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Facilitation Techniques: An Overview

Discover effective Facilitation Techniques in our blog. Explore proven methods to lead engaging group discussions, foster collaboration, and ensure productive meetings. Learn how to harness the power of Facilitation Techniques to drive results and promote meaningful interactions. Read more to find out!

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If you want to make a good impression on your customers and superiors, it’s time to improve your Facilitation skills with the right tools and techniques. Read this blog to gain a deep understanding of Facilitation Techniques. Also, discover how to lead discussions and resolve conflicts with these techniques. 

Table of Contents  

1)  What is Facilitation? 

2)  What is the role of a Facilitator? 

3)  What are Facilitation Techniques? 

4)  Top Facilitation Techniques 

5)  Conclusion 

What is Facilitation ?  

Facilitation is the process of guiding and supporting groups of people to achieve their objectives collectively and effectively. It is applied across various contexts, such as team meetings, workshops, conferences, community gatherings, and strategic planning sessions. It is a skill which leads to improved decision-making and stronger relationships within the organisation. 

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What is the role of a F acilitator?  

A Facilitator is a neutral and skilled individual who helps manage group interactions, discussions, and decision-making processes in the organisation. The role of a Facilitator is not to lead or impose their ideas. They are responsible for creating a culture where participants can freely express their thoughts, concerns, and solutions. By encouraging open communication, active listening, and constructive feedback, a Facilitator helps participants build consensus. They also contribute to resolving conflicts and work together towards shared outcomes. 

What are Facilitation Techniques ?  

Facilitation Techniques, including the concept of social facilitation , are a set of skills, tools, and methods used by Facilitators to guide groups through discussions, decision-making, and other collaborative processes. These techniques aim to create a productive environment where participants can actively engage, share their ideas, and work towards achieving their common objectives, with a special emphasis on leveraging social facilitation to enhance group dynamics and performance.

Top Facilitation T echniques  

Here are some of the best Facilitation Techniques a facilitator can use. Let's explore each of them in detail:  

Active listening techniques  

Active listening is one of the crucial Facilitation Techniques that every Facilitator should master. By engaging in active listening techniques, you can create a supportive and understanding environment. It encourages participants to share their thoughts and feelings openly. Here are some effective active listening tools to enhance your Facilitation skills: 

a)  Reflective listening : Reflective listening involves paraphrasing or restating the speaker's key points to demonstrate your understanding and validate their perspective. When participants feel heard and acknowledged, they are more likely to engage actively in the discussion. 

b)  Paraphrasing: Paraphrasing is the art of rephrasing the participant's statements in your own words while retaining the original meaning. This technique ensures that you have correctly understood their message and helps to avoid misinterpretations.  

c)  Non-verbal cues: Non-verbal cues play a significant role in conveying attention and engagement without interrupting the speaker. Simple gestures like nodding, maintaining eye contact, and open body language can encourage participants to continue sharing their thoughts. 

Icebreakers and energi s ers  

Icebreakers and energi sers are essential Facilitation Techniques that create a positive and inclusive atmosphere. It encourages participants to interact, build bonds, and energise their minds. Incorporating team-building games and random word generators can add a playful and creative dimension to your Facilitation. 

Utili se interactive tools like Kahoot! or QuizBreaker to transform traditional icebreakers into enjoyable quizzes or games. These platforms allow you to create fun and engaging quizzes with multiple-choice questions related to the session's theme or participants' interests.  

During the icebreaker, divide participants into teams, and have them compete in the quiz or game format. Ensure that the questions are light-hearted and encourage laughter and fun.  

Also, i ncorporate the random word generator into brainstorming sessions or group discussions. Before starting the activity, explain to participants that you will use random words to inspire fresh ideas and novel perspectives. 

Visual Facilitation aid  

Visual aids are powerful tools that facilitate better understanding and retention of information among participants. As a Facilitator, incorporating visual aids into your sessions can elevate the overall learning experience and encourage active engagement. Here are some more details on the visual Facilitation aids you can use: 

a)  Flipcharts and markers: Flipcharts are a traditional visual aid that allows Facilitators to create real-time visuals during the session. With flipcharts and markers, you can draw diagrams, mind maps, or charts based on participants' input, making complex concepts more accessible and visually appealing. 

b)   Whiteboard and sticky notes: Whiteboards and sticky notes are excellent tools for interactive brainstorming and collaborative idea organi sation. Whiteboards provide a large, erasable surface where Facilitators and participants can collectively visualise and modify concepts. Sticky notes offer a flexible way to gather ideas from participants individually. 

c) Visual presentation software: Using visual presentation software, such as Prezi or Canva, can enhance your Facilitation by creating visually engaging and dynamic presentations. These software tools allow you to incorporate multimedia elements, animations, and interactive features, making your presentations more interesting for participants.  

World café method  

The World café method is one of the engaging Facilitation Techniques designed to promote meaningful and collaborative conversations among participants. It creates a relaxed and informal atmosphere that encourages open dialogue and the sharing of various perspectives. To set the stage for the world café method follow these steps: 

a)  Arrange the seating in small groups around café-style tables. 

b)  Each table should have enough space for participants to comfortably interact and share ideas. 

c)  Consider decorating the tables with tablecloths, markers, and paper, giving them a café-like ambience. 

d)  Encourage participants to switch tables at specific intervals. 

e) Allow participants to build on previous conversations and help them gain fresh perspectives. 

Role-playing and simulation  

Role-playing and simulation are immersive Facilitation Techniques that allow participants to explore real-life scenarios and challenges in a controlled environment. To incorporate role-playing and simulation into your Facilitation, consider using:  

a)  Scenario-based activities: De sign realistic scenarios that are relevant to the session's theme or learning objectives. Ensure that the scenarios are challenging yet achievable. It must provide participants with opportunities to apply their knowledge and problem-solving abilities. 

b)   Props and costumes: C onsider using simple props and costumes. Depending on the scenario, props can include everyday items that participants would typically encounter in a given situation. 

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SWOT analysis  

The SWOT Analysis is a Facilitation tool used to understand the strengths and weaknesses of an organisation. As a Facilitator, you can guide participants through a SWOT analysis session to gain deeper insights into the subject matter. 

Providing participants with structured SWOT Analysis worksheets helps you analyse the process and ensure that all aspects are thoroughly considered. The worksheet typically consists of four sections. Each section is dedicated to strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Within each section, participants are encouraged to list relevant factors. 

Moreover, u sing a whiteboard or flipchart to draw the four SWOT quadrants can improve the visual aspect of the analysis. As participants share their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, you can record their points on the whiteboard in their respective quadrants. 

Open space technolog y  

Open space technology is a dynamic and participant-driven Facilitation approach. It encourages individuals to take ownership of the meeting agenda and engage in discussions based on their interests and expertise. 

At the start of the event, set up an "Empty Agenda Wall" or a bulletin board in a prominent location within the meeting space. This wall serves as a central space where participants can post their topic suggestions and ideas for discussion throughout the event. This allows them to actively shape the event's agenda and participate in discussions that match with their interests and goals. 

It is used to facilitate a smooth flow of discussions and prevent scheduling conflicts. It is achieved by creating a "Time and Space Grid" on a large sheet of paper or on a digital platform. This grid displays the available time slots and designated rooms or spaces for each topic discussion. It prevents overlapping discussions and allows participants to move freely between different sessions. 

Mindfulness and reflection techniques    

Incorporating mindfulness and reflection techniques into your Facilitation can foster self-awareness and promote a deeper understanding of the session's content. It enhances the overall group experience. Here's how to implement these Facilitation Techniques: 

a)  Begin by introducing the concept of mindfulness to the participants. 

b)  Explain that mindfulness involves being fully present in the moment. 

c)  Lead participants through short, guided meditation sessions at the beginning or end of the Facilitation session. 

d)  Provide participants with journaling prompts related to the session's content. 

e)  After the journaling session, invite participants to share their reflections if they feel comfortable doing so. 

Guided meditation can help reduce stress, improve concentration, and create a calm and focused atmosphere for the Facilitation session. Moreover, these prompts can encourage participants to reflect on their thoughts, feelings, and insights from the session.  

Appreciation circle s  

Appreciation circles is a powerful Facilitation Technique that creates a positive and uplifting atmosphere within a group. By expressing gratitude and appreciation, participants can strengthen connections, boost morale, and foster a sense of closeness. Here's how to use technique: 

a)  Begin by providing each participant with appreciation cards or small pieces of paper. 

b)  Instruct them to write heartfelt messages of appreciation for specific individuals or their contributions during the session. 

c)  Gather all participants in a circle, creating a space for open and inclusive sharing. 

d)  Conduct the appreciation circle at the end of the session or at a particular moment when you feel the group would benefit from appreciative messages. 

The appreciation cards can be anonymous or signed, depending on the comfort level of the participants. As the facilitator, initiate the appreciation circle by expressing your own heartfelt appreciation.  This sets the tone and encourages participants to share their appreciation openly. 

Conclusion  

Facilitation Techniques are crucial for maintaining a successful work culture within an organisation. Using these techniques can help you create a dynamic team that works together to reach a common goal. So, start incorporating these best Facilitation Techniques and see the impact they have on group dynamics and outcomes. 

Ready to enhance your Facilitation skills? Join our Facilitation Skills Training today and become a master facilitator!  

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8 essential skills of an effective facilitator (and how to improve them).

Having a skilled, effective facilitator guide a meeting will vastly improve that meeting's outcomes! Discover the right tools, techniques, and skills you need today.

Having a skilled, effective facilitator guide a meeting or a workshop can make a world of difference to the meeting's outcomes and team's efficiency! A skilled facilitator can get a group to focus on the challenge at hand and help them make better decisions faster.

Best of all, anyone can become a great facilitator   if  they have the right tools, techniques, and skills down.

Which skills are those? That's exactly what we'll be covering in this article. Let's dive right in.

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Who is a facilitator?

A facilitator (or a Workshopper, as we like to call them!) is the person who guides a team through a process, helping them unleash their potential, do their best work, and avoid the usual pitfalls of collaboration: groupthink, a lack of outcomes, and team politics (to name just a few!)

Facilitation is all about helping the group do efficient, meaningful work.  It's about making sure everyone in the room gets heard, without falling prey to 'design by committee', and making sure there's an actionable outcome every time a group comes together. 

A good facilitator's goal is to encourage participants to think productively and ultimately to articulate critical ideas, ask vital questions, uncover variables, find solutions, and identify productive actions, NOT to solve the team's challenge.

A skilled facilitator can supercharge a team's performance  by eliminating the friction of group collaboration and providing a process for the team to follow.

The facilitation skills you need to master to become a great facilitator

There are a lot of misconceptions out there about what makes a good facilitator, which might stop you in your tracks before you’ve even had a go at it. Or worse yet, negatively impact your facilitation abilities by making you focus on all the wrong things!

