Facilitation is the art and skill of guiding groups towards achieving their goals, resolving conflicts, and generating ideas. But how do you know if you are doing a good job as a facilitator? How can you measure your effectiveness and improve your practice? In this article, we will explore some ways to assess your facilitation skills and get feedback from your participants.
Before you start facilitating a session, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish and how you will measure your success. What are the specific outcomes you are aiming for? How will you know if you have achieved them? How will you track your progress and adjust your approach if needed? Having clear and SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) objectives will help you plan your facilitation strategy and evaluate your performance.
Without a clear idea of what you want to accomplish and how you will measure success, the facilitation session will lack the direction and anchor to resonate with the participants. Defining objectives is often a collaborative process that requires all stakeholders to be involved and on the same page. When you prioritize establishing an alliance between all parties, everyone has a foundation they can rely on and agree upon heading into the facilitation. Doing the work and due diligence upfront prevents problems from unfolding.
In the quest to gauge effective facilitation skills, drawing parallels from both professional experiences and personal growth becomes paramount. Just as valuing transparency and vulnerability is essential in fostering connections, the act of setting measurement standards for facilitation hinges on transparent communication. Just as encouraging teams to openly express their goals promotes collaboration, defining precise measurement criteria cultivates an environment of clarity and reliability. Furthermore, embracing the "why" behind facilitation proficiency, alongside understanding the "what" and "how," ensures that measurement objectives resonate with practicality and purpose.
In a business setting, it's easy to focus on tangible outcomes, though I find it very helpful to think about intangible ones as well. How do I want every single participant to feel (confident, inspired, ...) or what do I hope to achieve for the group (build a network, build trust, ...). Also - I recently facilitated a session for a group that was dissatisfied with the way they "do their meetings" and I focused on both the group tangible outcomes (how can we make our meetings better) and single-person outcomes (what will I stop/start doing to make our collective meetings better).
by focusing on the following key things like completion rates, engagement results, and survey feedback to determine the effectiveness of your facilitation.
One way to measure your facilitation skills is to use self-assessment tools that help you reflect on your strengths and areas for improvement. There are many online tools and frameworks that you can use to rate yourself on various aspects of facilitation, such as communication, collaboration, creativity, conflict resolution, and decision making. For example, you can use the Facilitation Skills Inventory (FSI) to assess your competencies and identify your development needs. You can also create your own self-assessment tool based on your objectives and criteria.
Self-awareness is vital. Like advocating openness for teams, I employ self-assessment tools to recognize strengths and growth areas. Tools: Facilitator Self-Assessment: Covers communication, adaptability, conflict resolution, engagement. Personal SWOT: Pinpoints strengths (e.g., active listening), weaknesses (e.g., time management), growth chances (e.g., advanced techniques), threats (e.g., changing dynamics). Video Self-Reflection: Review recordings to note body language, tone, engagement. Peer Feedback: Fellow facilitators provide insights on your approach, interaction. 360-Degree Feedback: Gather input from participants, peers, team members, managers on facilitation skills.
Nothing beats having an experienced facilitator join your session as a passive observer and having a dialogue about observations afterward. If the type of the session and its participants allow - it's also a good idea to record a session and have someone view it in order to talk about it again, later. Since a lot of us are facilitating online sessions nowadays, the recording part is a lot easier than in the "before corona" times.
Another way to measure your facilitation skills is to collect feedback from your participants. This can help you understand how they perceived your facilitation style, methods, and techniques, and how they felt about the session outcomes. You can use different methods to gather feedback, such as surveys, polls, interviews, focus groups, or observation. You can also ask for feedback at different stages of the session, such as before, during, and after, to capture the changes in participants' expectations, satisfaction, and engagement.
What I found people are often struggling with is providing actionable feedback. When asking for up and downs at the end of a workshop, I sometimes got information in the form of "I didn't like XYZ". It's good to ask people for feedback in the form of a "finish the sentence" exercise, like "The most valuable thing I learned in this workshop is..." or "I wish we had spent more time discussing...". Another good practice is to ask participants to evaluate how satisfied they are on a 1-10 scale. The "things to improve" feedback feels differently if someone is for example a 3 vs 9 on that scale. Always try to find time to stick around after the event and encourage people to talk to you about their observations.
