Facilitation is a skill. And not an easy one to master. There’s a humility required in it. One needs to hold meetings and groups together, without being the centre of attention. One also needs to take people on a journey and keep them moving. And both of these are tough at the best of times. But then when attendees come and go, you need to constantly revisit where you’ve come from and how you got to where you are today. Succinctly and graciously.

Anyone can get better at facilitation. Three of the best places to start are:

1. Embrace yourself – don’t try to be someone else. But also see above paragragh – it’s not about you.
2. Communicate continually – Can others join? If so, how? What is the purpose? Where have you come from? What decisions have already been made? Why? How?
3. Enable everyone to communicate and share perspectives – provide multiple ways to input as not everyone likes speaking so give them options.

And a comment about time keeping. Good facilitators do not always keep to time, they read the room and adjust time.

Good facilitators are worth their weight in gold. This can be you. 🙂

Photo by Good Faces