The Room is Your Stage - Theatre Tips for Facilitators

Last week, I had a rare opportunity to facilitate a strategic visioning session at... wait for it... my high school! What a special experience it was to offer visual facilitation in a setting that grew the foundation for what I would become. Present in this session was none other than my theatre teacher. 

A little background... having come from the performing arts, I am fascinated by all the ways that performance shows up in my work as a facilitator. I find that I often am thinking, how is this room like a stage? How are the participants like an audience? How are these visuals like props? 

And back to the story... facilitating with my theatre teacher in the room was a unique chance to get his eyes on my facilitation practice. He is dialed in closely to stage movement and audience engagement. He gave me lots of feedback afterwards. Of course he is proud of me and what I have accomplished, and his constructive feedback was exactly the kind of information I have been seeking, when it comes to connecting performing arts and facilitation. 

Below are a few of his tips for me that I felt all facilitators could learn from. Caveat - I realize that facilitation is not entertainment; however, I think lessons from the stage translate when it comes to keeping a room engaged in a process and the information you need to get across. 

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