What are the most important facilitation skills to highlight in an interview?

Many of us do "too much telling, and not enough listening and asking." In an interview, it's imperative to listen carefully to the questions posed, and, if necessary to ask "I think I heard x, y, and, z. If so, this is the experience I will bring to the organization. If I misunderstood the question, let me know, and I'll be happy to weigh in." I have found that many of us fear seeking clarification, as a show of weakness. As a consultant, I've never found this to be true. Far better to provide the information desired, than to wing it.

It is true that active listening serves as the cornerstone of facilitation. In reality, both personal and professional life benefit from active listening.It is essential to both emotional intelligence and good communication. This demonstrates inquiry, empathy, and respect for the people and their viewpoints. In order to engage in active listening, one must be aware of both verbal and nonverbal signs, ask open-ended questions. You can utilize the STAR approach -Situation, Task, Action, Result, to describe a situation when you used active listening to mediate a conflict or guide a group discussion in order to demonstrate your active listening skills during an interview.

Active listening is the most important skill for a facilitator (and a leader). The better you are at active listening, the better you are as a facilitator. Effective active listening has helped groups rethink their business and their goals. This skill cannot be emphasized enough.

In an interview, it's crucial to highlight facilitation skills that showcase your ability to guide groups effectively. Key skills to emphasize include active listening, clear communication, adaptability, conflict resolution, and empathy. Demonstrating your proficiency in fostering collaboration, maintaining neutrality, and managing group dynamics can set you apart. Additionally, highlighting your experience in designing and implementing structured processes, such as brainstorming sessions or decision-making frameworks, can showcase your ability to drive productive outcomes. Overall, showcasing your ability to facilitate discussions, encourage participation, and keep meetings on track underscores your value as a skilled facilitator.

Yes. Agreed with the previous comment. In fact, this reminds me to the "Show, don't tell", a technique in literature where authors illustrate emotions, actions, and scenes through vivid descriptions, dialogue, and actions, allowing readers to experience the story firsthand. This technique engages the reader's imagination and creates a more immersive experience, fostering emotional resonance and a deeper understanding of characters and themes. By showing rather than telling, writers can evoke empathy, suspense, and resonance, crafting richer and more compelling storytelling experiences. I think this is fundamentally connected with storytelling, which is one of the most powerful tools we have to connect with others.

Planning/preparation for workshops is crucial. Any facilitator who just steps in without preparation is not effective. Preparation lets you define the charter - purpose, scope, outcomes for a workshop and helps you understand the concerns and dynamics of the group.

Codify your process. Whether it's implicit or already explicit, being able to clearly walk through what your [planning and preparation steps are gives people clarity and confidence that you've got things covered.

A clear and concise plan is your mechanism for providing confidence in your skills before the 'big show'. You'll need to consider the audience of that plan, and structure your plan to suit their needs, particularly when it comes to level of detail. Some clients just want an overview of timings and topics (and be sure to call out the breaks!). Others want all of the detail of 'how' each section will be facilitated. Another top tip - include risks and contingencies for each section, taking into account things like "running over time" and "lack of audience engagement", and what you plan to do if those scenarios come to fruition. But remember a plan is just a plan. And as Mike Tyson said, "everyone has a plan until they get hit in the face"

Dogmatic facilitators are not successful. Every workshop that I've facilitated over the past 40 years has required some flexibility - you are dealing with people, not machines.

From my perspective, every job requires some adaptability, things shift, job duties change, etc. It is very important to highlight how you can change with the tide.

Group management and engagement from the outset. I like sending emails in advance of workshops, setting clear expectations, and getting agreement on working norms at the start of a workshop. I see this as the foundation of a healthy and dynamic experience.

As a facilitator, you work to create a team from the group (the entire group). To do this, you need to understand group dynamics as well as know the characteristics of teams, where the group you are facilitating fits, and how to move them towards becoming a team.

Standardizing the means of evaluation is crucial in capturing data from an interview, especially when a panel of members interview a candidate. Without standardization, evaluations will vary wildly between panel members and the effectiveness of the interview may suffer. Evaluators must know what qualities to evaluate, how to document or score candidate responses, and to what extent a candidates knowledge or experience should be tested in an interview. Standardizing evaluation is important across the span of the ENTIRE interview process (all candidates) to ensure data is objective and candidates are scored fairly. In some cases it is more difficult to provide feedback to those who were not selected, than it is to select the right candidate.

Why not use the interview as a chance to see the person's facilitation skills. Do they turn up on time and stick to time? Have they structured their answers and signpost their responses? Do they listen and flex their style as appropriate? Do they ask good questions and make it a conversation rather than a monologue? Do they use a range of analogies and simple answers to really bring to life the information they are sharing. An interview is basically just another facilitation opportunity. P. S. You probably also want to see them in an actual facilitation situation rather than solely base it on the interview

Actions speak louder than words! Participating in an interview is a wonderful time to model your facilitation skills. Are you listening actively to the questions being asked? Are you inviting voices into the room? Are you contributing to the energy in the room, or sucking the life out of it? All of those factor in to a successful interview for a facilitator.

I would add using immediacy as a way to highlight group dynamics and model curiosity and openness to what’s occurring in the room.

The ability to connect the dots without opining and judging any perspective (even if it is starkly different from your own and/ or that of the larger group).