Trust us, if you want to really ace it as a facilitator, you don't need to be an extrovert or a subject matter expert. Instead, focus on developing these skills:

Facilitation mindset

Mastering the facilitation mindset is key to becoming an effective facilitator and is also the thing MOST facilitators (novice and experts alike!) get wrong.

If you want to be an excellent facilitator, you need to live and breathe the facilitator's mindset, which is:

Be the guide, not the hero.

Or, to put it bluntly, don't try to show off how good or smart you are, and instead, focus on helping the team do  their  best work. 

This will make you a more active listener and take the pressure off of you because you don't need to worry about solving the challenge yourself and can instead focus on observing the group, tuning into their needs, and making sure the workshop moves along swiftly. 

It will also help you master the art of questioning or asking the group members to develop their own ideas rather than overpowering them with your own.

Learn more about facilitation and workshopping in our FREE FACILITATION COMMUNITY

‍ Time management

A good facilitator should be able to move the group along and keep the momentum going throughout the workshop. And one of the most helpful skills to do that is time management!

Not only do you need to allocate just the right time needed to complete the exercises, but you also need to make sure you're moving according to schedule or be able to adapt in case some exercises are running over-time.

A great way to start effectively managing time in your workshops is by implementing a time-boxing technique. For example, if you're running an ideation exercise, set 10-15 minutes for it, and after the time's up, move on to the next steps. 

This approach forces you and the team to think more efficiently helps cut out circular discussions, and ensures your workshops always stay on time. 

Shortcutting circular discussions

Circular discussions are one of the main reasons conventional meetings are such a drag to be in. They drain the group's energy, waste time, and don't bring you any closer to finding a solution.

As a facilitator, it's your job to nip circular discussions in the bud and make sure the group moves on. But this is easier said than done! If you need a few tips on how to gently but effectively keep the workshop moving, try implementing these:

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Keeping the energy levels high

Energy is a KEY component in facilitation. Making sure your participants are engaged and switched on ensures they can bring their A-game to the workshop!

The workshop attendees will have to work hard to keep their concentration for long periods of time, take in a lot of information, and then put it into practice, so it's 99% likely they'll feel overwhelmed at a certain point during the workshop. So as a facilitator, you need to watch out for when that happens and make sure you incorporate energizing activities into your workshop. 

Here are some of our favorite ways to keep a room energized:

Curbing team politics and groupthink

No matter the team or company size, team politics and groupthink ALWAYS creep up. Raise a hand if you've ever been in a meeting or workshop where one person (usually the loudest or most senior) is doing all the talking, discussions spiral out of control, and everyone understands the job to be done differently. 

Without a set of tools and processes in place, ALL your workshops will inevitably slide off-topic and devolve into endless discussions.

It's your job as a facilitator to design your workshop in a way that will allow the participants focus on the challenge at hand instead of on navigating team politics. 

Our two favorite tools to do just that are the Note&Vote technique, and 'together alone' working method. 

Working 'Together alone' means that you're collaborating on the same problem in real-time, but instead of discussing ideas openly or brainstorming, you're silently noting them down on a sticky note–making it impossible for circular discussions to spark up!

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The Note & Vote technique simply means that each team member writes down their idea or solution on a sticky note, and after all ideas have been stuck up on a wall or whiteboard where the entire team can see them, a round of silent dot voting takes place. With a Note & Vote, everyone gets to express their opinions, and you will reach a decision and an actionable outcome much faster than you would with an open ramble. 

Effectively dealing with troublemakers

Frankly speaking, it's not a question of  if  you'll have to deal with a skeptic or a troublemaker, but a question of  when . And when that moment comes, it's crucial you know how to deal with them in the most effective way possible.

All it takes to derail an otherwise good meeting or workshop is one person who is skeptical or is causing trouble by distracting other team members and being disruptive to the workshop.

But here's the thing: you can completely turn a troublemakers' energy around and even make them your biggest supporter; you just need the right tools to do that.

Giving clear instructions

One of the main things you're going to be doing as a facilitator is asking people to do certain exercises and explaining how they work. Funnily enough, this is the part of facilitation that causes the most difficulty for a lot of facilitators.

And nothing can take the wind out of your sails quite like having to explain the same simple exercise 3 times in a row. So make sure your communication is clear to all the participants. Our favorite frameworks for giving clear instructions is called "What, Why, How"

While it sounds simple, most people usually forget one of the factors. This usually happens because of a thing called the 'Curse of Knowledge': because  we  are familiar with the way a certain exercise is done, we omit important details that are obvious to us but aren't to someone who's new to the concept. 

We say what we're about to do, then how, but leave out the why. Or we say what & why, but forget to specify how. As you're preparing for a workshop, make sure to run your material for every exercise against that formula and make sure you have all 3 elements covered.

Being ready to adapt

There are about a million things that could go wrong in a workshop: you might run overtime on one of the exercises, throwing you off-schedule, or you might have a troublemaker in the room who makes moving along impossible, or your tech set up might break…

The thing is, there is NO way to avoid mishaps or little hiccups in your workshop. The key here is to be prepared for each possible scenario and be willing to adapt ad-hoc. 

BONUS SKILL: Remote Facilitation

Remote work is not just a hypothetical future of work by this point, it's the reality of our everyday lives, and it's here to stay. So to really ace it as a facilitator, you have to get to grips with remote facilitation.

Even experienced facilitators seem to shy away from remote workshops, and we get it: there's a lot more factors that can go south in a remote setting than an in-person one. But here's the thing, if you have the right tools and tactics in place, remote facilitation is actually not all that bad.

P.S. We have an entire in-depth guide on what you need to be aware of when facilitating remotely , so if you want to really level up your skills, we suggest you check it out!

How to improve your facilitation skills

If you feel like you might not be checking all of those boxes above just yet, don't worry! Facilitation, just like any other skill, can be trained, honed, and improved. And these tips might help you get started and keep going:

Seek opportunities to facilitate

Practice makes perfect, and facilitation is no exception! The best way to learn anything is to implement your new-found knowledge in a real-life setting directly. This will allow you to remember the concepts better and help you get more confident in your facilitation skills. 

Double down on your strengths

What is the one thing you're really good at? Is it activating the group? Or maybe you're great at organization and planning? Whatever your super-skill might be, make sure to focus on that instead of poring over all the areas you need to improve.

Be proactive about your learning

That being said, don't assume you can wing it by simply relying on the skillset you already have. Instead, acknowledge your weaknesses and improvement areas and actively work on improving them.  

And there you have it! Work in these skills, and we can guarantee you will be acing the facilitation game in no time!

AJ&Smart Team

A team of pro workshop facilitators with 9+ years of experience.

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The Ultimate Facilitation Glossary: 50 Facilitation Terms You Should Know (From A-Z)

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Facilitation techniques - 18 proven methods to make your meetings fly

Ewelina gaszyńska, march 2, 2023.

Company resources are too valuable to be wasted on ineffective meetings. At the same time, organizing a valuable discussion among many people is not easy and requires certain skills. This is especially important today when most meetings are held online. And this is when facilitation techniques come into play.

Do meetings have to be a waste of time?

Anyone who has experience working in an organization knows it - meetings that go on endlessly, breaking up the rhythm of work, which don't produce any valuable conclusions. Nightmare. According to a survey by the University of North Carolina, 71% of senior managers believe meetings are unproductive and inefficient, and 65% say meetings interfere with their ability to complete their work.

Considering that meetings are the default form of information delivery and an inherent form of communication in organizations, something is wrong here. Fortunately, this scenario isn't the only way to go - there are facilitation methods that will allow you to conduct a meeting effectively and meet your goals in an optimal time.

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What are facilitation and meeting designs anyway?

Meeting design is the process of structuring a meeting by preparing a plan that includes an agenda, objectives, topics to be discussed, and information to be obtained.

Meeting facilitation is the process of conducting and moderating a meeting in such a way as to maintain the intended course of the meeting, set the desired tone, meet the objectives, and include all participants. This process is the responsibility of a professional called a facilitator, whose role includes:

• Ensuring that the meeting time is used optimally.
• Involving all participants in the process.
• Remaining neutral during the discussion; the facilitator does not influence the substance or judge which ideas and opinions are good or bad.
• Maintaining the course of the meeting so that digressions do not dominate the discussion.
• Delegating tasks and ensuring that each participant has a role.
• Maintaining a constructive, goal-directed atmosphere.
• Making decisions about the next steps of the meeting.
• Summarizing the discussion and clarifying ambiguities.
• Ensuring that the meeting objectives are met.

What are the benefits of implementing meeting design and facilitation techniques?

Facilitation and meeting design are key elements of running a meeting that is becoming increasingly common in well-organized companies. With the popularization of online meetings, their usefulness has increased even more, as it is much more difficult to keep a group engaged and focused in a remote mode. Meeting facilitation and design allow you to:

• Make all participants feel part of the decision-making process, which positively impacts employee happiness.
• Reduce the number of meetings, thus saving productive team time. 
• Gain a broader perspective as all participants share opinions, not just the most active individuals.
• Get specific information and decisions instead of circling a general topic.
• Gain a better understanding of team dynamics and improve the quality of group work.

18 creative facilitation techniques you need to know

To begin, do a short task that everyone will participate in. This will help activate the group and get them to work together. At this stage, the activity need not, and even should not, be related to the topic of the meeting; its purpose is to warm up the brain and build a feeling of belonging to the group.

This could be, for example, telling an interesting story from childhood or the best advice someone has ever received, answering the question of what animal you would like to be or what you would do if you had unlimited time and money. 

2. Introduction

During this part, all participants introduce themselves and talk about what they do. This will help participants to get an idea of the context in which to consider a person's contribution to the discussion and the structure of the group. This point can be omitted when the meeting is attended by people who know their competencies well.

On the other hand, sometimes, during a meeting, the element of talking about one's position and experience can be intentionally omitted so that each perspective is fresh and responses can be more creative and presented from a different perspective. 

3. Plan and Agenda

Meeting design is crucial to effective facilitation, so prepare a thorough meeting agenda. Remember that the flow of the meeting needs to have some flexibility, but at the same time, it needs to stay within a certain frame. Some steps will probably take less time than you expect, while others will drag on.

When planning a meeting, leave some time for the more critical stages and don't go over the top. Remember that it's better to plan carefully and realistically - meetings are much more likely to last longer rather than shorter than anticipated, and there's nothing worse than working with tired, discouraged participants.

The meeting facilitator should have a detailed agenda, while participants can be given an abbreviated version or just a brief description of the activity to retain the element of surprise. Again, take into account the characteristics of the group - creative meetings like brainstorming or workshops have a different character than strategy meetings.

