Facilitation Training
(click here to download this training as a word document)
Goals
- Learn how to be a great facilitator for an event or meeting.
- Facilitation is hard to do well- it takes skill, preparation, practice, and focus.
- Take the time to think through some challenges that you could face as you facilitate at the event itself.
Principles of strong facilitation
- Preparation is key-- it takes time to get ready to facilitate every single meeting. Know the agenda inside and out. Be clear on the goals for each section of your event.
- Delegate parts of the agenda- but it's your responsibility to keep the meeting on track.
- Balance participation with efficiency: people enjoy the meeting more if they talk more- but you also need to get through your agenda.
- Stick to the agenda: too many meetings are aimless, drag on, or don't accomplish what they're supposed to.
Tips
- Be the facilitator: You have a responsibility to make sure the meeting goes off well. So jump in when you need to get things on track.
- The agenda is key: Put it up on the wall and go over it at the start of the meeting so folks know where you're going
- Ground Rules: Go over the ground rules and hold people to them.
- Get everyone involved. If someone isn't speaking much, ask them what they think. Also gently encourage vocal folks to give others time to think.
- Snacks are good: a social event after the meeting is even better.
Useful facilitation phrases/tools
For presenting or sticking to the agenda:
- How many of you have had meetings that have gone on too long? I'm here to help us put together a good plan and be finished in an hour.
For refocusing the group:
- Let me interrupt you. We've got a pretty tight agenda, but if folks are interested in hearing more about this, maybe we can stick around after the meeting.
For answering a challenging question or trying to help decide on a thorny issue:
- In our experience here's what works and here's why..
For dealing with a negative perspective or challenging personality:
- That's one perspective, what do the rest of you think?
Challenges to strong facilitation
- Letting things get out of control: Gently cut off folks who ramble. You can say something like, "let me interrupt you, we've got a tight agenda and we need to stay on track.
- Getting bogged down in negativity: It's fine for people to voice their opinions, but you have to make sure you get back on the agenda and focus on the positive.
- Having a dysfunctional meeting space: i.e. people can't hear, can't see each other.
- Talking too much.
Roleplays
The goal here is to practice typical situations that arise during meetings and how to handle them effectively. The trainer should play the role of the person creating a distraction and the trainee/s will play the meeting facilitator. The trainee should practice using the helpful facilitation phrases referenced earlier.
Situation: Your council is having a planning meeting and you've just explained the plan for the rally we're going to be organizing in 2 weeks. One of your council members thinks we should be focused on a completely different issue.
Situation: At the beginning of your meeting, someone has stood up and launched a long winded explanation on a campaign to stop a local power plant that they're a part of. She's showing no signs of slowing down.
Situation: You're in a small group planning recruitment for next week's vigil. There is a new volunteer in your group, but so far they haven't said anything.