold on too dearly to your plan. Don't force a group through your steps if they are not ready for it. Give space to make sure you the group is ready before you move on to the next part. As long as your purpose and desired outcome are clear, you can change how to get there.

I communicate a plan at a high level, so that if the group isn’t able to keep the pace we planned, we don’t have to cut any planned sections entirely. I also plan with inclusion in mind: most group sessions these days still may have remote participants (even if the event was planned for in-person), and, activities take into account ways to include introverts, not just extroverts.

If I may add, the facilitator must be fully present; observing, listening, clarifying and when necessary challenging. The level of focus during the process is significant.

People say facilitate with confidence but it is actually courage. When you use your interpersonal skills of listening to the group, you fill in the gaps and each facilitation group is unique. Take the courage to take the mask off the typical facilitator and be you with a professional flair. ??

In my experience, what has helped me the most as I have invested in building the facilitation muscle for myself, is practising active listening skills, and learning to read and manage group dynamics effectively. With remote-first / hybrid approach to facilitation of sessions these days, it is difficult to gauge the audience attention and engagement - what also helps is ensuring that audience is engaged through dialogue, with periodic nudges to seek their inputs & opinions, conditioning into real-like brainstorm / discussions like breakout rooms. Where possible, recording the sessions to reflect on them later, on what worked well & what could be improved, which is a great way to drive self-awareness and development.

Remember that not all participants will agree with what you say. Some of them may “challenge” your knowledge and even your “worth.” Over the years, I never come unprepared; remember that your knowledge in the subject-matter “really matters.” If there are items you are not sure ‘just yet’, saying ‘let me get back to you’ will not make you less credible of a person.

The state of being fully present, with non-attachment, is not only conducive to strong facilitation outcomes — it’s also just a lovely state to work in. I’m (personally) a strong introvert, so facilitation may be an odd choice for me — but I find working in that state really rewarding.

KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SAFER SPACE AND BRAVE SPACES As a facilitator holding space for others, it is important that we are aware of how we are holding the space. Be aware of nervous system regulation and co-regulation. Know trauma-informed practices and continuously check in with your own triggers AND glimmers!

Remember that tools are great but as a support only, they shouldn’t be the focus. I have seen too many facilitators get distracted by the tools & not focus on the issue to be solved. Technology can be great but sometimes all you need is a flip chart & some pens. Getting groups to discuss options, then getting a representative to talk through their feedback with the facilitator recording it on a flip chart is a powerful way to get people to work together & it validates their discussion.

Tools can be helpful but they must be relevant to the issue you are looking at. For Strategy a good way to help participants understand tools is to go through an example of an organisation that is well known to all and use the tool to demonstrate the outcome for this organisation via the tool

Il est essentiel de cultiver une écoute active et une compréhension profonde des besoins et perspectives des participants. Cela implique d'être attentif aux indices verbaux et non verbaux pour adapter dynamiquement les méthodes pédagogiques et encourager la participation active. Par ailleurs, intégrer des techniques créatives comme le brainstorming, le mind mapping, ou les jeux de r?les peut stimuler l'engagement et la réflexion critique, tout en favorisant un environnement d'apprentissage inclusif et innovant. Ces pratiques, centrées sur l'empathie et la créativité, renforcent non seulement les compétences en facilitation, mais enrichissent également l'expérience d'apprentissage globale.

To start a career in facilitation, you need to be aware of the tools to be a good host. Develop active listening and systemic vision. The important thing is to start with small groups.

A simple non-threatening icebreaker to use is: tell us a little about your role & what was something that made you smile recently? The facilitator should go first, as should one of the senior participants (who the facilitator has primed in advance) so that participants have time to think of something. Keep the examples light, e.g. seeing spring flowers in your garden, a funny story about one of your children, & watch people relax!

Most facilitators engage participants only on cognitive level, in my experience for true engagement one needs to find ways to engage their hearts and bodies to get most out of the group process.

ToP Facilitation Methods for the win! ?? It provides a framework to continue to re-engage all voices while inviting in rather than calling out.

Keep things simple yet interesting Don’t pack too much into the day. Information overload causes learning fatigue Find a balance between conceptual knowledge, experiential learning, hands on as well as group exercises.

An important factor is to not only facilitate engagement between the participants and the session theme/content, but with each other too. I like to use an icebreaker at the start that involves getting people into small groups or turning to the person next to them to talk about something simple like "what do you hope to get from the session?" or "what is your preferred learning style?". Keep it simple and conversational to put people at ease and engaged.

I would add the need to check in with the participants throughout the facilitation. It’s encouraging for them to know your flexibility and openness to new ideas. It also shows how confident you are as a facilitator. It’s so much easier to adapt during the facilitation rather than discover you missed their expectations after the session is over.

The ultimate measure of success is a change in the real-world RESULTS participants experience in their lives (starting with new BEHAVIORS and DECISIONS). "Smile sheets" (surveys of participant satisfaction) are often overused and potentially damaging. Trying to please a crowd is understandable but rarely leads to tangible, lasting improvements. Moreover, effectively communicating actual results to relevant stakeholders, be it sponsors, clients, or participants, is crucial for transparency and accountability. It enables stakeholders to understand the value derived from the session and provides them with actionable insights for decision-making or future planning.

In my practice, I have come to also realise that depending on the type of facilitation one is doing; 1. You have to be on top of the subject area. It is one of the ways you can be confident before the participants. 2. Even if its an area that you don't have technical expertise, you can find a way of soliciting information from participants to enable you to diagnose and suggest ways to fill in gaps and better processes.

One of the most basic ways of evaluation is to check for these 3 things 1. What went wrong 2. What was successful 3. How to mitigate the challenges in the future

Get the group talking in such a way that they safely empty the room of what they already know and have experienced. In this way they will be: -more open to move into territory where they have no previous experience or knowledge. -more ready to listen and work collaboratively. -more partnered with you to listen to the problem or opportunity, facilitating alongside you, blurring the roles because they are so engaged. How you will do this will vary because of group size, knowledge of each other, previous history of working together, and the issue they seek to address. That is the fun of it. You are creating a unique, one time recipe with simple ingredients, rather than running using a template you try to apply everywhere.

Developing problem-solving and conflict resolution skills to address challenges during facilitation sessions are essential and staying updated on industry trends and best practices through continuous learning and networking.

Get someone to video you in a live facilitation context and play it back - it’s powerful. It can be uncomfortable. It can make you aware of things that you weren’t aware of. But it’s the most accurate representation of your performance in a facilitation role. Obviously make sure you have participant consent for filming too and be clear about how it will be used. Failing that have another facilitator observe you and give you feedback.

In my experience - the best skill a facilitator should have is to stop taking yourself seriously. Then you can read the room and respond to what the group needs not what you think you need. Get out of your own way and you will be great!

Proactively seek out opportunities to get involved and volunteer your support. This may look like supporting with logistics at first. As your confidence builds, you could offer to lead a section of a session, or you could welcome the participants, or manage a group activity. Think of it like building a muscle - creating an engaging and effective learning experience takes time and effort.

Don't hesitate to move away from your initial plan if required. Read the room and adjust on the fly as needed. Sometimes trying too hard to deliver your initial plan without leaving scope for improvisation can backfire, so stay present and guide the discussion.