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4. A clear goal of the meeting

All participants need to know the purpose of the meeting. This is a key element for maintaining motivation and the feeling that the meeting is meaningful. Thanks to this, participants will not only think in a certain way, but they will also be more willing to make sure they don't change the topic or digress too much. 

5. Necessary tools

A good facilitator is prepared - this shows that the meeting is under control. The tools that will be needed to complete tasks and subsequent agendas are also an important part of preparation. If participants had to search for needed tools on their own, it would feel disorganized and break the productive flow, so the facilitator should provide all that is necessary.

In an online meeting, this could be sticky notes, whiteboard pens, or highlighters, while in an online meeting, it could be brainstorming tools or a mind map. 

6. Visualize

During meetings, participants exchange a lot of information. If they can't see it, they have to keep it in their heads all the time, making it hard for them to focus on one thing at a time. If they are taking notes, they can't fully engage in the current process.

A great facilitation technique is to present the findings and proceedings of the meeting in a simple, visual way, such as a graph, table, mind map, or chart. A regular whiteboard or flipchart works excellently in a meeting, while in an online format, you can use online tools and share the screen with all participants. 

7. Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a perfect way to get creative ideas and a fresh perspective. This process allows you to generate a large number of valuable insights in a short period of time, which you can then develop into concrete actions. For brainstorming to serve its purpose, however, you need to follow a few rules.

First, there are no wrong answers when brainstorming. Encourage participants to fearlessly propose ideas that may seem crazy or not entirely relevant - at this stage, it is about looking for inspiration, not ready-made solutions. There will be time for critical thinking later.

Second, give the brainstorming some direction, but don't lock it into a rigid framework - this will make it easier to unleash creative potential. Third - make a reasonable time limit. Brainstorming can not last too long, time limitation makes participants more spontaneous in their ideas.10-15 minutes will be enough. 

8. Organizing information

During a brainstorming session, many suggestions will be similar or even repetitive. It is a good facilitation technique to organize and categorize them; this way, the ideas collected will have some structure, and participants will feel that they are getting closer to the goal. Also, this way, you can easily see which ideas are most numerous and which issues have been raised most often, which is a valuable clue to where to focus. 

It is a good idea to introduce voting for the ideas and solutions that the meeting participants liked the most. You can give everyone 5-10 points to share to see the group's perspective. The important part is that every participant, regardless of position, is equally important when voting. Even if the board makes the final decisions later in the meeting, this will help create a valuable sense that everyone has an impact. 

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10. Everyone is included

Every group has different dynamics, and each person behaves differently during group work. The facilitator should avoid a situation where a few people dominate the discussion while the others just listen. Try to involve everyone, observe who has not yet spoken, and ask them for their opinion.

Be open-minded and don't put too much pressure, this technique is about encouragement, not coercion , especially since some people may feel insecure and don't like to ask questions. Be attentive to what is going on in the group - if a person can't get through and you see them trying to say something, don't forget about them but address them directly. 

11. Roles in the group

This is a great facilitation technique to make everyone feel needed. Assigning roles to participants is a good way to also engage more shy people who don't want to be the center of attention during the discussion but will be happy to take notes or control the time and help you check the agenda.

A very cool technique is also six thinking hats. This is a method proposed by psychologist Edward de Bono whereby six group participants are assigned a role and give feedback on the discussion in a specific way, for example, critical, informative, emotional, or positive.

In this way, the discussion can be conducted effectively, taking into account all objections and problems, but none of the participants feels personally attacked because constructive criticism is the role of the person giving it. 

12. Open questions

Open questions are a way to get participants to talk and argue more and to activate the less active participants. For example, instead of asking "Do you agree with this idea?" (this question can only be answered "yes" or "no"), ask "What do you think about this idea?" to gain insight into the participant's thinking and view.

13. Goals checklist

Sometimes, even if a meeting goes according to plan and agenda, its objectives are not met. Prepare yourself a list of goals for the meeting and mark if any of them have been met, such as deciding on the next steps in the project or assigning people to tasks. This is also a role you can assign to one of the participants. 

14. Off-topics monitoring

Many off-topics come up during the meetings. While a little digression now and then is the norm, when there are too many, they can break the whole flow. The facilitator must make sure the meeting stays on track; on the other hand, ignoring topics the group wants to talk about is not a good solution either.

Monitor emerging topics and write them down, or assign one of the participants to do so. Side topics that are written down can be brought up at the end of the meeting if there is enough time or even a separate meeting if they are important to the organization or its employees.

Let participants know that even if all topics are not covered now, they are saved so they can be discussed later. This facilitation technique will make the group feel that they are accomplishing the intended purpose while also making sure that their opinions and needs are included.

Planning breaks is a key part of longer meetings. It allows participants to get some rest, change the topic for a while and come back with renewed energy. It is also a good time to process what has been said and give oneself time for reflection.

Breaks should not be too frequent or too long so as not to break up the flow of the meeting and prolong it. However, the facilitator has to consider the needs of the group, so ask if participants prefer several longer breaks or one longer break and choose the solution that works best for everyone. 

16. Summary

When all agenda items have been completed, the facilitator should summarize the findings, decisions, and information from the meeting. This will be a way to verify that assumptions were met and will give participants a positive sense of accomplishment and completion of the task. 

17. Feedback from participants

This is a very important stage during which the participants say how they felt during the meeting, what they liked, what should be improved, are satisfied with the findings, or maybe they would like to discuss something else. This facilitation technique gives participants the feeling that they are important at every stage of the meeting and can honestly share their opinions. Such a possibility provides closure and satisfaction.

18. Observation and reaction

You may have the best plan and agenda, but the truth is that you always need to maintain some flexibility for change when working with a group of people. Sometimes during a meeting, you will find that the technique you chose doesn't work with a particular group, and you will need to change your approach.

Sometimes there may be a conflict between participants that you need to resolve in order not to spoil the mood. Sometimes an unplanned topic will come up without which you cannot move forward with the agenda. Observation and response are key group facilitation techniques because only by responding effectively to group dynamics will the meeting achieve its goals. 

Facilitation techniques benefit the organization and its employees

Communication is the foundation of any company, yet it is often its weakest point. Facilitation techniques will help you structure your meeting well, use your time effectively, engage your employees and give them a real sense of impact on the organization. Don't waste time in ineffective, frustrating meetings - implement some of our facilitation techniques examples and watch the magic happen!

Do you ever feel the meetings you're attending waste time? Well, to stop the feeling, you'll need to start applying facilitation techniques. Here's the explanation of those and some hands-on examples for making the most of every meeting.

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Facilitation skills are generally thought of as those needed to run workshops and/or away-days.

Most facilitators will tell you that, in fact, their skills range much more widely and are generally about supporting processes, which may include team building , project management and change management .

It is possible, although perhaps more difficult, to facilitate a process from within, that is, as an insider or even the manager of the process.

However, most often, organisations or teams will bring in an external facilitator to support the process, with all the advantages of neutrality.

What is Facilitation?

A Definition:

Facilitate v.t. , to make easy or easier. From facile, easy, working with ease.

Chambers English Dictionary, 1989 edition

Starting the Process of Facilitation

Most good facilitators, brought in to support a process, will start by asking ‘ What do you want to achieve? ’

This question, which is often surprisingly difficult to answer, is at the heart of good facilitation skills.

It is very easy for teams or organisations to get caught up in the idea of having a workshop, or running a team-building exercise, without having a clear vision of what the process is designed to achieve.

And, as our page on Strategic Thinking clearly shows, it is very hard to get to the right place if you don’t know what the right place looks like, or where it is.

The job of the facilitator is to support clients in getting to the right place for them .

It doesn’t matter if the facilitator agrees with the strategic aims of the client. The facilitator is there to help the client to articulate, and then reach, their aims , not the aims of the facilitator.

One of the first crucial skills of facilitation, is to ask the right questions to help the client develop their aims and objectives.

See our pages on Questioning Skills for more information.

The Heart of Process Facilitation

At the heart of process facilitation is an understanding that the facilitator is there to support the process .

The facilitator is not a subject expert.

Whatever the facilitator's views on the subject are, they are not there to give them. Facilitators therefore should have no input into the content of the discussions, events or work more generally.

Work that may be required to support the process includes:

Chairing or supporting meetings , in a way that makes sure that everyone is given a chance to air their views. See our pages on Meetings and Conducting Meetings for more;

Supporting the building or maintenance of relationships, including mediating in disputes if necessary. You may find it helpful to look at our pages on Difficult Group Behaviours , Conflict Resolution and Mediation Skills ;

Managing participants, especially those who tend to try to express their opinions more often than others and ‘hog the limelight’;

One facilitator’s trick for managing participants who try to ‘hog the limelight’ is to offer them a toffee. This will make it hard for them to talk for a while, and if offered in the right way, may even raise a smile and a wry awareness of the issue.

Ensuring the process runs to time including, for events, coffee and lunch breaks and sessions starting and finishing at the right time, and for longer processes, that each step is concluded by the deadline. See our pages on Organisational Skills and Time Management for more.

Encouraging participation and involvement of all possible stakeholders .

Ensuring that work is appropriately delegated , especially in a longer term process. See our page on Delegation Skills for more.

Facilitating Workshops

Many people feel nervous about the prospect of facilitating workshops.

Workshop facilitation skills have many similarities to presentation skills, many of the steps involved in giving a successful presentation or talk are equally important to successful workshop facilitation. Good preparation including knowing the audience and what is expected can help alleviate some of the nerves.

See our section on Presentation Skills for more information including our page Coping with Presentation Nerves for some tips on how to reduce and control feelings of nervousness.

Tips for Successful Workshop Facilitation:

1. remember that you’re there by consent.

You’re not a teacher, and you don’t have to make the group do what you want.

Actually, you’re there to help them do what they want. If they don’t want to do a particular exercise, or to do it differently, then that’s fine. They’re adults. They can go and have a cup of coffee if that’s what they agree to do.

The process of agreeing to take a break could be as important for the group as anything that you can organise.

2. Watch out for tipping points

There are natural tipping or turning points in every event and every activity.

Use these tipping points, don’t fight them. If you’re running a game for the group, and it’s getting a bit out of hand, then call a halt.

Use the natural point at which it would tip into chaos to tip it into another activity instead, perhaps a summing-up.

3. Ask members of the group to help

Remember, you don’t have to carry the whole process yourself.

It’s quite acceptable to ask others to help, for example, to write points up on the board, or to move tables and chairs about. And if it’s not working, or what you’re doing is very definitely falling flat, ask the group why, or what they’d rather be doing. It is, after all, their event and their time. 

4. Use your physical position in the room

Your physical position has an impact on your effect in the group.

Think about it. If you’re standing, and everyone else is sitting, you’re in a position of authority.

