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Facilitation Skills and Techniques

The challenge

Knowing how to facilitate a workshop is a critical ‘success tool’, particularly in the development of technically complex systems. Workshops play a significant rôle in the creative and data capture stages of projects, as clients demand a more inclusive and participative approach from their suppliers. Clients no longer expect a single company to deliver an entire project and consequently multi-agency workshops are becoming more common.

Clear and precise communication is at the core of any successful business. Whatever an individual's role in an organisation their ability to communicate effectively with colleagues, customers and suppliers can radically improve the organisation's chances of success.

The benefits of the Facilitation Skills and Techniques programme

  • Enhanced workshop facilitation skills help you do a better job
  • Your team communicates better and gets more done for less
  • Increased probability that your project will finish on-time and within-budget
  • Your clients are happier – they feel you understand their point of view better
  • Happier clients buy more and tell other people how good you are at what you do

Programme overview

The 'Facilitation Skills and Techniques' programme is a two-day programme, which is normally run for a maximum of ten delegates.

Understanding facilitation

What it is that facilitators do (and don’t do), defining the core practices, focussing on questioning techniques, testing your own skill level as a facilitator, importance of wording (particularly with respect to flip charts and other presentation technologies).

Overall meeting management

The rôle of chairman versus facilitator, what makes effective meetings, facilitating teleconferences, using process checklists, meeting effectiveness surveys.

The seven stages of facilitation
  1. Assessment
  2. Refinement
  3. Preparation
  4. Start-up
  5. Execution
  6. Close-down
  7. Follow-up
Team and group dynamics

The differences between groups and teams, what makes an effective team, the four stages of team development, measuring team effectiveness.

Generating interaction

Setting ground rules, removing barriers, getting buy-in, managing leaders, promoting effective behaviour, impact of cultural differences, different types of conversation, choices in decision makings.

Dealing with disagreement

Difference between argument and debate, critical steps of dealing with emotions and resolving conflict, use of commentary and ‘feed-forward' versus feedback.

Facilitation tools

The importance of tools and where they fit in the overall facilitation process, creating a useful vision, using surveys, different types of analysis (gap, root-cause, force field, etc), multi-person voting, effective listening, brainstorming, decision grids, priority setting.

Reference is made to common uses of facilitation, along with sample template agendas. Delegates are requested to complete an on-line, pre-programme survey, to help customise the event to their specific needs.