Hey all, loving this forum so far, great to have a network of people to reach out to and seek advice from. I have recently introduced Team Canvas sessions to our organisation and the response has been excellent. My experience to date(circa 30 sessions) is with groups of 10 or less participants. However, later this week I am facilitating for a team of 24 people and I am looking for advice on how I might handle this. I ensure that my sessions are very inclusive and that everyone gets a voice through each section of the canvas, but with a group of 24, how can i do this and ensure that everyone remains engaged? Love so tip on this
Hey @Tj Mackey I suggest as @Will Stammers and @Raymond Tilkens have said to break into smaller groups! For example 3x8! Then run the dynamics inside each group in parallel! Here’s a suggestion: Its good to have co facilitators but if not, you can announce each exercise to all groups and then circle around the room as the exercises progress! Next exercise announcement, circle the room! Keep repeating until the whole canvas is filled out for all groups. Now Is time to merge! Draw a big team canvas on a whiteboard (or have it ready beforehand) and ask each group to select on person in the group to: place its group’s post-it’s on the shared canvas and as they place them briefly describe what they are placing! Take just a few minutes per group. At this point you have a big team canvas with post-it’s! Run a clustering session to see what patterns emerge from the joint work of the 3 groups. Now you have the overall team canvas! You can now give some voting dots (e.g. 10 per person) and ask them to place them on the post its that reason the most with them! Break! When everyone is back, summarize the “hottest/most voted areas” by playing back what is in the canvas to everyone! P.s. whenever I run canvas exercises I always remind people that more important than the canvas we end up with, is the process of filling it together! It’s a starting point for a deeper discussion, not the end! 😀
I'm curious to know what kind of facilitation everyone does...? While I recognise that Facilitation Skills/ Principles apply across all types of facilitation, I've seen a lot of posts/comments around Design Thinking, Design Sprints, UX... Apart from supporting facilitators to hone their craft, I do a lot of facilitation in the Community Engagement / Social Impact space. Strategic Planning, Community Consultation, Partnership Brokering... that kind of thing. I'm keen to see the breadth of facilitation that's in this community.
@Kerri Price I enjoy both actually! 😀 Being outside is fun because you get more variation of domains to work with potentially! Being inside you get to see the results of your work over time! The reason I moved inside was to try an crack the code for impactful, long lasting results from facilitation. When I was outside we had a lot of what I call “aleluia moments”! People would come from a corporate to a series of worskshops and leave with all kinds of plans and ideias that would fade out once they were “back” in the organization routine! I moved inside and it’s very different from being outside: - you’re much more accountable! You work at the company and you will be there once facilitation is done and know if it turned into something (and I mean beyond prototypes) - You can’t rely on the novelty factor! Consultants sell the same thing over and over again to different companies (e.g. design sprints training). When you’re inside you have a grace period where you are new and exciting but it wears out! So you need to also be able to achieve tangible results. - You need to deeply understand the company strategy! Inside it’s not enough to focus only on the workshop! You need to really understand company strategy to be able to connect to that and not end up being perceived as an “animator” or “team builder”! This is tightly connect to the previous point! Again, I really enjoy both experiences but they are very different! The great thing is one feeds the other so when I do workshops as consultant now, after being inside, I can understand much better the concerns of workshops participants coming from corporates! You’re giving me food for thought to write more about this 😀 thanks!