If you need to tell the participants something, for example, explaining an activity, then stand up at the front of the room .

If you want the group to discuss something without you leading the discussion, sit down or move to the back of the room .

If you want to stop a discussion, stand up and lean forward , putting yourself into the group.

See our page, Non-Verbal Communication for more about body language.

5. Use a variety of activities, table layouts etc.

Everyone likes variety. It keeps us interested, aiding concentration.

Give workshop participants plenty of different things to do, and keep them moving about to keep them awake and focused. By all means get them to move the tables into different layouts for different exercises.

Try getting them to use both left and right hand sides of the brain by introducing some elements of drawing or making into the proceedings. You and participants may both be surprised at what emerges from a process of making something.

Playing a game is a great way to consolidate the learning in a fun way.

6. Prepare thoroughly

Do not underestimate the importance of thorough preparation. People will be able to tell if you haven’t prepared properly, and so will you.

Once you’re a very experienced facilitator, you might occasionally get away with a shortage of preparation if you’ve run very similar workshops before, but don’t expect to be invited back if you try to do it too often.

You do need to do your homework. Know your audience, find out what they want to achieve from the session in advance, and make sure that you have activities planned that will help them to do this.

Facilitation skills are as much about preparation before the event as they are managing the event.

7. Ask questions to keep a discussion going

If a discussion is flagging, have some prepared questions to drop in that might stimulate further discussion.

Also be prepared to accept that a discussion may reach a natural end-point before the planned end of the session, and if so, the group may want to go for a coffee early.

8. Develop a portfolio of ideas and activities

It’s a good idea to experiment with new activities and ideas whenever you can, so that you build up a repertoire of group exercises or games that you like to use.

For future events, if you’re under pressure to produce a new activity from nowhere, you’ll have a go-to list of tried-and-tested workshop activities that you can adapt for almost any situation.

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A Cautionary Conclusion

Although you can learn a lot about facilitation skills by reading and studying, this can only go so far.

More than many other skills, facilitation skills are best acquired through practice, preferably alongside an expert practitioner who can give you feedback and support you if the process does not go to plan.

Continue to: Conducting a Meeting Self-Presentation in Presentations

See also: Change Management Leadership Styles Corporate Team Building Events and the Life Skills They Teach

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Facilitation Skills: Presence and Presentation Skills

Tools for teaching navigation.

Facilitation Skills : The Art of Group Facilitation

• Self-Mastery Skills: What Does It Mean to Be a Facilitator?
• Presence and Presentation Skills
• Relating Skills: Communication, Listening, Questioning
• Group Awareness and Management Skills
• Logistic Skills

Teaching and Presentation Skills : Keep these techniques in mind

Enhancing Your Facilitation Skills 

A meeting is any time two or more people come together to accomplish something in particular. What is achieved depends greatly on how you plan in advance, interact with leaders and participants, set the stage for the work ahead, adjust your strategy as needed, and bring closure.

Guidelines for Facilitation

The following provides guidance in these areas. (adapted from Oakley & Krug, 1991; and materials available at the change agency.org )

Explain your role and responsibilities to the group: Clarify what you will do, what you will not do, and how you will help them achieve their objectives.

Focus your attention on the goals of the group: Don’t let fear, nervousness or other emotions keep you from serving the group’s needs and don’t let your facilitation skills serve as a vehicle for your personal and professional growth.

Always use a systematic approach : At the beginning of every meeting or training session, state the purpose of the meeting or program, review the agenda and then clarify roles.

Test frequently for understanding of basic assumptions and agreements: This will help to avoid misunderstandings as you work through the process .

When necessary, just say “no”: If an assignment is not a good opportunity for you to provide service, turn down the request to facilitate. If all you are going to do is write-up the minutes of a meeting, handle other administrative tasks, or serve as a vehicle for the chairperson’s desire to pursue a hidden agenda, decline the opportunity to facilitate. If you can’t say no, make a counter offer by suggesting what you can and should do.

Meeting Enhancers

When we begin, end and keep the meeting on track, value can be added to the quality of the meeting and the results produced. This leads to high levels of trust and cooperation (Butler, 1996).

Openers: Reinforce What Is Important

The following questions suggest ways that any meeting can be started and can build a foundation of trust, openness and cooperation:

• What have you accomplished since we last met?
• What are you working on right now that you are excited about?
• What has your team learned from its progress on this project?
• What’s something you would like to be acknowledged for?
• What do you appreciate about __________(team member)?
• How would you describe what you’d like to accomplish in this meeting?

Keeping Aligned: Ask Open Questions

• What’s making the most sense about what we’ve covered so far?
• What could I do to help us better achieve our goals for the meeting?
• How can I support you?

Meeting Closers: Let the Group Be the Last to Talk

• What have you appreciated most from the time we have spent together today?
• What have been the two or three biggest benefits you’ve received from this meeting today?
• In what specific ways will you be able to apply what you have learned?
• What have you learned that might help us to be a better team?
• What can you be counted on to do?

The 'Never Evers' of Workshop Facilitation

Much has been written about planning effective workshops and staff development sessions. Many of these articles provide specific ways to increase the effectiveness of the session. These articles have generally suggested “what works” in workshops.

Experience and research also indicate certain things that a facilitator should never do during a workshop. I have gleaned these “never evers” from observing other presenters, conducting my own workshops, consulting with experts, and reading the literature. As a thoughtful reminder place this list of “never evers” near your other workshop materials.

• Never ever forget that individuals at the workshop are unique, with needs, interests, and experiences particular to them.
• Never ever require individuals to participate in an activity.
• Never ever talk to participants as if they are children.
• Never ever ridicule participants or their experiences.
• Never ever neglect the participants’ personal needs.
• Never ever say that you are going to rush through and compress material in order to complete what is usually a longer workshop in a shorter length of time.
• Never ever say that you would have brought more materials if it had been possible.
• Never ever tell participants what you’ve forgotten.
• Never ever give excuses.
• Never ever read from a lengthy prepared text.
• Never ever share illegible handouts.
• Never ever share a disorganized “mishmash” for a handout.
• Never ever give participants something to read and then read it to them.
• Never ever share overhead transparencies that participants cannot see or read.
• Never ever share with participants a workshop schedule that is impossible to follow.
• Never ever go past the scheduled time.
• Never ever forget that you have an audience.
• Never ever take the workshop so seriously that everyone (including the facilitator) cannot have fun.

Butler, A. S. Team Think . (1996). The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Oakley, E. and D. Krug. (1991) Enlightened Leadership: Getting to the Heart of Change.   Simon & Schuster.

Sharp, P.A. (Dec-Jan. 2000).  The ‘Never Evers’ of Workshop Facilitation . Tools for Schools, National Staff Development Council,  [ NOTE : details summarized in the link above by the same name]

Adapted with permission from Soil and Water Conservation District Outreach: A Handbook for Program Development, Implementation and Evaluation . Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Soil and Water Conservation, 2003.

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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Top 10 Dos and Don’ts for Effective Facilitation

Collaboration is an imperative skill in any workforce. However, being able to facilitate groups toward successful collaboration, is a skill that can make you a superstar in any organization.

Whether you are organizing business strategy or an office potluck (remember those before the pandemic?), helping teammates communicate effectively and reach consensus with one another can be difficult, but also immensely rewarding.

Each facilitated activity is different and may require its own set of “rules” for success, however, I’ve found that the tips below are helpful — regardless of how simple or complex your activity may be.

So, here are 5 Dos and 5 Don’ts to consider the next time you find yourself in the seat of the facilitator.

The 5 Dos for effective collaboration

1. model the behavior you want.

Group members will mimic the behavior of other members in the group, especially the facilitator. If you’re acting like the activity is a chore, then the group will believe it’s not worth their time. However, if you’re bringing positive energy and engagement to the work, you’ll see the energy of the group change in response. Be mindful of the belonging cues you’re sending out. Everything from your expressions, eye contact, body posture, energy, and most importantly, the language you’re using. These cues demonstrate to the group how they should engage with one another.

Note: If you're collaborating remotely, turning on your camera is important for facilitation. The group needs to see that you’re attentive and engaged. Again, many will follow your lead. If you have a group that’s resistant to turning on their cameras, turn yours on. You may be surprised to see others follow your lead.

2. Create clarity

The primary role of the facilitator is to help the group find clarity. This can be achieved by simply being curious and inquisitive.

Examples: “Susan, can you tell us more about that?” or “Jeff, it looks like you want to jump in here, do you have something to add?”

You want to be constantly engaging group members, watching their body language, and helping them clarify their thoughts, so each member is heard and understood. This achieves two important things: First, it helps the group understand each other — of course — and second, it fosters trust between you and your group members.

3. Be inclusive

As a facilitator, it’s your job to ensure that everyone has equal opportunity to contribute. But here’s the thing to remember: each person contributes in their own way. Great facilitators are attentive to each group member. They’re empathetic and don’t treat facilitation as a “one size fits all” strategy. If you have members in the group that are shy or quiet, it may just mean that their style of collaboration isn’t to just “jump in and start talking”. Consider providing multiple ways to contribute to the discussion.

For example: Having them type comments in a chat window (or writing them on Post-Its), or taking turns to comment, or pairing up in smaller groups. All of these strategies can help less-vocal members contribute.

Also, be considerate of group dynamics and hierarchy. Appreciate how those forces may be affecting a member’s willingness to speak freely. A junior employee may need support and advocacy if she’s going to speak up in a meeting full of her superiors. In those situations, a great facilitator can be a powerful ally.

4. Be positive

This may seem self-explanatory, but the facilitator must maintain the voice of positivity within the group. As a facilitator, you’re looking to remove tension, not add to it. Constantly reminding the group that they’re running out of time or that they’re off track doesn’t help. It adds anxiety and makes facilitation more about your need to control the group, rather than helping the group work effectively with one another.

Your tone should always be supportive and encouraging. If you have someone in the group that’s combative, do what my father-in-law always says, “You gotta kill ’em with kindness.” While difficult group members can be a chore, they can also be a fantastic opportunity for you to model positive, collaborative, behavior to the rest of the group. (More on how to deal with difficult group members below).

Remember: The quickest way to show that you’ve lost control of your group, is by losing your cool.

5. Have fun!

Listen. I get it. Work is important and we’re all trying to achieve serious things. But I just don’t understand how we’ve convinced ourselves that work should be completely devoid of fun.

Great facilitators find small ways to interject fun into any activity. Perhaps it’s sharing a quick story of something embarrassing that happened to you this morning (also, you’re modeling vulnerability to the rest of the group. Double win!).

Or maybe you can try asking everyone about their latest Netflix binge or what new song they’re obsessed with (then play that song during the next activity). You don’t have to put on a comedy routine, but adding a bit of levity can go a long way when group members are tired or anxious.

