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!

One of the great things about what we do is you can do it as an employee or go out and become your own company. Whilst the later comes with amazing benefits there are a lot of areas that need to be considers… Like - What does it take to set myself up as a business or do I just contract in. - If I am setting myself up as a business am I a sole trader.. registering by business - Defining your purpose and setting clear goals yearly, quarterly - Defining your target customers, products, services and financials. Whilst this is a passion space for a lot of us, you still need to understand your revenue needs. - Branding and marketing - What do you need to set yourself up… physically, technology - Contracts for engagements - How to build a pipeline, managing you customer base Making sure you get work life balance! Would be interested in hearing and learning from each other on what made sense for you and what you would like to share with the rest of the community…

Hey there! 👋 Facilitator Club is THE community for Facilitators or those who want to learn the skill of facilitation, where you can… ✅ Talk about facilitation and workshops (like the Design Sprint!) ✅ Talk about facilitation careers and how to build one (and make $$$ as a Facilitator!) ✅ Share workshop/facilitation insights, experiences, and resources ✅ Ask the AJ&Smart team questions about facilitation & workshops! This document contains important information about getting the most out of this community, so please read through everything before you get started! 👇👇👇 💃 How to get the most out of the Facilitator Club community 🕺 Really happy to have you here, hope you love the community as much as we do! Lots of love, The AJ&Smart team 💛

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?

As more and more workshops and meetings are being held online, it's important to understand the unique challenges and opportunities that come with virtual facilitation. I have found that one of my best practices for virtual facilitation is to create a structured agenda and to stick to it. I also make sure to use interactive tools such as breakout rooms and polls to keep my audience engaged. Another tip that I follow is to actively monitor and manage group dynamics, as it can be more challenging to read the room when working remotely. From building engagement to managing distractions, how do you ensure your virtual workshops are productive and effective? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below and let's start a conversation about virtual facilitation best practices.

During one of my team building programs, a very exciting participant wasn't satisfied about the result and she argued loudly and aggressively demanding extra points for her team, and this is the moment for us as facilitators to show our strength and wisdom, it was very tough moments for me, how to handle it, because if I let it go it ll ruin the whole program, I changed the debriefing around that point and linked it with the objectives of the game and involved her at the discussion along the way several times, later I had a conversation with the manager who were attending, she told me that I was watching and waiting for you to handle it :) - Have you eve faced a vert tough participant or similar situation ? - How you handled the situation, or what tools you used?

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! 👇

Hello facilitators! 👋 For remote facilitation, do you use Miro, Mural, or Figma and why? Do you create templates in all of them? Or do you stick to one? I have realized I am creating different boards across all 3 and think it might be best to consolidate to one. 🤔 Hope this post can also shed light on best practices for everyone when choosing !

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.

Hey Workshoppers! I'm Jonathan, originally from Ireland but i've been living in Germany for the last 14 years. I'm the co-founder of AJ&Smart (on it's 12th year now!) and i'm super excited to see this community grow into something special. I spend most of my time running AJ&Smart (both the consulting and corporate sides and the consumer business), running workshops and trainings for clients, coaching Facilitators in our higher-tier programs (like Workshopper Master) annnnnd now doing a new podcast called "The Unscheduled CEO". The podcast is kind of a behind-the-scenes of AJ&Smart. In my free time I.... wait... actually I don't really have hobbies :D I just love running this business!!! I guess I play videogames sometimes! (Stuck on Elden Ring rn) Happy to be here and really loving what I'm seeing and learning so far! Cheers, Jonathan

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.

When everyone is on the same page about a way forward, it's easy to think we've done our job as a facilitator. That's certainly the end result we're looking for, after all. The problem is, if we get there too quickly, there's every chance there's been things left unsaid--or unexplored. 💭 Group-think may make finding consensus easy, but it doesn’t necessarily bring the best ideas or solutions. If you’re working with a group that is ALWAYS in agreement, try posing this question: “𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗿𝗴𝘂𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵, 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲?” 💥 Forcing a different argument is a great way to unearth new possibilities.

