Hello Facilitators👋 I'm really curious about where everyone is from. I'd love to make this a mega post where we can see how diverse the Facilitator Club community is. Who knows, you might find a lot more people in your area than you thought! Once I have lots of answers on this post, I want to make a nice graph!
Lately, I've been mulling over different analogies to illustrate the Facilitator's role, particularly in the context of managing group dynamics. Here's an interesting one that struck me: Think of a group of people like a bustling city intersection. There are many different paths crossing each other, each with their own direction and speed. In this situation, it's easy for things to get chaotic or for some paths to get overshadowed by others. This is exactly what happens when people come together - there's a multitude of thoughts, ideas, and perspectives intersecting. People might have different viewpoints, some ideas might get side-lined, and quieter individuals might not get a chance to express their thoughts. It's like the louder cars drowning out the quieter ones or some paths being blocked by others. This is where a Facilitator steps in, acting like a traffic controller at this intersection. They ensure that each 'car' or person gets a fair chance to move forward, making sure everyone's ideas and voices are heard. They guide the 'traffic', or the conversation, to ensure that the team's discussions are effective and aimed towards achieving their goals. So, just like a traffic controller is crucial for smooth and fair traffic movement, a Facilitator is key to productive, inclusive, and goal-oriented group discussions. What do think of this analogy? I'd love to hear your own analogies or metaphors of the Facilitator's role in the comments!
Yea I like it and I think I will use it. Thanks for sharing! I have a need of adding another job - designing the city and proposing the crossroads and what kind of elements there will be for traffic regulation (traffic lights or roundabout). Because beside facilitating we also propose the structures for the conversations.
Hi everyone! As someone from an education background, I found observations incredibly useful to be able to see what I've learned in action, and it got me wondering whether observing a workshop or facilitation session is a thing. Is it a done thing? I know it's something I'd massively benefit from, and would love an opportunity to see a facilitator in action in order to tie things together visually. I'd love thoughts from experienced facilitators who pivoted into facilitation from another industry/career path.
definitely yes. Isnt it also called shadowing? Either as a pure observer, or you can get an extra role supporting the facilitator, e.g. taking notes, keeping time, logistics coordinator (like communication with catering or venue) would also often stay in the room and works on own stuff or just observes and learns. What we also did was asking the observer to take notes on 1) observe the group - nonverbals, keeping track, and then consult the facilitator in the break on things she might not have noticed; on 2) feedback for the facilitator (solicited) - mentally applying the facilitation principles and seeing what could be improved. You can offer all this kind of support. Totally go for it!