Today when we design a training program for a client it’s often about dealing with the challenges and possibilities of global teams and how to run virtual meetings. These are the new skills that people would like to acquire including an understanding for virtual leadership and how to build trust in these settings. While these are very useful learning objectives, the problem is, that in many organizations the basic building blocks of collaboration – how we run our meetings – are taken for granted, but are not in place. The reality is, that most face to face meetings are still held in rather ineffective ways. We waste a lot of time when there is no clear agenda, process and outcomes and if we add remote participants to these meetings they often feel nobody realizes they are there and they cannot participate at all. This is why we would like to invite you to join us for a two day workshop on:
“The basics of meeting facilitation – how to get the best results with a group”.
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Friday evening, on my bike after two days of Facilitation Training, and I can’t stop smiling. Tired, but satisfied. I came to the training with 2 expectations: to have fun and learn at least 5 new things about how I can facilitate a group. And after two inspiring days I can say that both objectives are fulfilled!
ReplyDeleteDuring these two days we had the chance to participate in a wide variety of facilitation methods, from a Cocktail Party as introduction and getting to know each other, an Open Café to work and brainstorm on workshop design to Idealogue where I shared and collected useful tips to become a better facilitator. There was enough time for reflection about the methods, so that I now know when I could best use the World Café method (brainstorming) or the Dynamic Facilitation approach (solving a problem), and also in which situations these methods are not applicable. I especially liked the way the two trainers shared practical examples and situations in which they used the different methods, which made it all more vivid and applicable.
One of the most important things that I learned is to think more carefully about the beginning of the workshop, to take more time for this and follow the four steps from getting to know each other to getting clear about goals and expectations.
Thanks to the trainers for 2 inspiring and stimulating days and to the fellow participants for sharing experiences and difficult questions. Hope to meet you (and perhaps work with you) in the future again!
Inge Jansen
i learned a lot in these 2 days in berlin. about facilitation tools and about myself. thank you very much anna and juliane for being so friendly & professional. I am already looking forward to meet you the 2nd time! Peter, Cologne (www.idearepublic.de)
ReplyDeleteJust want to give my two cents.
ReplyDeleteThere were two trainers who gave their best to train moderation (chair, secretary) methods.
There were ten participants who came with different expectations and hopes.
Some wanted to have fun, some wanted to learn something, some wanted to deepen their knowledge about facilitation, some wanted to learn what the program announced: to organize own meetings in a better and more productive way.
Some of those expectations were fulfilled. Some weren’t.
This wasn’t a facilitation training at all (from my point of view – as a person who already knew some of the announced methods and with experience in facilitation in change processes). There was no chance to learn about what facilitation means for a facilitator if s/he does not want just to “moderate”.
There was the chance to attend to a lot of methods but only a bit of reflection was possible. Some methods were totally wrong experienced. Because of that things happened which have nothing to do with facilitation: that only that person talks and is heard who speaks louder than the others; that a group went into trouble, not able to find a shared solution; finishing with angriness; and on a superficial level: things which seemed to be a learning success weren’t at all on a deeper level.
There are now attendees who think they are facilitators, some of those are for sure. But all have to experience facilitation which is totally different from experiencing attendance. And having a toolbox (with at least one method learned in a totally wrong way) is less than the half of learning to become a facilitator.
I tried to find my own expected learning in this workshop, asked several times to come to a point all facilitators talk about: Their and our own attitude, in other words: the role of a facilitator (compared to a chair or a secretary). But despite a senseless and ambiguous question in a looking-alike-world-café nothing happened. So I finally left the training before the ending, happy after meeting wonderful people and frustrated and a bit angry about what happened.
Facilitation from my point of view serves the needs of any group who are meeting with a common purpose. In this training this could have been possible but the knowledge and the experiences of the group were just touched, not at all used. And besides that i think it is not helpful if even the difference between training and facilitating is not shown to the attendees.
Usually facilitation means to encourage participation from all attendees which wasn’t taking place in this workshop.
Usually facilitation means to create a safe environment which was not taking place in this workshop.
Christian