I'm a bit all over the place when it comes to getting things done. I do my best work in short bursts of high-energy sprints. The rest of the time I’m resting, consuming interesting content, and thinking about what I want to do next. This is exactly what I’m doing right now after completing an intense film shoot for a new online course we’ll be releasing soon. My time is split into 80% ‘rest and consume’ mode and 20% ‘produce and execute’ mode (which is kind of perfect for facilitation I think). One of the greatest thinkers of our time, Naval Ravikant has come to the same conclusion when it comes to working. He calls it “Working like a Lion”. He says: “The way people tend to work most effectively, especially in knowledge work, is to sprint as hard as they can while they feel inspired to work, and then rest. They take long breaks. It’s more like a lion hunting and less like a marathoner running. You sprint and then you rest. You reassess and then you try again. You end up building a marathon of sprints. Don’t work like a cow grazing on the field all day.” Source: https://nav.al/work-hard So work hard, then rest hard instead of trying to sustain a constant “mid-level” state. Or... don't! I don't know, that's just my brain! Cheers, Jonathan P.S. I also liked this video on living a chaotic life: https://youtu.be/A2sS00egAzg

Hi Everyone! So much experience and expertise in this community ... thrilled to be a member. I have a four-hour (same day) virtual session coming up and after the hour lunch break, I begin with energizer that gets the participants out of their seats and have a laugh. I have done ... find objects, eye yoga and the “after lunch shuffle”. Please what are your ideas? Thank you for sharing! Take care.

Facilitation is very unique skill as every individual has their own way of presenting, teaching, communicating and leading discussions. It's not like a standard process where you just copy anyone and do the same. However, the quality is very important so as to make it impactful and memorable experience. ✨ So, as a group of professional facilitators in various domains - Have you ever tried measuring your facilitation performance?🤔 If yes, what are the ways you have tried it ? I understand surveys are one of best methods to get the feedbacks but apart from that what other approaches makes it beneficial? In case you think measuring or assessing is not that important aspect, do share your thoughts why you feel so 😊 Looking forward to know views on this topic !

The first time I ever facilitated a workshop, I was terrified. I had never been in charge of keeping a conversation on track before, and I certainly didn't know how to handle silence.Silence is a fundamental tool for facilitation. In fact, it can help teams to better collaborate and come up with creative solutions for highly complex problems. At first, silence may be seen as a challenge to participants, but over time, they realize that silence allows them to listen more carefully and think more deeply about their proposals.They also understand that silence gives others the opportunity to do the same, and as a result, everyone becomes more thoughtful in their interactions and produces better results. Working together-alone is a way to use silence. Walking meditation is another. How are you using silence in facilitation?

Mastering the art of eliciting information is very crucial in order to understand client needs clearly, sometimes the clients may not give you the root causes for their issues, you may end up treating symptoms and that's will impact the delivery and outcomes. Asking the same question from different angles and different people will give you better clues. mini-meeting with several members from the client's team; will give you the chance to observe how they are interacting and guide each other to the root causes. anymore ideas :)

What do you all think about method card decks? Personally I used them a bit at university to plan/design workshops I remember liking the tactile feel instead of flipping through books like Gamestorming. But now I feel that they might be redundant or more of a novelty product. I'm still considering designing my own with my favorite methods for personal use, but I'm split in other decks as I both see reasons in paying no attention to them and hoarding them like a greedy dragon. Pros & Cons I see +Tactile +Compact +Can be displayed on the wall in the workshop room as a sort of schedule -Less information on methods than books -Planning/designing workshops can be easily done digitally or with post-it's instead when you know your favorite methods. I would like to hear other opinions on this topic as I feel like I'm missing something.

Been looking into some solutions for hybrid facilitation (some people are in the meeting room, and others are online) Some common recommendation for IWBs are Jamboard (Google) and Surface Hub (Microsoft) I also found a startup called Vibe, who makes Vibe board as a more affordable option Wonder what are the pros and cons of conducting facilitations with an IWB? And anyone has suggestions for choosing an IWB?

The recently published "State of Facilitation report for 2023" is now available for access. Conducted by SessionLab, the report involved gathering feedback from more than 1000 facilitators, aiming to reflect the current state of facilitation and offer useful guidance, knowledge, and perspective for those who work as facilitators worldwide. You can find the report by clicking on this link: https://www.sessionlab.com/state-of-facilitation/ What do you find most interesting? What do you find most surprising?

If you missed the @Aj Smart session yesterday on the 3 secrets to building a successful facilitation career, the following three books were recommended. I found the discussion of group dynamics really interesting and all this time and who know there was science to back up the skill. But I digress…. Here are the books that were recommended by @Rebecca Courtney . What other books are you reading.. or can recommend to the group?

I'm planning to facilitate my first workshop using the tools from attending the Design Sprint MasterClass and currently doing the Facilitation Fundamentals one. My plan is to do a 3 hour workshop and use the Expert Interviews, HMW, Long Term Goal, Sprint Questions & Map exercises and tools. In preparation, I will be revisiting the Remote Design Sprint Masterclass and will be speaking with the client tomorrow for the pre-sprint call. I plan to use the template Miro board prepared by AJ & Smart and will do a mock run through with my technical facilitator a few days before. Considering my lack of experience, I guess I'd appreciate advice, if I might be missing something fundamental that i should consider/prepare for. I'm really excited about it, but in equal measure, quite anxious about it too and sometimes think I might be setting myself up for failure.

