An Introduction to Facilitation

Course Overview

Facilitation is a technique designed to dramatically increase productivity in meetings and extract high-quality information within a compressed timeframe. Using a structured facilitated meeting approach allows individuals and teams to develop clear deliverables and consensus-based decisions. Participants will gain an understanding of facilitation methods and techniques. They will demonstrate and reinforce their knowledge and newly acquired skills by completing an exercise in facilitation on a specific case study. This course is a pre-requisite for the Advanced JAD Facilitation class.

Day 1 of the course introduces participants to basic facilitation skills and explores the issues and personalities of individuals and teams that affect meeting facilitation.

Day 2 of the course covers the skills and methods of facilitation in more depth and examines meeting logistics and facilitation tools.

Who Should Attend

PMO staff, Project Managers, Project Leaders, and Project Team Members will benefit from learning how to apply facilitation techniques to meetings where decision making, problem solving, or idea exchange is the goal.

Course Content

Day One

Introduction:

• Participant introductions / expectations
• Ice breaker exercise

Facilitation Overview:

• Origin
• Background

Basic Skills of Facilitation:

• Core skills of a Facilitator
• Rules of Facilitation
• Basic dos and don’ts

People Issues:

• People issues, problems and how to deal with them
• Conflict resolution
• Tips (e.g. Parking Lot Technique, Action Items, ways to document issues and problems and not get side-tracked)

Personality Profile:

• Discuss personality profile assessments
• Students will complete personality profile assessment material, develop their profile and hold general discussion

Stages of Team/Group Development:

• List and discuss the stages of team development (i.e. Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing)
• Describe facilitator’s mode of operation for each stage of development

Facilitation Assignment and Exercises:

• Handout list of facilitation exercises
• Participants select their facilitation assignment
• Participants prepare assigned exercise
• Individuals facilitate a brief exercise
• Instructor and class critique each facilitation

Day Two

Rules and Skills of Facilitation:

• Active listening skills
• Communication skills
• Documentation techniques
• Solicitation of feedback

Facilitation Environment and Logistics:

• Room and table layout
• Support roles
• Materials and supplies

Methods of Operation:

• Ground rules
• Types of decisions
• Consensus making
• Agreement and participation
• Team guidelines and effective meetings

Meeting Preparation:

• Interview executive sponsor
• Survey/interview key stakeholders
• Identify objectives with key customer contact
• Develop session agenda

Facilitators Toolkit:

• Handout “The Memory Jogger®”
• Present key facilitation tools and appropriate use

Course Wrap-up:

• Review course objectives
• Review participant expectations
• Fill out course feedback forms