Looking for a facilitator?
Whether you are working with an existing team or bringing together a new group of stakeholders, there will be times when you will benefit greatly from working with an external facilitator.
An external facilitator brings in neutrality and takes on responsibility for holding the space, thus, allowing everyone to contribute fully to the process. The facilitator does not provide you with the ‘answer,’ but rather, they are the process designer that unlocks value, insights and creativity in your team (co-creation), whilst simultaneously strengthening relationships and communication (collaboration).
“I can’t thank you enough for the amazing facilitation skills you brought to working with me to design and deliver what I truly believe was our best away days yet. I also hugely enjoyed working together – I really like working collaboratively and creatively at pace, building on ideas, and I found it immensely stimulating and I learnt a lot.”
Instances you may seek a facilitator to work with could be:
Meetings, workshops and events
When you have an important meeting or event - whether virtual, in-person or hybird, a few hours hour, or multiple days, when you are bringing people together to talk, listen and think about important topics; generate ideas; or gain feedback, you will need a well-designed process. Working with a facilitator can ensure that you respect and make the most of people’s time and create an experience that is both enjoyable and fruitful for everyone involved.
Retreats and off-sites
When facing challenge and complexity - you may be experiencing challenges within teams, facing changing contexts, wondering how to integrate new information or partners, wanting to challenge assumptions and biases, or seeking to create more inclusive processes or cultures.
When looking to create a sense of connection, have fun and foster creativity - creativity is essential for innovation, and the creative brain needs rest and new experiences. If you are looking to foster creativity within your team, and create a memorable and fun experience for your team, why not design a creative away-day.
Projects
At the start of a new project - to generate and develop ideas, gather existing knowledge and perspectives, agree on vision, mission and values, develop a strategy or theory of change, build relationships.
Mid-way through a project - to assess progress made, enhance collaboration and think through challenges together.
At the end of a project - to reflect on lessons learned, what you might do differently next time, celebrate success and achievement.
Throughout a project - if you are looking to enhance collaboration and reflective learning, it can be useful to have the support of a facilitator during your project to provide additonal support and accountability to the collaboration processes and goals.
“The Earth is running out of energy resources, but there is a source of special energy which has scarcely been tapped. it is the power available in groups, the power of group synergy. Tapping into group synergy is made possible through powerful group facilitation.”
What to expect when working with me
A facilitator never works alone. It is necessary to have one or more organisational representatives to consult and collaborate with on the below steps. Part of the value of working with a facilitator is having someone to discuss the reasons why you are bringing people together and what success looks like.
Getting clear on objectives - I will work with you to clarify and refine your objectives to ensure they are achievable and reflect why you are bringing people together.
Co-designing the process - once we know what you want to achieve - your objectives - we can start designing how we are going to get there - the process. This includes selecting the most appropriate facilitation methods to meet your objectives, taking into consideration other factors such as: number of participants, venue, length of workshop etc. It may also be appropriate to include other workshop participants in the design of the process, either via surveys or meetings, to ensure they can contribute ideas and feedback to the agenda.
Pre-workshop preparations - if necessary I can support with the creation of slide decks, presentations, participant ‘work books’, digital tools, training of any participants who may have a facilitation role in parts of the process, and preparation of other materials that will aid in the communication of information and instructions, and the capturing of knowledge throughout the process.
Facilitation - the careful planning of the above three steps will ensure the smooth and successful delivery of the workshop or retreat. However, an often used phrase in facilitation is that we ‘facilitate the people, not the process.’ Therefore, we have to be prepared to deviate from the plan, to respond to any participant needs, or group dynamics that may occur during the process. The sign of a good facilitator, is someone who can adapt the process, without disrupting the flow or experience of the participants.
Post-workshop - depending on the needs of the client, I can also support with participant evaluation surveys, team ‘after action reviews’, summaries of workshop outcomes, and in some cases ongoing support to develop workshop outcomes into actionable work plans.