Facilitation Skills Workshop

Course details

Facilitation is often referred to as the new cornerstone of management philosophy. With its focus on fairness and creating an easy decision making, facilitation can make any organization make better decisions. This workshop will give participants an understanding of what facilitation is all about, as well as some tools that they can use to facilitate small meetings.

Course Outlines

Module One: Understanding Facilitation

• What is Facilitation
• What is a Facilitator?
• When is Facilitation Appropriate?

Module Two: Process vs. Content

• About Process
• About Content
• A Facilitator’s Focus

Module Three: Laying the Groundwork

• Choosing a Facilitated Approach
• Planning for a Facilitated Meeting
• Collecting Data

Module Four: Tuckman and Jensen’s Model of Team Development

• Stage Two: Storming
• Stage Three: Norming
• Stage Four: Performing

Module Five: Building Consensus

• Encouraging Participation
• Gathering Information
• Presenting Information
• Synthesizing and Summarizing

Module Six: Reaching a Decision Point

• Identifying the Options
• Creating a Short List
• Choosing a Solution
• Using the Multi-Option Technique

Module Seven: Dealing with Difficult People

• Addressing Disruptions
• Disruptions in groups can be in any form. They can be from the members, or from the environmental factors.
• Common Types of Difficult People and How to Handle Them
• Helping the Group Resolve Issues on Their Own

Module Eight: Addressing Group Dysfunction

• Using Ground Rules to Prevent Dysfunction
• Restating and Reframing Issues
• Some of the ways of restating and reframing includes:
• a. Changing “hot buttons” or value-laden words into neutral ones.
• b. Reminding the group of larger goals/ smaller goals the entire group is working on.
• c. Changing a problem into workable terms.
• d. Approaching an issue from another perspective.
• Getting People Back on Track

Module Nine: About Intervention

• Why Intervention May Be Necessary
• When to Intervene
• Levels of Intervention

Module Ten: Intervention Techniques

• Using Your Processes
• Boomerang it Back
• ICE It: Identify, Check for Agreement, Evaluate How to Resolve

Module Eleven: Wrapping Up

• Words from the Wise

Objectives

• Define facilitation and identify its purpose and benefits.
• Clarify the role and focus of a facilitator.
• Differentiate between process and content in the context of a group discussion.
• Provide tips in choosing and preparing for facilitation.
• Identify a facilitator’s role when managing groups in each of Tuckman and Jensen’s stages of group development: forming, storming, norming and performing.
• Identify ways a facilitator can help a group reach a consensus: from encouraging participation to choosing a solution.
• Provide guidelines in dealing with disruptions, dysfunctions and difficult people in groups.
• Define what interventions are, when they are appropriate and how to implement them.