Hey Facilitators!👋 I don't know if you remember, but awhile ago I asked you all about your favourite resources for facilitators and I got sooooo many amazing answers back! Thank you for your contributions 💛 Since then, we put together a video of our 7 favourites! These resources are packed with facilitation techniques, tips, tricks, workshop exercises, ice-breakers, and warm-up activities. In this video, I not only cover books but I also discuss tools that will help you run better and smoother remote workshops.Some of these resources are free, and some are paid. By the way, we DON’T get paid to promote any of these products. They’re just great, and we really like them. So if you’re looking to level up your facilitation game, then check out this video immediately 👉 https://youtu.be/bvGOFUeX9NY I go DEEP into these resources to show you what’s great about them and how to use them. So, give a big shout out to all of the authors and creators of these amazing resources! THANK YOU! Here they are in order of appearance: 1. Gamestorming by James Macanufo and Sunni Brown / Sun Kagami 2. Workshop Tactics Pip Decks by 🎴 Charles Burdett 3. Miro 4. The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless 5. SessionLab 6. FunRetrospectives by 🎯Paulo Caroli 7. Facilitator Club Free Community by AJ&Smart Have you tried any of the above resources before? Which one is your favourite?
@Adam Egger I used Mural first, but then my company decided to get an Enterprise account with Miro. I love it. Back then they were pretty similar, and I had a bit of adjusting to do, but overall pretty frictionless change for me. That said, Mural has some great facilitator resources online here: https://www.mural.co/blog/meeting-guide
Hey hey Facilitators! I flipped through a couple of my old facilitation books the other day. It got me thinking about all the "pre-digital" resources and approaches out there, and how we might revisit and adapt them for our new hybrid now. One I turn to from time to time is called "The Essence of Facilitation: Being in Action in Groups" by Dale Hunter, Anne Bailey and Bill Taylor. It was published in 1999! Chapter 7 is called "Power-with" "Power and control issues lie at the heart of facilitation. You cannot get away from them. Facilitation is about releasing the group wisdom, and to do this requires every person in the group to be fully empowered and participating. Personal power, and power with others is essential for a powerful group." I agree! What do you think? Do you have books about facilitating in your collection that you turn to? What's on your shelves?
Ok - 2nd deep dive into a new mind! This time, Austin Kleon. "When you don’t have a plan, when you don’t know where you’re going, you end up somewhere you didn’t anticipate. It’s real discovery." Austin writes this at the end of this piece talking about his creative process. https://austinkleon.com/2022/01/05/one-thing-leads-to-another/ Thanks again - @Shannon Wagers I love this reminder. Sometimes we get so focussed on planning workshops down to the minute, we forget to create open space simply to explore.
Hey Facilitators 👋 I'm compiling a list of the best resources for facilitators (free or paid) for potential future content, and I would like to ask you all if you have any recommendations. It could be books, materials, tools, blogs, podcasts, or communities. Any resources that you've come across that you find helpful as a Facilitator. I'd really appreciate your contributions to this post. Rebecca 💟
@Niloo Roshani What a great idea! There is already something called the Open Practice Library - which is open source - and you can consider contributing a practice or tool or method that's not there! https://openpracticelibrary.com/page/contribution-guide/
I am currently facilitating a conceptual design process for my cross-functional team (Product, Engineering, Design, & Research). We just finished the second round of concept testing and I want to run an exercise to validate or invalidate the informed assumptions we formulated after the first round of testing (and applied to the concept). Does anyone have any suggestions or approaches you are aware of? For context: Everyone on the team has been taking notes during the sessions and we are affinitizing those notes to facilitate conversation. I was thinking of then giving everyone individual time to reflect on each item we want to validate, applying the affinitized data to their perspective. Then share and vote. I would love thoughts and feedback on this!
oooh - great question @Jay Kietzman A few ideas come to mind: - Build prototypes, get real people to test them - Radical dissent - get everyone to pitch a concept, and then critique - Dive deep into the assumptions - Get scientific about proving or disproving each assumption. - Design the box (a type of prototype) to make the concept "real" and seek feedback from people outside the group. Let us know how you go?
Andrew here! The new guy saying Hi! Originally from Sydney, now living in New York. My parents were refugees so i feel like i’m a long way from home. Glad to be here. Just wanted to reach out too, to see if anyone else is into story. I’ve realized with everything that’s happened so far that it’s what im trying to pursue, finding stories to tell, and helping guide them and then making my own. I was wondering if anyone else feels the same way or tries to incorporate storytelling (kind of a buzzword at the moment I know) into their communication and facilitation? So much of who I am revolves around Narrative Driven Decision Making. Whether that be operations, Marketing or Branding. I somehow find I’m always chasing the “why”? Why does this work the way it does? Why did they do that, so digging into the structure of the why, how stories shape decision making, and how stories scale to solve problems from the smallest to the biggest. I just recently found out I have Adult ADHD, which secretly at times has been the biggest curse but a superpower at times too. Obsession with patterns and why things work. So understanding what makes us tick, and how my brain and the brains of others make decisions this felt like home as soon as I saw it. I'm really excited to be part of this amazing community of facilitators. I'm here to connect, learn, and share whatever I can to help. Be great to hear how how has facilitation impacted your career or work, and what drew you everybody in? Or if anyone wants to talk shop about story too. I'm also a filmmaker, working on a podcast on decision making and a photographer. Looking forward to hearing your stories and connecting with you all!
Welcome @Andrew Phan - I agree! Story telling is really powerful, and I think it's an important skill for any facilitator to practice :) I even have this phrase I say sometimes: Stories transform us, stories connect us, stories make us human.