5 pitfalls to avoid for effective collaboration

1. don’t be afraid to lead.

You may have come to this list because you’ve been asked to facilitate a group activity for the first time. Perhaps you’re feeling a bit of imposter syndrome and you’re unsure of asserting yourself as the lead of the group.

You may be tempted to be agreeable and passive, ensuring that you don’t come off bossy or controlling. That’s not a good strategy.

Your job as a facilitator is to lead, so feel comfortable in that role and take charge where needed.

If the group is off track, jump in and assert yourself — gently steering them back to the activity.

Example: “I really like the energy around this discussion, but I want us to return to the question we’re trying to answer here: <restate question>.” A statement like this redirects the group’s energy, in a positive way, and re-asserts your role as the group’s organizer.

2. Don’t pretend to have all the answers

Don’t fall into the false belief that, as the facilitator, you have to have an answer to every question that comes your way. That’s just not possible.

One of the downsides of being a great facilitator is that the group may often put you in the role of mediator or “judge.”

“I have a question,” someone clever might ask, “do you think it’s a good idea to keep pursuing this strategy, if we don’t have all the information?”

Don’t take the bait. Instead, use it as an opportunity to re-engage the group.

“That’s an important question! What does the group think?”

Your goal as a facilitator is not to have all the answers, it’s to help the group find their own answers.

3. Don’t do all the talking

You may be tempted to talk your way through a group who’s quietly struggling. Do your best to avoid this.

Awkward silence can be brutal, but it may also be necessary.

Sometimes the best thing a facilitator can do is let the group rest in the silence. If the group isn’t talking, it doesn’t mean that they’re not engaged, they’re confused, or that they don’t care — it could just mean that they’re processing their thoughts.

Throughout the activity, be mindful of your talking-to-listening ratio and make sure that it trends more toward listening.

4. Don’t seek consensus on everything

Not every decision needs to be reached by consensus. Especially decisions around how the group should organize themselves for the activity or how the work should be delivered. Where you can, do that work upfront and save your group’s “consensus energy” for the decisions that matter.

For the smaller decisions, go for the presumptive close and move on.

Example: “There seems to be a lot of interest in option A, so let’s start with that one.”

5. Don’t ignore non-inclusive behaviors

The most common situation I’ve mentored other facilitators on is the dreaded “difficult group member”. We know these group members all too well. They might talk over other group members, they roll their eyes at others’ suggestions, act aggressive, or pout when they don’t get their way.

Fear of having to deal with bullies is the number 1 reason most people avoid opportunities to facilitate groups. But they shouldn’t. There’s a lot of info and great strategies to help you deal with these difficult collaborators. If you’re looking for a really good resource, I’d recommend The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley . It’s one of my favorites.

Bottomline, the best approach is to have a few tools ready should a situation arise. In my experience, the worst thing you can do is just ignore the behavior, hoping it’ll go away (spoiler: It won’t).

How to manage non-inclusive behaviors

• Take note and keep moving: If you have a group member that is insistent on making a point that is tangential to the work being done, the best strategy is to just acknowledge it and move on. Example: “That’s a really good point, but I want to move us back to the activity. I’ll make note of it over here (demonstrate that you’re capturing the idea), and if there’s time we should definitely return to it.”
• Redirect: If a group member seems fixated on one idea, give them an opportunity to generate an opinion on something else. Example: “I really like your idea on this. I’m curious though, what are your thoughts on <the thing you want them to focus on>? Do you have something else we should be considering here?”
• Draw others into the conversation: If one person has held the spotlight for too long, feel free to move it to someone else. Example: “Anyone have thoughts on what he’s saying here? Is there anything else we should be thinking about? Tom, I noticed you got cut off earlier, did you have something to add?”
• Make connections: One of the most powerful tools I use as a facilitator is having the freedom to say what others might not be able to say themselves. A great way to do this is by making connections between other group members. Stating the differences in opinions you’re hearing can help nudge the conversation in a healthy direction. Example: “That’s a really interesting point Mike, but I feel like I’m hearing something different from Teressa. Teressa, do we have another thought on this that I should be considering?” Note: Notice the use of I and we here. I’m using myself and the group as a proxy between Mike and Teressa, helping diffuse any tensions while creating clarity between them.

Just like any other skill, facilitating takes practice. While this list can help you focus on the right behaviors, be sure to give yourself patience and space to master them.

Regardless of your aspirations as a facilitator, one thing is for sure. The world needs more people willing to invest in tools that help us collaborate with one another.

This article originally appeared on Medium. 

About the authors

Travis Lowdermilk

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• Eight Ps of effective facilitation planning and preparation
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Many of us are seeing a return to in-person and hybrid meetings following the COVID pandemic. It might be an ideal time to remind ourselves of the importance of planning and preparation for the meetings we lead and facilitate. 

Rarely are meetings I facilitate or attend perfect. However, planning for meetings we lead and facilitate provides sufficient rewards. I can recall meetings I have facilitated when something went wrong. Maybe I lost the group’s attention, or the group didn’t understand my instructions for an exercise, or they responded with blank stares at a question I asked. Maybe the process I designed was not producing the results I expected. Or maybe I didn’t prepare the necessary handout or flipchart.

Most if not all these problems can be traced back to my ineffective facilitation planning and preparation.

In response to the problems and challenges I have described, I found a very helpful approach developed by Jeff Bracken, an organizational effectiveness consultant. Jeff’s approach is not a linear, generic cookie-cutter template that applies to all facilitation situations. However, it does provide a clear process and useful guidelines that you can customize to your unique requirements.

The Eight Ps for effective facilitation planning and preparation are: perspective, purpose, people, product, place, process, practice, and personal preparation. Following is an overview of each.

1. Perspective

Developing an understanding of the group’s purpose, mission, vision, goals, and context is critical. Questions you might ask as you think about gaining perspective for facilitating a group or team:

• What is the purpose and mission of the group or organization?
• What is the organizational structure?
• How are decisions made?
• What does the leadership look like?

It is essential to understand what the group or organization views as a successful meeting or event before determining the detailed requirements, specific deliverables, and how to measure results. Questions you might ask as you determine your group’s needs and expectations:

• What are their ideal desired results or outcomes?
• What do we need to achieve in this meeting or during this event to meet their needs?
• What type of atmosphere do we need to create in order to accomplish the results they want?

It is common not to fully identify and include the important people who need to participate in an event or meeting. Once you have mapped out who and why people need to be in attendance, here are some additional questions to ask:

• What are the conflicts?
• What are the biases, preconceived ideas, and other potential barriers to success?

While this may appear to be similar to purpose, it is more specific. Purpose is why we are having the meeting, product is what is produced as a result of the meeting. Questions to consider:

• What will be delivered?
• What is the most important thing we need to accomplish?
• What documentation do we want to walk out of the room with?

This step is probably most overlooked by inexperienced facilitators. Thinking that a room or space will do is simply not true or effective. Don’t leave the identification and selection of the physical space to someone else. This is an important step in virtual meetings as well, even though the space will be different. Questions to help determine your space needs are:

• How many participants will be attending?
• Are there any special needs for those participating?
• What special equipment is needed, such as computers, internet access, flipcharts, and wall space?

Once you have considered the above five Ps, you are in a solid position to design a process that fits your group or organization’s unique situation and needs. There are numerous processes that can be designed for different results, such as decision-making, improvement, problem-solving, strategic planning, etc.

I usually start with a clear facilitation agenda that provides clear guidance on the individual items needing attention, time allocations, and expected outcome. Then, I select tools such as activities, questions, and exercises for each agenda item. Questions I consider when designing a process:

• Does the agenda item need dissemination, discussion, or decision (t his three Ds approach helps me determine what type of tool to use)?
• What is the best flow for the agenda?
• How much time is needed for each item and what tools can be used effectively for the allocated time?

7. Practice

I will admit, I am not the best at practicing, or doing a dry run of the process before my facilitation. Yet, this is a very important step. Usually when I do practice, I identify areas that need adjustments or things I may have missed. Visualizing and rehearsing the meeting, anticipating potential problems, and preparing appropriate contingency plans is essential.

On the day of the meeting or event, arrive before the participants. Test your equipment and make sure all your materials are ready. Finally, take a few minutes for yourself to check your appearance and visualize yourself facilitating a successful meeting.

8. Personal preparation

If you are not personally ready to perform, your participants will know it. This encompasses being mentally, emotionally, and physically ready to perform. Something I try to do before large facilitation events is to exercise the morning of the event. While exercising, I visualize the event and the different parts of the agenda. The exercise also prepares me mentally and physically. I find that when I facilitate, I am standing and walking almost the entire time. 

In my journey as a facilitator, I have learned that utilizing these Eight Ps of effective facilitation planning and preparation make all the difference between a poor and unproductive meeting and one that is inspiring, motivating, fun and productive.

My hope is that as we return to more in-person and hybrid meetings in the coming weeks and months, we make the most of our time together since we never know when it will be taken away from us again in the future.

Author: Tobias Spanier , Extension educator

Jeff Bracken, Eight Ps of Effective Facilitation Planning and Preparation, The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation, Best Practices from the Leading Organization in Facilitation Edited by Sandy Schuman, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA 2005.

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Workshop facilitation techniques for exceptional results

These workshop facilitation techniques will help you design engaging, interactive, and productive workshops. They’re ideal for groups of 9 or more people.

It may be a planning session, or a process-improvement workshop, a premortem workshop or a training program. Whenever you have a group of people that need to collaborate to achieve a specific goal, these workshop facilitation techniques will help. 

(And most can all be used in face-to-face and virtual workshops!)

Resources that you’ll need for many of these facilitation techniques:

• Face-to-face resources : space to move around, flipcharts and stands, BluTak or tape for moving flipcharts to the wall, post-it notes or sticky stars. Plenty of pens.
• Virtual resources : break-out rooms, an annotate function (during presentations), an easy-to-use whiteboard, simple polls.

Also, some of the techniques have additional requirements (such as a pile of old magazines, you’ll see!).

Let’s jump in.

Workshop facilitation Techniques

Very roughly speaking these workshop facilitation techniques are in the order that you might use them in a workshop (though you don’t need them all, just select what you feel will work best).

• Setting ground rules

It can be useful to set the ground rules, the ‘ what do we expect of each other ’, at the start of the session. Often, it’s easiest just to include these in your opening presentation (not as a facilitation technique).

However, it can be useful to make this into a small exercise, particularly with more senior participants (who are used to controlling their environment).

Simply ask:

What behavior should we expect of each other, while we’re in this workshop?

Give people time. The participants will need a moment to think. Then gather the responses.

You can ask additional prompting questions as well if you wish: “any other ideas?”. If there are points that you’d like to add yourself, ask: “is it OK if I add…”.