What are some of your go-to exercises when facilitating UX or Product Discovery workshops? EDIT: I figured I didn't elaborate on his topic more, sorry for that! I didn't mention I actively do these. 🤓 So I am more interested in your experiences with some "unusual" workshop exercises besides those "standard" ones (like empathy mapping, feature bucketing, etc.) From my experience, some of the exercises I actively use are contextual mapping, empathy mapping (preferably if there are people we can find for interviewing), customer journey mapping (current vs. desired, might add HMWs to this exercise as well), feature prioritization and hierarchy, AttrakDiff scale, etc.

Hey Facilitators, Firstly apologies for those of you that have seen this on the other AJS channels, but for those of you that haven't seen it, here you go... You may have also seen that Jonathan also did a react video on latest Unscheduled CEO podcast ----------- The Business Model Canvas is a great workshopping tool (when used well) to retrospectively analyse a business but also plan transformations. I recently used it to deconstruct AJ&Smarts business model and show how Jonathan and team transformed their business twice (into what we see now). I really hope you enjoy this video, it was made for people like you :) Hope you enjoy it - https://youtu.be/PiIBSDnJPew Thanks, Spence

Hi everyone ! Just joined the Club.

Hey squad! ✌️ hoping to get some advice about mapping 'shops, Currently running both EM & CJM to help my team align on how users experience various flows in our digital product, however the more I run these workshops, the more I feel like what we learn in EM can get discovered in the CJM, if we consider including the Thinking, Feeling, Seeing & Doing during the phases ('Doing' and 'Feeling' already covered in more depth during CJM anyway) Has anyone had any experience with running a workshop where both these maps were combined? Any pitfalls or advantages you experienced? or potential stumbling blocks you encountered? Any advice would be great! Thanks!

Hello awesome Facilitators! Just joined the community and looking forward to the collaboration. Curious to know if anyone is from a life science and health care background. I've been running design sprints for 8 years in this area, and looking to connect with anyone venturing down this path. Thanks in advance.

Hello Facilitators 👋 Thank you so much for all your contributions and active participation so far. We are so appreciative of the value you are all providing within this community. But don’t worry, your contributions will not go unnoticed! A lot of questions have come in about the gamification aspect of this community. What I mean by that is, how you can be rewarded for providing value and actively engaging in this community! In Skool, there is a way you can earn points and level up. The likes, points, and levels system in Skool is a way for you to earn recognition for your contributions and engagement with the group. Here's how it works: 1. Likes: Members can "like" posts, comments, or other contributions made by other members. This serves as a way to show appreciation and support for their efforts. One like = one point. 2. Points: Points are a way to keep track of how much a person has participated in the community. Members can earn points by posting individual posts and commenting on other people’s contributions. 3. Levels: Levels are milestones that a member can reach by earning a certain number of points. These levels serve as recognition for their achievements within the community and come with perks such as access to exclusive AJ&Smart content, course previews, coaching calls and more…). The likes, points, and levels system is a way for us to incentivize and reward active and engaged members, creating a supportive and collaborative environment for everyone here. This Loom video I created will explain everything you need to know about this system and how to unlock rewards! HUGE thank you @Kerri Price, @Will Stammers, @Jeff Panning, @Joao Ribeiro, @David Finnegan, @Hassanein Ismail, @Akshay Chillal, @Nancy Lhoest-Squicciarini, @Sam Pettersson and @Andra Stefanescu (our top 10 members on the Leaderboard) who have provided so much value to this community already. We 💛 you!

I am a lover of a good pack and I learned some great skills as a consultant for most of my career. I know using tools like Powerpoint and creating a layout is not everyone's fun place when it comes to pulling together a workshop. I have created heaps of these for Design Sprints, Incubators and other recipes that have been tried and matured over time. That provides me with a clear outline of the flow and helps guide the participants and me through the upcoming activities. So my little Poll to guage interest.

🤩 I am very happy to be part of this community. I appreciate the generosity of the contributions shared and hope to be of help as well. I live in Chile 🇨🇱, I have a consulting firm that provides accompaniment, outsourcing and facilitation services. My English is not very good but translators help a lot 😅. If there is anything I can do to help you, just let me know! See you soon 😌 PD: Thanks you @Jeff Panning for your welcome and for encouraging me to greet the world✌️