The Follow Through

Recently, I facilitated a session for an internal group and we worked through some really large, sometimes difficult topics. We touched on a lot of different areas, most of which were related to their day to day work; we meandered off a bit here and there! For most of this team it was their first time back to the office in a long while, some of them were new and hadn't really been on campus for anything, so the wandering conversations were expected and planned for.

As I worked through the days agenda with them, I took notes like I normally do. This time though, I took a separate page of notes on how I reacted to things in the session, and how I handled what went on. I wrote a number of things down about where I felt I could improve, jotted a couple down where I felt like I did well. Feedback is sometimes difficult with these sessions so I try to capture my own experience and make notes to myself.

For other facilitators, I guess I am asking how you do that. What is the feedback mechanism like for you? Is there a feedback loop at all? Do you take notes for yourself and if so, how do you circle back to those things to improve?

I'll share a quick note from me today - I wrote two things down to send back to the group after the session. Normally I would procrastinate and send them out in a day or so, or I would run into someone from the group and they would remind me to send them something. Today, I sat down right after the session and sent both of those things right out. Good job me!