Facilitate Proceedings » Facilitation skills

First Things First: Create Collaborative Client Relationships

Susan Peryam — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:20:59 +0000

What approaches should you use to develop a collaborative relationship with a client?

The first of the six Foundational Facilitator Competencies developed by the International Association of Facilitators is Create Collaborative Client Relationships which is focused on understanding the client’s needs so that the facilitator can design a session to achieve the desired outcomes.

Why Professional Certification Is So Worth It

Susan Peryam — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:59:17 +0000

To certify or not, that is the question.
I’ve been asked the question “…why would I want to certify anyways, I’ve been in the profession for years.” My answer is simple…it is a matter of personal choice. I made that choice three times. During my first career I became a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), years into my second career I became a Certified Quality Manager (CQM), and at the beginning of my third and current career I became a Certified Professional Facilitator.

As I reflect on the reasons I chose to become certified, I realize that my motivations changed over time. I sense that is a reflection of my personal growth.

Book Review: Managing Facilitated Processes

Julia Young — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:55:52 +0000

Managing Facilitated Processes
A Guide for Consultants, Facilitators, Managers, Trainers, Event Planners and Educators
Dorothy Strachan and Marian Pitters deliver a practical guide to planning and managing facilitated processess filled with checklists, examples and step-by-step resources for the new or experienced facilitator/consultant.

As the sub-title of the book infers, this guide is meant as a resource for a long list of practitioners in a wide variety of corporate, non-profit, educational, government and community organizations. Strachan and Pitters write in an approachable, organized way and I found myself reading the book from cover to cover before returning to the table of contents to drop back into particular chapters or worksheets. Many of the latter are available for download from a web site for easy access. The authors do not presume that the reader will have a lot of facilitation and project management experience and cover some fundamental aspects of defining and contracting for a facilitated process or consulting engagement. Their systematic and thorough approach also has value to experienced facilitators and consultants, however, and you certainly sense that their checklists and techniques are ones that they themselves use on every engagement.

Why PowerPoint Is Pervasive and Good Facilitation Is Not

Mike McCall — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:00:11 +0000

I believe it was Socrates who said “Even a fool can give a good PowerPoint presentation but it is only a truly wise person who can lead a group of people to think creatively and make decisions effectively and efficiently.” At the risk of being deliberatively provocative, I maintain that this accounts for the prevalence of PowerPoint based meetings.

From childhood, though we may fear standing up in front of people, we are trained to present our ideas. We do it in school with the essays and papers we write, the science projects we – with that little bit of help from our parents – assemble and the tests we take. With that desire in all of us to produce beautiful things, by the time we enter the workforce we’re primed for the task of creating PowerPoint presentations.

How many of us, however, were taught how to bring a group of people together for a purpose, structure a meeting agenda, start with a discussion to draw out the best and most innovative ideas from the group, keep people focused and lead them to efficiently develop and prioritize those ideas, build consensus around the best ones and end with a decision or implementation plan?

IAF: A Key Facilitator Resource in Challenging Times

Danuta McCall — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:18:42 +0000

Just wanted our community to know that the International Association of Facilitators Europe Conference will be held in the United Kingdom September 18-20 2009. If you are looking for a reason to visit the beautiful and historic city of Oxford (and partake of conference events in the hallowed Keble College, one of England’s most historic seats ...