Hey Workshoppers, I'm VERY excited about this: As many of you already know, I usually only do coaching inside our high-level paid community "Inner Circle"... BUT today I'm announcing a little experiment: I'm going to run a free, 1 hour, weekly coaching session right here in this community, starting next Tuesday (August 22nd)! 👉 Watch this video if you don't feel like reading! You can join these calls and ask me anything you like about: - Building your facilitation career - Running specific workshops - Getting help with running workshops/troubleshooting - Getting advice on working with clients - Sales and marketing tips - Whatever you like! The first call starts NEXT TUESDAY (August 22nd, 4pm CET) and you can see the full schedule of upcoming calls right here on the Skool Calendar. I'll decide if I'll keep doing these based on how many people show up/ whether you all find them useful! ⚠️ 2 important bits of information: ONE: These calls will be strictly ONE hour long. We'll get through as much as we can in that time. I do a 2-3 hour coaching session every week in our "Inner Circle All-Access" community (these are recorded & transcribed), for those who want to go deeper. We can talk about this in more detail next week if anyone is interested in learning more! TWO: There won't be recordings of these free Q&A sessions. Why? For lots of reasons, but in short: just come hang out live! Hope to see some of you next week, let's go! Cheers, Jonathan
My absolute favourite icebreaker is called draw a duck, it’s as simple as it sounds. 🦆 1️⃣ Give everyone post-its and a sharpie 2️⃣ Give them 60 seconds to draw a duck 3️⃣ Have them all put their ducks on the whiteboard 4️⃣ Briefly review your ducks as a group. That’s it. I love it because it’s a quick and effective way to inject a bit of fun into the start of the workshop. Plus, it lowers the bar for visualising ideas later, showing that ability to draw doesn’t matter. Want to practice? Grab a post-it and drop a picture of your duck in the comments, then tag someone in Faciltiator club do the same! 🦆 I'll start us off in the comments! 👇
I've been playing a lot with ChatGPT in the context of facilitation. Check the overall conversation by opening the images in this post one by one! This stuff is mind-blowing!!!!! Some conclusions: ✅ ChatGPT is wonderful for inspiration! Think of it as a co-facilitator ✅ You need to know what to ask! Problem framing and critical thinking are skills even more valuable in the age of AI ✅ The robot wont run the workshop for you ;) So the whole human element and real-time ability to adapt give facilitators even more value! ✅ I cannot wait to see the amazing abilities AI will give facilitators. One example is to use AI tools to quickly capture visually some exercises outputs without the need to be a great scribbler/sketch-noter. You can try it out at chat.openai.com :) How about you? What experiments have you been doing with AI and facilitation?
@Jeff Panning you’re welcome 😀 it’s amazing and great for inspiration! There’s a lot more it can do! I hope to explore more when I have the chance and I’ll share it here!
Loving everyone’s excitement around this! In case you haven’t seen it I wrote a second post on how to use chatGPT **while running a workshop ** check it out here https://www.skool.com/facilitatorclub/real-time-ai-and-facilitation-with-chatgpt
I have previously shared how to use chatGPT to prepare for a workshop (link in comments). Now, I want to share how one might use it **during a workshop**. Just open the pictures and scroll through them :)) Some conclusions: ✅ ChatGPT as a co-facilitator you can resort to throughout the workshop. ✅ Prepare the robot beforehand and give it context, so it can help you during breaks ✅ Keep the chatGTP window open and have a two-way conversation, sharing back your own learnings along the way ✅ I cannot wait to see the amazing abilities AI will continue to bring facilitators How about you? What experiments have you been doing with AI and facilitation?
Hi everyone, I am French, located in Munich DE (2/3), and Grenoble FR (1/3). I started doing facilitation as a UX lead and migrated to workshop creation and facilitation also bringing change management and innovation into the picture. I am currently interested in visual practices like scribing https://www.u-school.org/visual-practice#vp-programs (from Theory U) and how it relates to workshop facilitation. Are there any visual facilitators in the group? I have no scribing experience but I used to draw a lot during boring meetings, so I think I should give this a try 😁 Looking forward to interacting with the group.
Help me out people! I need to update my music playlists. Specifically some good upbeat, high energy instrumentals for the start of a workshop, or for bringing people back in after a break. And at the other end of the spectrum--I'd love some ideas for reflective instrumentals that aren't nature sounds. (No disrespect to the whales 😉) What's your go-to playlist?
Hi everyone, Are you scaling your facilitation business beyond yourself? And if yes, how? I understand AJ&Smart has both online courses and services within the company, online courses being the most scalable while keeping the services side fairly lean. What other models have you found? (e.g. pair up with other freelancers to offer more comprehensive services; Refer work to others if you cannot deliver on it yourself taking a fee; etc.) Please share your experiences! Thanks!