Gather all the responses on a flipchart and post on the wall (or save a PPT slide if it’s a virtual workshop) so that you can gently remind participants of what they have agreed, if needed!

• Defining success

Alternatively, another way you can address this early in the workshop is by asking participants to define success.

In this case, simple ask:

Let’s imagine we’ve reached the end of the day. It has been a huge success! What was it that made it a success?

You’ll likely get a mix of responses. For example, you’ll get some responses about expected behaviors, you’ll get some responses about outcomes. You can help the participants by grouping the responses as you receive them.

This has the benefit that you now know what the participants want to achieve!

And you can also do this as a break-out activity (see ‘ break-outs ’ below).

Icebreakers

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on icebreakers in this article, here’s a great icebreaker resources site .

One thing that many people forget: try and select an icebreaker that has a learning point you can connect to the rest of the workshop. Ideally an icebreaker fits within the theme of the day, it’s not just an isolated activity.

The most fundamental technique of all: asking great questions

To facilitate means ‘ to make easier ’. To make progress easier. Or make learning easier. The best way you can do this is to ask great questions. All the remaining workshop facilitation techniques rely on your ability to do this.

More here on questioning techniques .

Here are 5 types of powerful facilitation questions:

Opening questions that are ideal for opening a topic. For example:

• What are your thoughts about this?
• What experience do you have, that relates to this topic?
• What opportunities do you see?

Inclusive questions that bring other participants into the conversation. For example:

• What do other people think?
• Does anyone have a different perspective?
• Geoff, what are your views on this?

Clarifying questions that resolve ambiguity and explore further. For example:

• Please, tell me more?!
• Can you give me an example of that?
• Can you please explain in more detail?

Reflective questions that encourage deeper exploration. For example:

• How did that make you feel?
• What did you learn from that experience?
• How successful was that?

Consensus building questions that move the team forwards. For example:

• What themes can you see, in our discussion?
• From the discussion, what do we all agree on?
• What are our areas of difference? (And, who can propose a way forward?)

The ORID questioning technique can also be a useful structure to use when asking questions.

As you’re designing your workshop and the details of each session, keep your workshop goals in mind. And as you’re preparing your questions, ask yourself “ will the answers move us towards the goals ”.

And remember to listen to the answers !

Then, if you get questions thrown at you during the workshop, you’ll have a strong foundation for confident answers .

Using ‘break-outs’ to create smaller working groups

All the workshop facilitation techniques in this article can make use of break-out activities. It’s simply the process of breaking the participants into smaller working groups to complete a task, then gathering everyone back together to share the results.

I recommend that you have a plan for how you’ll use break-out activities. Then adjust that plan through-out the day depending on the energy and engagement levels.

To prepare break-out activities:

• Set-up the activity on a slide (for clarity)​
• Make sure you have provided the resources required for the task​
• Aim for 3-5 people per group​ (large than that and there will be ‘bystanders’ in each group)
• Consider allocating different topics to different groups​
• Encourage participants to take notes, or develop a slide to share​ during the debrief
• Specify the time they have to complete the task

If you’re using virtual break-out rooms, make sure everyone is familiar with the technology and how to return to the main room.

You’ll need to give some thought to your debrief questions , to use when everyone is back in the main room. You can use the 5 types of facilitation question outlined above to guide you.

And depending on how many groups you have, it’s not always necessary to have every group present back for every activity (it can become very time consuming). For example if you have 5 groups, you might let 2-3 groups present back, and then give everyone else an opportunity with the following question:

We won’t get every group to present for every activity, it will be too time consuming. However, I would be interested to hear, do any of the remaining groups have anything new that they’d particularly like to share?

This keeps everyone involved, and in later activities you can start with the groups who didn’t get a chance to present previously.

• ‘Picture sorts’ and other projective facilitation techniques

Projective techniques are borrowed from market research. The American Marketing Association defines them as:

Projective techniques are indirect methods used in qualitative research. These techniques allow researchers to tap into consumers’ deep motivations, beliefs, attitudes and values.

A picture sort is a very simple example. Imagine that you’re doing some work on your customer service experience. You want to define how the customer will feel about your customer service.

Bring a pile of old magazines (as wide a variety of magazines as possible!). Place them on the table with the instruction:

I want you to cut out the pictures that you feel represent the type of customer service that we want to provide. Be as imaginative and creative as you like in selecting the pictures!

Allow the participants some time for the exercise, then have the discussion about what these pictures represent. You’ll find you get a much richer response from the participants.

Other examples include:

• Using animals as reference. For example: “ If this team was an animal, which animal would it be?”
• Using famous people as a source of inspiration. For example: “ What would Bill Gates tell us to do? Or, what would Donald Trump tell us to do?”

These types of activity need a little set-up. Explain that they’re a creative technique that help us be creative and thin in different ways.

These projective facilitation techniques can be particularly useful when energy is low and you need to inject a fresh perspective to re-energize the participants.

‘Walk the wall’ workshop facilitation techniques

This technique is more specific to a face-to-face environment. It makes use of the meeting room to encourage people to be up and active.  It also uses the break-outs we mentioned earlier.

Put flipcharts up around the walls. Create your breakout groups and assign them to the flipcharts (get them up on their feet and at the flipcharts!). Have each group work on a different task (you can pre-prepare the flipcharts with the task at the top, if you wish).

Then, once the groups have had time to work on their topic, ask them all to ‘walk the wall’ and explore the other topics too. (You can assign one team member from each group to stay behind at their flipchart to explain and facilitate the discussions, if you wish.)

As a variation of this facilitation technique you can simply write the topics at the top of each flipchart, then allow the participants to choose the topics that are of most interest to them and move around the room as they wish.

This activity can be adapted endlessly (use your imagination!).

Specialist workshop facilitation techniques

There are also many specialist facilitation tools and techniques.

Brainstorming? Try these specialist brainstorming techniques .

Looking for quality improvement? Try these six sigma techniques .

Training and development? Take a look at these group facilitation techniques and methods .

You can also use your imagination to create new techniques, the possibilities are limitless!

Finally, techniques for reaching consensus

There are one or two workshop facilitation techniques that are useful to reach a consensus. They are ideal towards the end of a topic, when there are lots of ideas which have been captured (on flipcharts or a PPT) that need to be distilled down.

Face-to-face: use pens or ‘sticky stars’. Tell the participants that they each have 3 ‘votes’ and they should mark the 3 points that they wish to prioritize. You can provide specific criteria, for example: most valuable, most cost-effective, best aligned to our strategy, etc.

Virtually: achieve a similar outcome with the annotate function in your virtual rooms, or quickly create a poll based on the content the teams have created.

These are great techniques for focusing the thinking before moving to next steps or an action plan.

Workshop facilitation techniques in summary

Facilitation is all about making progress easier. If you’re leading a workshop with 9 or more people you can use these techniques to help the group make progress:

• Asking great questions
• Using ‘break outs’ to create smaller working groups
• ‘Walk the wall’ facilitation techniques
• Specialist facilitation techniques
• Techniques for reaching consensus

My final tip: as you’re using these techniques, consider the social styles of the group you’re working with and adapt your facilitation to match their preferences.

How to train new facilitators – a step by step guide

Training new facilitators in the use of facilitation skills is essential as the profession gains recognition and organizations come to realize the advantages of having facilitative leaders and team members.

But how to begin? In this piece, IAF endorsed facilitator and new SessionLab team member Deborah shares tips and tools from her experience of 5+ years introducing students and professionals to facilitation .

She leads us through the programme of a half-day introductory workshop session in which participants experience facilitation tools first-hand, reflect on them, and collect methods and skills in their first facilitation toolkit.

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As a facilitator and trainer, you may sometimes be asked to reveal what is going on behind the scenes. 

• Is a client looking to build capacity among staff, aiming to self-facilitate day-to-day meetings before calling you in for more complex projects?
• Have you been invited by an education institution wanting to train students to be great team players in their professional future?
• Are you personally looking for a way to share facilitation with others by creating a workshop that is engaging, actionable and hands-on?

Whatever the reason for which you are setting off in the adventure of facilitator training, you’ll find something useful in the following pages, as well as in the accompanying workshop template .

This programme for a half-day starter workshop has been tried and tested for over five years and in different settings, including online. Read on to find out the rationale behind the design, what you should be looking out for in running it, and what pitfalls to avoid when training new facilitators.

Why we should be training more new facilitators 

After taking part in this training, Issam, a 26-year-old student of business and accounting, commented “I don’t plan on becoming a professional facilitator. But taking the facilitator’s point of view has really changed how I behave in meetings ”. His words say a lot about why it’s so important to train more people in facilitation skills. 

The need to train and enable the success of a new cohort of facilitators also emerged as one of the key findings of the State of Facilitation in 2023 report . Data collected indicates a  low number of facilitators under the age of 30  (only 38 responses) and beginners (7.2% of respondents) in the field. This matches our general impression that there are actually very few Gen-Z facilitators out there. With only a mere 3.4% of facilitators in their 20s responding to the survey, the facilitation community is left to wonder: what can we do to include younger voices, and train the next generation?

Here are three key reasons for training newbies:

• To improve the effectiveness of team projects, at a time when we need collaborative efforts on all fronts, to navigate, and steer, rapid changes in the world;
• For better workplace experiences , key in attracting and retaining a skilled workforce in the era of the Great Resignation;
• To increase the ranks of facilitators, as the profession gains traction and recognition around the world, in private and public sectors alike.

As a global civilisation we are currently facing complex or “wicked” problems in all areas of life, be it our relationship with the environment, competitive pressure, a global pandemic, a breakdown of the international order (you name it).

In order to face such complexity, we need new pathways, new ways of thinking, which might be referred to as “holistic” or “systemic”, that center around hearing from diverse stakeholders and getting all the voices in a room. Leveraging diversity, breaking silos, encouraging multidisciplinarity are the paths to the truly innovative solutions our world needs. 

Diverse, multidisciplinary teams can achieve astounding results, but collaboration takes work and practice. Facilitation skills, which include the ability to steer difficult conversations, design ways to ideate together, prevent and transform conflict, and get action points done, are essential to working together in diversity.

As teams learn to work better together, misunderstandings are prevented and conflicts resolved in creative and transformative ways.

There are innumerable benefits of applying facilitation to day-to-day life inside companies and organizations. Meetings become more efficient and effective. Listening and sharing activities encourage participants to reconnect to the source of their motivation, and to one another .

Let’s be clear: facilitation alone does not make a healthy workplace, and should always be part of a wider design for well-being which could include, for example, coaching, supervision groups, or other forms of support. That said, at a time of widespread lack of motivation and engagement at work, facilitation can make a difference. 

