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 💛

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

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!

What do you do when YOUR energy is just not there, but you're about to run a workshop / you're in the middle of running one?

How are you dealing with the time before everyone has entered the room (virtually or in person)? At the moment, all my sessions are virtual, and sometimes it takes a good 5-10 minutes before everyone has arrived and we can actually start with an icebreaker. This means that by that time, the majority of the participants have already decided if this is going to be worth their time or not. I personally tried a variety of things but am interested in hearing how you handle this. - Have smalltalk with the organizer or with people who entered the room - Play music and not say much until the start - Share a countdown clock - Do a "drop-in icebreaker" (f.ex, which type of dog/sheep/lego construction/... are you today?) What's your take?

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.

Hi Everyone, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking in terms of its application in facilitation thought I would share. In story, especially film. We use Open Goals at the beginning and then move to close the goal to the end of a film let me explain. I’ll use Star Wars. Luke receives a message, he has to reach Leia with it, and he has to save her. This is a somewhat open goal. Save her from what? There are so many things that she might need saving from? So many unanswered questions. But an open goal, is a broad goal that is easily agreed upon. This is a lower cost of entry, for the audience as it has no commitment to the cause. The closed goal we eventually find out is Luke has to, blow up the Death Star, which in turn saves the galaxy which in turn saves Leia. So how does that apply conceptually to facilitation. Well using broad or open goals earlier in discussion can encourage buy-in, reduces the cost of entry. But using a closed goal, to define what success is helps people feel a sense of accomplishment and will want to do it again. But knowing where to use not use specific types of goals can help depending on the need. I’ll probably write a more in-depth analysis on a blog or a video. But I just wanted to share and discuss with everyone. Success = Saving Galaxy Blowing up Death Star = Saving Galaxy Success = Blowing up Death Star Success = making people more organized Improving the uptake due to a UX improvement = more people are using it = more people are getting organized = Success may the force be with you.

Hi everybody!! I'm a product designer and with my team we have been organizing a serie of workshops where our broad goal is to be more aware of others work, is there are any overlaps across each of our product, learning from each others, gain feedback on our activities, and so on... Can you suggest to me an sharp session I may facilitate if you have experienced anything similar?

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!

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?

What are some of the best certification courses (internationally accredited) for Facilitators ? I see there are lot of International Coaching related, but specifically to be recognised as facilitator what do you recommend? Also, mention the benefits if you really feel it's mandatory to take it up for persuing full time career or bring you great credibility.

I might be late to the Butter party, but I've recently discovered it and I absolutely LOVE it so far. The nature of interaction feels a lot easier to develop psychological safety in virtual sessions and seems more fun. Does anyone else use Butter or has used Butter? What did you like or dislike about it?

In any meeting or workshop, I always start with some kind of activity to engaje people within each other and with the theme of the event. My favorite is Blind Portrait: a game where, in pairs, people try to draw each others faces, but without looking at the paper! That way, anyone can make a drawing full of character and surprises. In the end, each person have to choose their favorite drawing and introduce themselves with that! What about you?

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!

Check out this lovely poster on the website of the Australian Facilitators Network! http://www.afn.net.au/2017%20AFN%20poster_fin.pdf It poses "questions we can ask ourselves as facilitators working with and between cultures" in 8 areas - Preparation - Purpose - Time - Process - Space - Deep listening - Language, history, and protocol - Awakeness/Awareness Some great prompts there for reflection and readiness.

I've always struggled to decide whether or not to include the experts (SMEs of the product) as part of the sprint team. Let me give you a bit of context of what I am trying to understand better. The sprint team is typically comprised of cross-functional SMEs, ie. Data Scientists, Engineers, Product Designers, Product Managers, etc. In this particular context, the decider would be a Data Scientist. However, our experts are the users that use the tool. Let's call them merchants. They are the ones that use the tool day in and out, and we would like their perspectives on how to shape the new feature. The merchants are typically very busy individuals. My question is, should I include them for the full two days of the design sprint, or should I include them only as part of the expert interviews?