Helloooo Facilitators 👋 This is a question that comes up A LOT and I would love to hear your answers to it. What's the value of Facilitation? In other words, why do teams need Facilitation/Facilitators? It's so important to be able to answer this question because it will help you convince potential clients of the value you can add to their teams as a Facilitator. Leave your answers in the comments. Looking forward to getting a discussion going on this. Rebecca 💟
@David Newman perhaps it’s not one or the other but both! There was diagram someone shared that was quite interesting showing the space of each activity! Let me see if I can find it!
Hey Facilitators! I want to take a moment to express our gratitude for your dedication, collaboration, and enthusiasm in the Facilitator Club community. Your consistent engagement, insightful advice, and willingness to share your knowledge have been instrumental in nurturing the growth of the Facilitator Club. We are SUPPPPPPPER grateful for the amazing energy you bring to this community and can't thank you enough for your contributions. Huge shout-out to everyone on the leaderboard! 🥳 @Shannon Wagers @David Finnegan @David Newman @Jan Keck @Benedict Odjobo @LaYinka Sanni @Kerri Price @Msoo Mee @Brendon Cappelletti @Austin Govella @Tomoo Okubo @Shaul Nemtzov @Joao Ribeiro @Donna Benjamin @Will Stammers @Jeff Panning @Hassanein Ismail @Sam Pettersson
To all the folks working in Corporate Innovation domain, just wanted to check from this elite group of facilitators - What kind of facilitation you have been doing majorly? It could be multiple items as well, but wanted to understand what's that 1 thing which you are passionate about and you do your best while facilitating 😊 Looking forward to see your responses !
I'm curious what y'all use to bring silence back to a room (e.g. after a breakout discussion)? With the first program I was trained to facilitate (Search Inside Yourself) we used a singing bowl like the pic attached. Works like a charm, but definitely has a mindfulness vibe and isn't perfect for every setting. Are there are tools, techniques, etc. that you've found work well?
Hello Facilitator Club! I'm looking to connect with HR, POPS or executive professionals who lead their organization's wellness initiatives. I have almost a decade of marketing experience in fast-paced and high-stress environments working with leaders and team members at all levels. Now, I'm an executive meditation guide and intuition coach working with leaders all over the world to be more in tune with their strengths, manage their stress, and access deeper levels of wisdom and creativity. I'm interested in bringing meditation and stress management tools to organizations emphasizing initiatives around team effectiveness, retention, and emotional intelligence. If you'd be open to chatting about what challenges you're facing in this era of work, I'd love to meet you. If this sounds like you, or you know someone who fits this profile, please tag them or message me directly. ☺️
I am interested in this topic too! Especially in embedding these concerns in daily practices of work! Check this video for what tends to happen when these are separated 😅 https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMYa74ut2/
@Julia Lemke you’re making great point regarding physical space! Interesting to think on this also from a remote work perspective as in those cases it’s more on the employee side
Recently I've been reflecting on how much time we spend setting the scene for a workshop. Most facilitators are very intentional about making sure everyone is on the same page about why they are there, and we work hard to ensure people feel safe and comfortable to engage. However, when it comes to the end of the workshop, it often wraps up in a hurry. There might be an action list created, perhaps a quick whip-around to see how people are feeling, but I'm not convinced that the wrap-up is always given the time (and energy) it really needs to be done well. (And for the record...I'm reflecting on my own practice here...maybe I should replace 'we' with 'me'.) I'm keen to hear how others wrap-up their sessions. Are there specific exercises you use to bring things to a close and encourage next steps are actually taken? I've got a few tried and true methods I use, but I'm keen to give it more focus.
I often change the room setup to wrap up! Most often we have group tables and when I close, I ask everyone to gather around in a circle, facing each other, the whole group. Then do a reflection exercise before closing! However if I am doing a series of workshops I tend to do this mostly in the last one, having quicker wrap up’s followed by recaps in all the workshops except the last!
@Scott Fry oh yeah! When I say “I” change the room setup it’s very often we! So I say something like this “all right everyone so we’re getting close to the end of the day, so let’s change things a bit! Everyone take a chair and let’s gather around in a circle!” Then I start and everyone follows!