You have a facilitation session coming up. How can you make sure it’s successful?

Where we can strengthen our purpose is to focus on the business outcomes and impact on strategic vision, AND the aspirations within the group. Every facilitation session is crafting a story from where you are now to where you want to be. I can highly recommend Prius Parker’s the Art of the Gathering to shape your purpose for maximum impact.

One of the most effective ways to define purpose and outcomes is to visualise the end goal. Here are some key questions to reflect on. 1. What do you want participants to feel at the of the facilitation? 2. How will you equip them to translate those feelings into actions? 3. What challenges you might encounter during the facilitation and how will you address them?

Ensure a successful facilitation session by clearly defining the purpose and desired outcomes. Tailor the agenda and methods to your audience, and prepare engaging materials. Foster participation through active listening, clear communication, and ground rules that encourage respectful dialogue. Be flexible, manage time effectively, and follow up with key takeaways and action items to solidify the session's impact.

Using principles of instructional systems design and experiential learning, first step is to ensure the expectations understanding and expectations management of the participants. Then craft learning outcomes based on blooms taxonomy . Use frameworks of ORID and experiential learning, to design powerful activities and a non ppt program based on outcomes. Through powerful and tact ful debrief ( what else questions , what if questions, what if then questions) map and restructuring of learning ..use group wisdom to collate the learnings . Measure post program feedback using technology..

I like the steps laid out here for a successful facilitation. Each of the steps defined is really important, but I think that defining purposes and outcomes possibly sets the tone of everything that follows. If this isn't in place, then nothing really matters. To do this, facilitators need to really listen. The diagnostics/needs analysis exercises conducted to understand gaps are crucial towards formulating the solutions that outcomes align with strategy. Mid and post course diagnostics (be creative!) are helpful tools to help keep both facilitators and participants on track towards achieving a meaningful outcome. I've found it very helpful to keep reminding myself of goals/outcomes of each session and the overall course outcomes.

One useful perspective to catch the focus of partecipants needs and expectations is to look for their "job to be done". How do they will use the knowledge and skills you are going to facilitate? In which context? To reach which goals? If you reflect on this and get information about it you have the key to design a useful session.

Listening to the participants and allowing them to shine is a key tactic I employ as a professional facilitator. I always engage with my participants well in advance and study their backgrounds and positions on key topics: LinkedIn is great for this, by the way! A more relaxed conversation style puts them at ease and, even if the key areas to be discussed are serious, always gets you to the heart of the issue. Confrontation from you has to be avoided, it’s grandstanding and never beneficial.

Part of knowing your audience is having an understanding of the pain points and open questions that are top of mind for participants. Here are a few ways to get some useful insights: -Check in with the event’s organizer to find out what prompted the need for the session. -Consider using a short pre-survey to find out what questions participants have walking in. ( ask the organizers to include it in their registration process.) -Use a real-time tool to collect insights as you go along. There are tons of apps that allow you to collect participant insights in real-time. You can also use chat features, post-it notes, etc. Bonus Tip: Confidentiality goes a long way in helping participants feel free enough to ask the “real” questions.

Two main focus. Discover and reflect on their "job to be done", how they are going to use the learning, the main pains and gains. And explore the main feeling I would like them to experience. Do they have to be challenged, reassured, displaced or softly guided to change? It could be all these things together, in different moments. With these two main issues in mind I am ready to design the session.

Depending on the nature and sensitivity if the facilitation I find it useful to engage individually with key stakeholder especially if the stakes are high. An example of this was a board level pre-strategy session I facilitated in New Zealand where I was briefed by the strategic lead that there would be a new CEO and contrary views in the room. By engaging with the new CEO to understand his vision and approach and with selected board member I was able to craft a conversational environment that invited multiple perspectives to breathe rather than going in with a single view. I find this is especially important if conflict resolution or uncomfortable change is on the agenda.

You should consider all the different types of communication styles in the space so that everyone's voice is heard. That means being mindful of the quieter members of the group and giving them sufficient time to think on their own before sharing with the whole group. There are some great Thinking Routines and Liberating Structures that can be used in the design of your session.

A key part of being a facilitator is being able to read your participants energy level, motivation through the day, interest/disinterest and adapt accordingly to ensure you are keeping them on track towards their desired outcome. This means sometimes allowing conversations to continue for longer than planned, asking probing questions if you feel this is needed, or simply having a break.

Based on my 30+ years experience of facilitating team development, recognising and appreciating the different needs and learning styles of the delegates is the key to success. I always have it uppermost in my mind when creating a learning programme. 🔴 Are the objectives clear, and that there is learning and activities, that support team/business success? 💛 Is the learning motivational and inspirational, with the opportunity to discuss ideas? 🌲 Is there sufficient time to enable small group discussions, and the impact of the learning on the team/customers? 📘 What theory and data is needed to support the learning, and where can additional information be found.