Recently, I've been busy facilitating team reflections, learnings, and conversations that aim to reskill, adapt practices, and establish common agendas for significant social impact at both individual and collective levels. Facilitation is an emerging profession that relies on the art of promoting collective thought and action and the science of acquiring knowledge while appreciating learning.
While it seems easy to balance these aspects, the truth is that different sessions, participants, and issues determine the approaches to facilitate teams toward a desired end goal. Based on my experience, here are some reflections on being an effective facilitator:
Be clear about the session outcomes: Defining session outcomes is crucial to ensure a successful meeting. It helps to direct conversations towards the intended purpose, keep participants focused, and avoid getting sidetracked. Having clear goals also helps to steer discussions back on track if they go off course.Â
Use group diversity as a tool for inclusion: A good facilitator understands that every group has a shared interest. It's crucial to identify and use that interest to guide discussions. Each person in the group has different knowledge levels, but they all share the common interest that brought them together. Diversity helps build consensus and create common agendas. As a facilitator, I ensure that every interaction is inclusive and leads to a unique connecting point, like making a symphony!
The topics discussed can be critical learning points: Facilitators should be mindful of awkward silence, conflicting viewpoints, and signs of disagreement when facilitating difficult conversations. These challenges can be opportunities to encourage learning, stimulate discussion, and move towards a consensus. On the other hand, conducting known conversations can be difficult as they can rapidly become monotonous. Unique engagement techniques can help participants remain engaged and consistently interested in learning, interacting, and adapting. Whether the conversations are difficult or familiar, the facilitator should ensure that participants stay engaged and are motivated to engage in deeper, more meaningful dialogue
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