You’re a facilitation professional. What are the best project management tools to help you succeed?

Ich bin ja ein Freund der klassischen Pen&Paper Boards :) Sofern es sich irgendwie machen l?sst, bevorzuge ich von Angesicht zu Angesicht. Aber zu den Tools: Ein Kunde hatte mir mal auf seine geniale Methode, das "Just-fix-it"-Board, gezeigt: - Das Board umfasst einen Zeitraum von z.b. 12 Wochen bis zum Zieltermin - Alle Aufgaben werden nach Bedarf in Zeilen sortiert - und dies Aufgaben in einer sinnvollen Reihenfolge innerhalb der 12 Wochen angeordnet ==> Der Clou: Ganz am Ende, Bei Woche 1, sind die Aufgaben, die sofort beendet werden sollten. Aufgaben die noch 3 Wochen Zeit haben abgeschlossen zu werden sind 3 Spalte vor dem Ende. Jede Woche: Rücke nicht erledigte Aufgaben, eine Spalte n?her ans Ende. Eine gro?artige Visualisierung!

As a facilitation professional, utilizing project management tools can enhance collaboration and efficiency. Topping the list are Trello for its intuitive visual boards, fostering clear task management; Slack for real-time communication and file sharing; and Asana for comprehensive project planning and tracking. Zoom or Microsoft Teams excel for virtual meetings, promoting seamless collaboration. Additionally, Miro is invaluable for virtual whiteboarding and brainstorming sessions. These tools collectively streamline communication, task allocation, and project progress tracking, empowering facilitation professionals to orchestrate successful and dynamic collaborations.

Für noch mehr "Zusammen"-Modus empfehle ich auch virtuelle 2D-R?ume für Videokonferenzen. Dort machen z.B. Breakout-Session nochmal viel mehr Laune. veertly, hyhyve, gathertown usw. einfach mal googlen :)

Whatever task management tool you are using may be the best collaboration tool you have. You just need the ability to have non-dated tasks and then each task becomes a chapter. By keeping the tools simple and repetitive, you gain more buy-in. If you need more, OneNote or Notion are good options for multiple kinds of documents and files.

Und wenn ihr die Leute richtig ausflippen lassen wollt: KI-Video-Generierung auf Textbasis. Schon vor GPT hat z.B. mysimpleshow viele Teilnehmer begeistert

Tableau and Canva are pretty expensive as facilitation tools. Miro allows a lot more visualization, and Powerpoint or Google slides, especially with an AI add-in, are usually more accessible for more people. You want to be able to use any visualization tool not only for your own reporting but as a collaborative tool with your facilitated sessions.

YouTube is still the best learning option around, and Coursera is high quality. LInkedIn Learning has some good facilitation training too.

One of my favorite ways to evaluate participant connection and engagement is to create interactive moments during the facilitation. Two of my favorite tools are PollEverywhere and Kahoot. PollEverywhere can be embedded directly in your presentation, whether you're using PowerPoint or another app. By using the smartphone (that's probably already on the desk) participants can engage with the content as we go. Kahoot is a learning game app. It's a fun way to build a little competition within the class and engagement with the content. Even the skeptics who usually say that learning games are a waste of time can get into it. I use these to evaluate how we're doing along the way and shift the rest of the session based on the needs of the group.

As a facilitator I often rely in two agile approaches to guide myself. 1) Heart of Agile: Collaborate, Deliver, Reflect, Improve. 2) Modern Agile: Make People Awesome, Make Safety a Prerequisite, Experiment & Learn Rapidly, Deliver Value Continuously. These two approaches also help me in choosing practices and tools, which from time to time I reconsider thru those two lenses towards improving the craft.