Facilitation Techniques

This workshop is aimed at delegates who are responsible for facilitating a group of people objectively. It is ideal for those who want practical tips on how to deal with groups and the way in which they interact with a view maximising the group’s potential.

Register your interest in a public group session

We understand individuals and small businesses may not have the resources to book an exclusive group or one-to-one session, so we operate a wait list system. Give us you contact details and when enough people have registered their interest we'll be in touch to organise a date. For most sessions you'll be alongside (virtually that is) no more than five other trainees.

Organise an in-house private course

This is the way most organisations choose to work with us. You get to choose the workshop, nominate who you want to sit the session, fix a time and date that suits everyone and decide whether you want online or in-person delivery. We do the rest – even down to tweaking the training to match your specific needs. All we need is a bit of information about you so click the organise button to get the ball rolling.

Price

From £999 per session

You'll be shown the right tools to use to generate and evaluate ideas within a group to help the decision making process and how to design and manage an action plan.

CONTENT

Knowing Your Group

Any time a group of people comes together to work there are dynamics at play. External forces, the history of the group, sub-groupings and individual members, membership within the group, group norms, the size of the group and informal and formal leadership within the group are just some of those dynamics. By the end of this section, delegates should know enough about group dynamics to facilitate effectively. Topics to be covered include:

Group dynamics
Stages in group development
Behaviours and roles that affect the functioning of groups
Overt and covert group issues

Maximising Your Group’s Potential

People participate in groups when they have something to say, trust that their input is taken seriously, feel safe in expressing their ideas and opinions and are given opportunities for participation. By the end of this section, delegates should be able to identify the many factors that influence group participation. Topics to be covered include:

Guidelines for maximising participation
Methods for generating discussion
Promoting positive communication
Keeping groups on track

Choosing the Right Tool

Every facilitator needs a set of tools and techniques in order to be able to suggest tools for groups to use in different situations. By the end of this section, delegates should be able to demonstrate how to assess and choose the right tools for the group process steps of generating ideas, evaluating ideas and making decisions. Topics to be covered include:

Tools for Generating Ideas

Brainstorming
Defining and analysing a problem
Visioning the idea

Tools for Evaluating Ideas

Consolidating/narrowing
Listing in priority order
Evaluating options

Tools for Decision Making

Voting
Consensus
Sense of the group

Action Planning

Whatever your goals, whatever stage you are at in the decision making process, you are most likely to make progress if you break down the tasks you have to do into small steps and then identify the actions you need to take for each step. Many action plans fail because the tasks appear too difficult. You may have several goals – but you need to break each down into a list of tasks. Set a timescale for each action – but be realistic – do not expect the impossible. By the end of this session, delegates should be able to appreciate the importance of the creating an action plan for the group to follow, including:

What actions will be taken
How action will be taken
Who or what will help
Why action may not be taken
When action will be taken
Timescale

FACILITATOR

Sandy Keating leads this workshop. She's facilitated thousands of workshops for us at ACM Training so she's got bags of practical experience. But that's underpinned by solid theory with four (yes, four) degrees in education, in particualr adult vocational education. We call her smarty pants. But only when she's not in the room!

FEEDBACK

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IN HOUSE

This workshop is available for in-house delivery which is cost effective if you've got more than a few people who need training with the added advantage that course content can be tailored to your specific organisational needs. Contact the trainer to discuss your requirements.

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