As professional facilitators, while it’s true that we may compete for specific jobs or projects, we are part of a collaborative ecosystem of professionals scattered across the globe. The more our networks grow, the more traction the profession gains. This is the basic reason why training newbies benefits facilitators. By training new facilitators we can make our professional networks stronger, and our work easier!

As each one of us grows professionally it’s common to keep getting asked to perform smaller tasks we might no longer have an interest in, such as moderating a discussion table or an individual meeting. There will always be a scattering of smaller scale projects that we can pass on to newcomers . In another scenario, someone less experienced might work alongside a more seasoned facilitator, taking care of tasks such as minute-taking or just general support. 

When describing what I do as a facilitator, I am often asked: “What did you study?” “How did you start?”. Colleagues in the field have the most varied professional backgrounds. A geologist, an economist, two engineers, an architect, and a marketing major are among the facilitators I most often collaborate with.

Facilitators tend to have picked up their knowledge in practice, in many short-form trainings and/or by shadowing more experienced colleagues. So… how does one start?

A scattering of higher education institutes have begun to offer courses related to facilitation (such as the MSLS in Strategic Leadership in Karlskrona, Sweden) but this varies greatly around the world. There are plenty of training courses to choose from, offered on and offline, on specific methodologies, or in-depth year-long courses.

That said, there are currently not many opportunities available for facilitator training. If you are called to help fill this gap by offering starter workshops to newbies, you can be sure that your offer will attract participants and respond to a very real need. 

A word of advice about how to position or advertise your workshop: despite being a growing field, facilitation is still a novel concept for many. Furthermore, it’s risky to give the impression that anyone will be able to facilitate with confidence after a short introduction.

For these reasons, rather than aiming to train all-rounded professional facilitators, start by framing your session as sharing facilitation skills , to be applied in many different contexts. Because the most common application is going to be in meetings, facilitating effective meetings is an attractive focus to begin with. 

What to keep in mind when designing for new facilitators

The best way to fall in love with facilitation is by experiencing it directly. Conversely, the worst mistake you can make when designing a training on facilitation is to revert back to old-school, formal ways of imparting knowledge, such as lengthy presentations.

Your workshop design should allow participants to feel the magic of group dynamics. It will be, in other words, an experience of facilitated learning. 

In designing introductory trainings, here are four key principles to have in mind:

• Keep it simple: methods and tools modeled and taught should be easy to replicate by anyone with “a good mind and a good heart” (to quote Open Space Technology creator Harrison Owen).
• Connect to experience : from start to end, punctuate the schedule with moments that connect to participants’ real-life experience.
• Practice, practice, practice: make space in the workshop to try out new tools and skills in a safe environment, rather than just hear about them.

The fourth principle, “ open the door to a new world ” is admittedly the trickiest. As a trainer to newbies, you will inevitably be walking a fine balance between empowering participants to take action, and reminding them that a half-day workshop is not enough, and that there is a lot more to learn.

A good workshop design can support you to keep this balance by including space for action planning as well as for the trainer (you!) to share tips and stories. Even the simple act of having a few books on facilitation lying around the workshop space opens participants’ imagination to the rich world they are peeking into. 

How to run the Facilitation for Beginners workshop

This half-day workshop is designed to introduce facilitation while experiencing it and reflecting on the subject. It includes:

• Space for participants to reconnect to what they already know about the topic.
• Sharing your insights and knowledge on what facilitation is (and isn’t).
• Allowing trainees to experience some basic tools and methods such as using a talking piece, World Café, 1-2-4-all, energizers.
• Learning what those tools and methods are for and when and how to use them.
• An action plan on putting facilitation into practice.

Progress through the various activities is iterative, and based on Kolb’s cycle for experiential learning. In this model, activities are followed by debrief for reflection, leading to generalization (theory, framework, “when to apply this”) and moving towards practicing new skills in the real world. 

The schedule includes three main blocks, each building upon what was learnt before. 

Part 1 – Practicing active listening

Part 2 – basic elements of facilitation, part 3 – facilitating effective meetings.

Put together, these form a coherent starting kit that can usher a rookie into the world of facilitation. Each activity serves more than one purpose: participants experience facilitation while talking about facilitation. This makes for a rich, multi-layered experience.

There is a small risk that people may get lost, and you should address this in the introduction by explaining that trainees will find themselves in different roles: participants in the activities, and budding facilitators reflecting on what they have just done. 

Many skills are needed to be an effective facilitation, but arguably number one is the ability to listen intently, and actively, without rushing to conclusions or preparing to debate.

Active Listening   #hyperisland   #skills   #active listening   #remote-friendly   This activity supports participants to reflect on a question and generate their own solutions using simple principles of active listening and peer coaching. It’s an excellent introduction to active listening but can also be used with groups that are already familiar with it. Participants work in groups of three and take turns being: “the subject”, the listener, and the observer.

The first section of this workshop introduces participants to this key skill in a paired activity. As an added bonus, the topic they will be focussing on, and sharing with another participant, is their own experience with group work. 

Having flexed their active listening muscles, participants at this point are likely to be ready to hear more about facilitation itself.

Before sitting back and hearing from you, they prepare by tapping into the knowledge already present in the group using the 1-2-4-all format. Trainees thereby gain experience of this basic, versatile tool from the suite of methods known as Liberating Structures , which include some of the easiest activities for participants to facilitate themselves, after the workshop.

The core of this session includes a video and a presentation on facilitation. Here is where you will give participants key pointers on subjects such as:

• acknowledging that facilitation is a skillset as well as a profession
• explaining the facilitator’s position, neither in nor out of the group
• clarifying the differences between facilitating, coaching, mediating, training, consulting
• real-life stories and examples of facilitation’s impact , ideally in a sector that will resonate with participants
• introducing a simple model on group dynamics, such as Tuckman’s (forming, norming, storming, performing, adjourning), and illustrating how the facilitator helps groups journey through the various stages

It’s important to remember to bring some clarity to the different roles of coach, facilitator, trainer, consultant, mediator, and so on—not only because it is a frequently asked-about topic, but because you will be acting as both trainer and facilitator in the workshop, and this can be confusing.

A great way to avoid this pitfall is to work with a co-facilitator , one of you providing content and the other facilitating the activities. If that is not possible, you can still mitigate the risk of confusion between the roles by making this explicit to participants or, if you want to get creative, literally wearing “different hats”!

The third section of the workshop is focused on running effective meetings. Meetings are likely to be the first place facilitation skills are applied by newbies. Most people can relate to the difficulty and stress of participating in badly designed meetings. This is a context in which small changes can lead to dramatic improvement, making it a good place for beginners to build up their facilitation muscles.

Shape this talk based on your experience. Recommended topics include:

• The importance of check-ins
• How to structure an agenda
• Breaks & energisers
• Different roles in a meeting (e.g. facilitator, time-keeper, note-taker…)
• Check-outs and collecting feedback

The I DO ARRT mnemonic is beloved by most beginners. It’s a reminder to start every meeting by sharing the following information as a group.

• I Intention
• DO Desired Outcome
• R Roles & Responsibilities
• R Rules 

After the talk, use a World Café to make space for discussing how meetings can be improved with facilitation skills. With such a practical challenge to face, expect participants to get to work with passion and the energy in the room to rise.

The toolkit: where the magic happens 

Reflecting on an experience is the key to effective learning. To support this in your workshop for beginners at facilitation, set up a simple, yet highly effective support: a poster, or whiteboard space, clearly titled Toolkit . 

During the workshop, participants experience facilitation skills, tools and methods: this includes the abilities you model, as well as the practical activities they take part in. If we were simply packing activities one after the other, the day might feel airless and rushed, and learning less likely to “stick”.

Avoid this risk by punctuating activities with moments of reflection. At those times, ask “what tools, skills or methods have we experienced?”. Collect answers from the group and write them all up in the Toolkit. In a second column, add some pointers on why and when a facilitator might use these tools. 

The workshop opens with a series of activities to help form a setting conducive to group learning, such as a check-in, setting group agreements, and using posters and sticky notes. Therefore, the toolkit will quickly be populated, from very early on.

As the day progresses, you will be adding some basic tools (talking piece, timer), then skills (active listening, time management), and lastly more structured methods (1-2-4-all, World Café).

World Cafe   #hyperisland   #innovation   #issue analysis   World Café is a simple yet powerful method, originated by Juanita Brown, for enabling meaningful conversations driven completely by participants and the topics that are relevant and important to them. Facilitators create a cafe-style space and provide simple guidelines. Participants then self-organize and explore a set of relevant topics or questions for conversation.

Past participants have gotten creative, adding entries such as the choice of venue, the bells with which I mark time, and even the colorful markers I was using to write on the Toolkit itself!

Toolkit checkpoints create a space for reflecting, learning, and illustrating visually the material covered. The list grows during the day, making the invisible treasure chest of tools clearly visible.

By the end, participants marvel at how much they have already added to their stash. An Action Plan session in the closing section is enriched by the possibility of referring back to the Toolkit, by asking questions such as: what three entries from the Toolkit will you be putting to use within the next month? 

How to run this session online

In running this session online, you can keep the same structure and sequence of activities, but here are some tips to keep in mind:

• Timings will change a bit, as people will take a while to get familiar with the technology. Add some time at the beginning to make sure everyone is comfortable with the tools you are using. Share your screen to show participants the whiteboard and place a getting-to-know-you activity there so that they can start learning how to navigate the board and add their notes.
• Group work sessions, on the other hand, can be shortened , as less time is spent in moving around space and changing settings.
• As you are showing these newcomers to facilitation how things work behind the scenes, take time to explain how you are using the technology and share tips on remote facilitation, for example on how to create breakout rooms. What are the basic tools you are using? Those are likely to be the same ones your participants may need if they try remote facilitation themselves.

What to do after the first workshop

A learning journey into facilitation might start with a beginners’ workshop, but it certainly does not end there. Support your participants as they go forth into the outside world by:

• Sharing copies of your slides and summaries of the methods used.
• Providing a bibliography and recommendations on where to learn more.
• Offering follow-up workshops . Topics that make sense are group dynamics and decision-making, though asking participants what would be useful to them is a great next step too!
• Certifying the skills they have learned . Even if you do not represent an organization, a certificate will still have value for your learners. Here is one we’ve created for participants in the Facilitation is For Everyone Email course , which you are welcome to join!
• (Particularly if working with youth) keeping in touch with those you think show the most promise and may want to make a career out of facilitating: encourage them, consider inviting them to shadow you or lend a hand with the practicalities of your next effort. 

Tips for training new facilitators

Here are some general guidelines and insights from my experience running workshops with beginners. 

