Before you start reading this, please know that there is a quick and simple to this question. However, it is important that you understand that answer in context.
The quick and simple answer is to focus on asking questions. Whatever you want to say, try and frame it as an open question, and ask people to answer it by means of sticky notes.
At one level, that is all facilitation is – asking questions. And you can appreciate this in a few seconds.
But at another level, facilitation is a comprehensive approach to effective leadership. And appreciating that can take a lifetime.
Facilitation extends from inviting contributions right through to transforming situations, lives and entire communities. Extended exposure to good facilitation:
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Gives everybody a voice, and a belief that their voice matters
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Enables people to see who they can be, and fuels a desire to be that
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Inspires people to co-create a compelling vision of the future
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Builds personal and collective responsibility for bringing that future about
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Nurtures trust and teamwork and a sense of belonging and purpose
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Promotes creativity and diversity, and the curiosity to utilise both
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Increases value, understanding, potential, joy and love
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Empowers the best to occur, and then lets it happen
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Is the most fulfilling life we can live
For the facilitative leader, they enable this through:
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A passion for seeing people recognise and reach out for their own potential
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Understanding the value and limitations of psychological models as a basis for insight
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Self appreciation and continuous self-discovery of their own potential and flaws
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Insights into what determines success from both individual and team perspectives
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Developing their ability to see flow and patterns from a meta-perspective
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Mastering their knowledge of tools and techniques to influence the meta-level
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Assembling strategies and journeys by which others can discover all of the above
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Appreciation that there is always more to learn, and that learning is joy and life
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Belief in serving a purpose bigger than themselves
Even the best facilitation training course can only serve as a basic platform for all of the above. Real facilitation is learnt over time, through experience, study, sharing with other facilitators, and the blessing of flashes of insight which so often happen when you need them most. However, what facilitation training can do is provide you with a framework and the basic building blocks on which to build.
I have been blessed in my life and career. I began as an Engineer, and thirty years ago was snapped up by a large international consulting group who trained me in facilitation, advanced facilitation, and teaching advanced facilitation to others. I have facilitated exciting and transformational situations, and I have trained hundreds, perhaps thousands of people in facilitation – both physical and virtual – and each course provided me as much learning as it did them.
I have made a difference, to situations, to attitudes, to people – I have seen them grow and change before my eyes, and I have had them accost me and tell me what that has meant to them, and that as brought me incredible joy.
I share this in the hope that you might want the same journey for yourself, and the first step can be as simple as using a template, and practicing questions and listening to help your team self-discover better answers. And I hope you feel uplifted by what happens. But I want you to understand that this is only the beginning of facilitation, not the end of it. There is a lot more for you and your team to discover.
You may find one or more of the following helpful on your journey
Instant templates – a range of tools to include in your virtual meetings
Meeting toolchest – a wealth of tools and techniques to support your facilitation
Facilitator training – courses to develop a good foundation for facilitative leadership
Track your progress to ensure the efficacy of this strategy.