Just went to the 6-figure Facilitator training course with Jonathan at AJ&Smart. Wow! So much energy, so much truth and authenticity. It ended up being a weird mix of training and therapy. Jonathan cut through the bs and had some really great guidance for a budding facilitator like me. I am not a UX designer but have experienced a lot of the frustration that was discussed, I’ve probably caused some of the frustrations too…oops. I'm sure a lot of you here were there and they didn’t record it but would definitely recommend going if and when they do more. Thank you AJ&Smart

When did it occur to you and how were you able to transition into facilitation as a career? Let's share our transition stories in a paragraph...🙏

You've doing great, you've built a successful business over the last few years maybe even decades. But later today something terrible happens (insert your own apocalyptic worst nightmare) and all your customers are gone, all your network is gone and your contacts list has disappeared! WHAT! No thats crazy! OK stay with me here... What are you going to do tomorrow to get back on your feet as fast as possible? Ok, let's assume you are going to get physically out there and network, press the flesh (oooooh, I can't believe I just said that!), and meet real people in person. But what about on social, in the ether in the virtual online space? Where are you going to focus your time and attention to get your business ball rolling as quickly as possible? Let's see which social platforms going to outperform the others and maybe leave a comment as to what kind of thing your going to do or post and how long you think it would take you to get back to where you are now.

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?

As an experienced facilitator what would you tell your earlier version of yourself in order to avoid some costly mistakes

Wow I can´t remember when was the last time I joined a community and was truly excited like now! I´m a UX & Service Designer with experience in Design Thinking and Facilitation. I love to work with and guide teams and make ideas happen! 😊

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. ☺️

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!

Hello everyone, My name is Valérie, I am Canadian, originating from France. I am an expert in marketing and customer experience and I am quickly falling in love with facilitation. I can’t stop reading and learning more and more! Happy to read you and contribute to this beautiful community! :)

It's that time again! I want to put what we’re learning in the world of facilitation and workshopping into practice with this workshop design challenge! I will be posting anonymized client briefs (repurposed briefs from past clients of AJ&Smart) over the next few weeks and I would love for you to design a workshop to meet these briefs. I have attached our Agenda template that you can use to complete this task. In the comments section, you can write the same headings in this template to give you some guidance. This template follows AJ&Smart’s 4C’s Framework for structuring ANY workshop. So...what is the 4C’s Framework? We’re glad you asked! The 4C’s stand for Collect, Choose, Create, and Commit. The 4C’s Framework can be used to design any workshop regardless of topic, length, or outcome. If you want to get the full breakdown of how it works and how to use it in your workshops, you can download the Workshopper Playbook, where we explain everything in detail! So, let's take a look at the brief 👀 Client: GreenTech Innovators Contact Person: Emma Johnson Subject: Workshop Challenge - Sustainable Living for High School Students Background: GreenTech Innovators is a company focused on making the world greener. We develop products and services to help people live more sustainably. We want to teach high school students about the importance of sustainable living. Objective: Create a fun and engaging workshop for high school students (aged 14-18) about sustainable living. The workshop should help students understand how their actions impact the environment and teach them ways to live more sustainably. Workshop Requirements: - Duration: The workshop should last 1.5 to 2 hours. - Format: Mix presentations, activities, and group discussions - Content: Cover these topics: a. Why sustainable living matters b. How our choices affect the environment c. GreenTech Innovators’ products and services d. Tips for living sustainably

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 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

I often run solo sprints just to figure things out on my own. I'm curious to see what you all are up to 😉

So, I'm new around here and new to facilitation.... Im not going to lie, I have no background in this or in cooperate. I'm a firefighter here in England. So what am I doing here I hear you ask, well I saw this ad from this crazy guy Jonathan and he got me just at the right time.... You see I've been looking for a new career, a change in direction, you know something where I'm not risking my health by going into a burning building or climbing a tree with a chainsaw or throwing myself down an off-piste ski run. I have been on my own personal growth journey now for about 5 or 6 years, in truth it really started when I became a dad 8 years ago but my desire to help others has taken many strange turns and I've been down a few roads and blind alleys in my time and then I came across this group of folk called facilitators or "workshoppers" who say you don't need to have all the answers but instead need to be the guide. WOW! Now that sounds interesting, not only that but if you can become good or even great then the money can be a little better than the pat on the back for risking your life! Now, I know I can learn new skills and I love meeting people and finding out about their worlds, you know, that energy that sparks in people when your conversation brings something out of them that really fires them up. I guess you could call it tapping into their life force or something spiritual like that. Time to stop being the hero and to start being the guide? So look there's a little snippet about me, but I'm curious, what's your story? What brought you here to this space known as the Facilitators club?