• Keep your session short: it’s reasonable to have a half-day, maximum one-day workshop to begin with. This will make it more accessible for people who are curious. With this workshop you are opening the door: the rest, such as immersive three-day or week-long courses, can come later.
• Your participants are likely to have skills and methods that can be used to facilitate, even if they might not call them that. Validate the knowledge they bring about working in groups, whether it comes from family outings, school projects, a theater group, a startup team, a community project… These experiences are the foundation of their future facilitation excellence.
• Share stories and anecdotes from your own work. Newcomers to facilitation may come with a sense that it’s utopian or impossible; sharing your experience opens a window into what is truly possible.
• Find every opportunity to invite participants to lead the group and practice in short, safe situations. Is someone a yoga teacher? Ask them during lunch if they are ok with leading a short breathing exercise to restart after the break and encourage them to try (but do this in private, rather than putting them on the spot in front of everybody).
• If you feel the group needs more time on a method or has many questions, slow down. You should not assume you have to cover the subject in its entirety and rush through the session with the risk of leaving people confused or overwhelmed. Better to train newbies in one or two tools, until they feel confident in using them and excited to learn more.

Working with new facilitators can be extremely satisfying. For me, it’s a constant reminder of the power of facilitation to improve (or revolutionize!) people’s personal and professional lives.

As we have seen with the story of Issam, who took a more proactive stance in meetings after getting a taste of what it’s like to lead them, not everyone can be a facilitator, but anyone who works with other people, on any project, wherever they are in the world, can benefit from improving their facilitation skills . You could be the one to usher that change, so go for it!

If you work on training new facilitators, one book you cannot miss is George Lakey – Facilitating Group Learning, Strategies for Success with Diverse Learners !

Do you run facilitation workshops for newbies? Have you tried out this template ? If you have found this article useful, share your comments and stories, I’d love to hear from you! Are you beginning your journey in facilitation? Join the 5-part free email course Facilitation is for Everyone and get tips and activities delivered to your inbox every Monday!

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Effective online tools are a necessity for smooth and engaging virtual workshops and meetings. But how do you choose the right ones? Do you sometimes feel that the good old pen and paper or MS Office toolkit and email leaves you struggling to stay on top of managing and delivering your workshop? Fortunately, there are plenty of online tools to make your life easier when you need to facilitate a meeting and lead workshops. In this post, we’ll share our favorite online tools you can use to make your job as a facilitator easier. In fact, there are plenty of free online workshop tools and meeting facilitation software you can…

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Eight Key Facilitation Techniques You Can Use for Agile Events

• On February 21, 2024
• By David Usifo (PSM, MBCS, PMP®)

As an Agile practitioner, you know the importance of collaboration and engagement during meetings. However, many of these sessions end up being ineffective and derail productivity and morale.

That’s where Agile facilitation techniques come in handy. These techniques empower facilitators to foster consensus, creative thinking, and team cohesion.

In this post, learn the basics of facilitation, explore techniques like dot voting and affinity mapping, and get tips to maximize meeting effectiveness.

You’ll gain actionable insights to transform any session into a stimulating, fruitful experience. With the right framework, you can facilitate standout Agile meetings that align and energize your squad.

Table of Contents

What is Agile Facilitation?

Agile facilitation refers to the process of guiding an Agile team through processes like brainstorming , collaboration, and decision-making in an efficient, inclusive manner.

An Agile facilitator leads stand-up meetings, retrospectives, and design sessions using specific techniques to extract the full potential from each participant. They promote engagement, ensure all voices are heard, and foster consensus.

Effective Agile facilitation enables the free flow of ideas while maintaining focus on the desired outcomes.

Facilitators might utilize practices like dot voting and affinity mapping to gather insights from the team. Their role is to create an environment where team members can be creative, solve problems, and align on the next steps.

You can think of facilitators as guides who steer but don’t control the direction of discussion. Your Agile squad will gain the cooperation and cohesion needed to thrive with the right facilitator.

The Basic Rules of Facilitation

Before diving into specific techniques, it’s important to understand the core principles of effective facilitation which provide a foundation for guiding productive, engaging Agile sessions.

The basic rules for effective facilitation include:

Promote Inclusion

A key responsibility is ensuring all participants can contribute meaningfully, and creating opportunities for everyone to share ideas without judgment.

Maintain Neutrality

The facilitator should never impose their own bias but remain neutral to foster open, organic discussion.

Lead with Questions

Thoughtful questions should be asked to uncover insights from the team as open-ended questions drive ideation and debate.

Listen Actively

Active listening builds trust and demonstrates respect so facilitators should prioritize listening to grasp perspectives fully.

Clarify Goals

Clearly define the desired outcomes upfront so the team stays aligned throughout the session.

Track Ideas

Use tools like whiteboards, sticky notes, and diagrams to visually capture concepts. This enables organized brainstorming and analysis.

Eight Agile Facilitation Techniques

Agile team facilitators have a diverse toolkit of techniques to stimulate engagement and align teams.

Here are 8 top Agile facilitation techniques to try in your sessions:

1. Dot Voting

Dot voting helps groups evaluate and prioritize ideas. During a brainstorming session, have team members write each suggestion on sticky notes.

Then, provide each person with dot stickers and allow them to place dots on the notes they feel are most promising. The ideas with the most dots rise to the top. This democratic process gives everyone a voice.

2. Affinity Mapping

Affinity mapping organizes concepts into natural groupings. Start with a brainstorm. Then, collaboratively sort notes into related categories.

This way, teams gain insight into key themes and relationships between ideas building shared understanding.

3. Fist of Five

Fist of five takes the pulse of the room through a quick vote. Ask a question and have people vote simultaneously.

Clenched fist = no, 1 finger = concerns, 3 fingers = neutral, 4 fingers = support, 5 fingers = love it! This efficient tactic reveals reservations early so you can address them.

4. Pre-Mortem

A pre-mortem anticipates how a plan could fail. The way it works is to have the team imagine they just implemented an idea unsuccessfully. Then ask what went wrong.

This is an engaging way to analyze solutions that surfaces potential risks proactively so they can be mitigated.

5. Spiderweb Diagrams

Spiderweb diagrams visualize connections between topics by placing key themes along the outside of a spider web. Then mapping relationships between them along each interior strand.

This format sparks insights about interdependencies within complex systems.

6. Buy a Feature

Buy a feature gamifies prioritization by giving each person play money to “purchase” desired product features. Popular choices get funded based on group votes.

This turns prioritization into a fun activity that provides quantitative data on preferences.

7. Speed Boat

A speed boat diagnoses team challenges by drawing a boat heading towards a goal, then adding accelerators that help reach it faster along with anchors holding it back.

Accelerators are strengths to leverage and anchors indicate areas for improvement. This metaphorical exercise highlights obstacles.

8. 1-2-4-All

1-2-4-all stimulates equal participation. First, individuals brainstorm alone. Then, pairs share ideas. Next, foursomes discuss. Finally, ideas get shared with the full group.

This ensures everyone contributes before vocal participants dominate, and quieter voices get heard.

Five Benefits of Agile Facilitation

Implementing strong Agile facilitation can profoundly improve team collaboration and outcomes.

Here are 5 key benefits of Agile facilitation:

1. Stimulates Creative Thinking

Facilitation techniques like brainstorming provide structures for free-flowing ideation which fosters innovation by tapping into the collective creativity of the team.

2. Resolves Conflict

An impartial facilitator can mediate disagreements productively. By promoting openness and active listening, they create understanding between opposing viewpoints which prevents tension from disrupting progress.

3. Accelerates Decisions

Practices like dot voting and fist of five allow groups to quickly narrow down options and build consensus.

This accelerates decision-making rather than getting bogged down in endless debate.

4. Captures All Perspectives

From introverts to extroverts, every team member’s voice deserves to be heard. Inclusive techniques like affinity mapping give equal opportunity for contribution.

5. Keeps Alignment

Facilitators continually orient discussions around desired goals and outcomes preventing teams from getting off-track or caught up in the weeds.

What is the Role of a Team Facilitator in Agile?

The Agile facilitator plays a crucial role in enabling effective collaboration and alignment.

Here are some key responsibilities of a team facilitator in Agile:

• Set the stage by clearly defining the outcomes and agenda upfront which provides direction.
• Kick off each session by establishing ground rules that promote psychological safety, and making it clear all ideas are welcome.
• Ask thoughtful, open-ended questions to spark meaningful discussions, then draw insights from the team.
• Actively listen without judgment, then seek to deeply understand each perspective before responding.
• Manage time wisely. Move the conversation along when needed while allowing space for organic ideation.
• Visualize ideas through tools like whiteboards, sticky notes, and diagrams to capture concepts clearly.
• Synthesize key takeaways and action items, then ensure clarity on the next steps and accountabilities.
• Read the room frequently, and check energy levels and engagement. Invite shyer participants to contribute.
• Maintain neutrality. Never shut down concepts prematurely or inject personal bias.
• Foster inclusion and consensus. Enable equitable contribution and align on decisions.
• Mediate disagreement and conflict productively to find common ground.
• Continually orient dialogue around desired outcomes and prevent tangents.

Eight Tips for Effective Agile Facilitation Sessions

Even experienced facilitators can improve their approach. Here are 8 tips to maximize the impact and effectiveness of your Agile ceremonies and workshops:

1. Set Expectations Upfront

Kick off each event by clearly defining the purpose, desired outcomes, and agenda. This sets everyone up for an efficient, productive session.

2. Establish Team Agreements

Outline guidelines that encourage psychological safety and full participation like “listen respectfully” and “explore ideas without judgment” to build trust.

3. Check Energy Levels

Scan the room periodically and assess engagement through body language and facial expressions. Invite quieter folks to contribute, and optimize energy with breaks or quick activities.

4. Limit Distractions

Request phones and laptops be put away to minimize digital distractions. Also, request closed email and chat windows during virtual sessions to maintain focus.

5. Use an Icebreaker

Start things on an upbeat note with a fun icebreaker like Two Truths and a Lie or ask everyone to share a highlight from the week. This lightens the mood.

6. Take Clean Notes

Capture all ideas, decisions, and action items visually on a whiteboard or digital document. Label themes clearly and keep them organized for reference later.

7. Wrap Up with Recap and Next Steps

Close each session by summarizing key points and takeaways. Define clear next steps and accountabilities to maintain momentum.

8. Gather Feedback

Solicit input on what went well and could be improved next time. Continuously refine your approach based on team insights.

At their best, Agile meetings unlock your team’s creative potential through active collaboration.

By becoming a skillful facilitator and using techniques like brainstorming and dot voting, you can transform dull status updates into engaging sessions where every voice is heard.

Your squad will gain the energy, insights, and alignment needed to deliver results in an Agile environment .

David Usifo (PSM, MBCS, PMP®)

David Usifo is a certified project manager professional, professional Scrum Master, and a BCS certified Business Analyst with a background in product development and database management.

He enjoys using his knowledge and skills to share with aspiring and experienced project managers and product developers the core concept of value-creation through adaptive solutions.

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