This highly depends on the workshop. What if people liked my workshop and the concept of it, but were not able to bring the content back into the real life? Hence, I like to ask for feedback after the workshop and ask if the group would be open for a follow-up call in the future, this could be on an individual level or on a group level. This way I can get more insights.
My facilitation philosophy centers on fostering connection and psychological safety. Similar to creating an atmosphere of trust within teams, I strive to create an environment where participants feel empowered to provide honest feedback. I consider feedback an essential tool for growth and make an effort to encourage genuine responses that contribute to our collective learning. Just as I work on building trust with teams, I recognize the importance of trust in fostering open communication and productive feedback loops.
The final step to measure your facilitation skills is to analyze the results and outcomes of your session. This means comparing your actual performance with your objectives and criteria, and identifying what worked well and what didn't. You can use quantitative and qualitative data to measure the impact of your facilitation on the group dynamics, the quality of the ideas, the level of consensus, and the achievement of the goals. You can also use tools such as SWOT analysis, fishbone diagram, or root cause analysis to understand the factors that influenced your facilitation.
Embracing empathy and growth, I approach the analysis of results with a constructive mindset. Just as I guide teams to view setbacks as stepping stones, I extend the same approach to outcomes analysis. I believe in understanding that results aren't final judgments but rather opportunities for learning and improvement. This perspective aligns with my commitment to empathy and fostering connections. Additionally, my facilitation methodology is driven by an infinite mindset, recognizing that growth and development are ongoing pursuits rather than finite achievements.
The ultimate purpose of measuring your facilitation skills is to learn from your experience and improve your practice. Based on your analysis, you can identify your strengths and weaknesses, and create an action plan to address them. You can also seek feedback from other facilitators, mentors, or coaches, and learn from their insights and tips. You can also enroll in online courses, workshops, or certifications to enhance your knowledge and skills in facilitation.
I continually seek feedback in real time, by asking questions that allow me to directly engage during the session. During breaks, I am starting conversations about the content, the insights shared and soliciting informal feedback. I use this to improve during the session, so I can pivot if needed. I am open and agile during every session to adjust quickly if the leadership winds blow me in a different direction.
When you view every experience as an opportunity for learning and growth, your development as a facilitator is boundless. When things don't go as planned, two things need to happen. Firstly, you must be willing to take ownership of your performance and areas of improvement, and secondly, practice self-forgiveness. We are our worst enemies and critics, and without forgiveness, you can get stuck in the minutia and prevent growth opportunities.
Measuring your facilitation skills is not only a way to improve your practice, but also a way to celebrate your achievements and share your learnings. You can recognize your efforts and accomplishments, and reward yourself for your progress. You can also share your learnings with other facilitators, participants, or stakeholders, and contribute to the facilitation community. By celebrating and sharing, you can increase your confidence, motivation, and credibility as a facilitator.
Embrace learning from life's moments, measuring facilitation skills offers a personal path to growth. Reflecting on past sessions, I've identified strengths and areas to fine-tune. For instance, addressing time management challenges led to improved session flow. Seeking advice from seasoned peers and mentorship programs also played a pivotal role. In one instance, a colleague's tip on icebreakers added a dynamic start to my sessions. Enrolling in workshops further expanded my toolkit. Embracing varied viewpoints, like participant feedback, has catalyzed my growth. Learning from experience and applying insights has shaped me into a more adept facilitator.
When I was first exposed to pure facilitation, I was given two questions to ask of senior executives in an hour long dialogue. I was terrified, and asked for more guiding questions. I was told, the wisdom is in the room; your job is to pull it out of the participants. I was terrified, but it taught me to pay attention to the conversation and to gently guide it, not firmly direct it. Learn that silence is not the enemy, many people are processing their learning and need moments to ponder, wonder, and find the courage to share. Help them.
Have trusted facilitator partner in the room to give you on site and after the session feedback. Agree on mimics and signs that the person can use to you let you know how you are doing and have the chance to correct yourself. Also have a proper feedback session just after the event so that tuh can remember all you ah e said and done.