Facilitation Essentials

Course Description

Meetings can be a huge time and energy waste. More often than not we walk away wondering “what was accomplished?”. If you’re reading this, you’re either facilitating meetings already, or planning to, and you want to provide the best experience possible for your participants, whether they be staff, volunteers, or peers. You don’t want your participants to go through another agonizing meeting and waste their time. In this one day, intensive workshop, you will prepare the ground work for productive meetings. You’ll learn and apply the key skills that will help you run an effective, efficient and productive meeting such as: the difference between a facilitator and a trainer; setting an agenda, the importance of icebreakers; reading the crowd, dealing with difficult people; and the tools of the trade. In one day you can become a better facilitator and be on your way to creating great meetings. Space limited.

Participant Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Understand clearly what a facilitator is
• Apply various tips, tools, and tricks that can be used in any facilitation
• Integrate your own facilitation style for effectiveness
• Know what needs to be done to hone your facilitation skills

Course Content

1. How a facilitator differs from a trainer or someone who merely “runs” a meeting
2. What to prepare before the meeting
3. Integrate your own facilitation style for effectiveness
4. Know what needs to be done to hone your facilitation skills
5. Reading the crowd
6. How to deal with difficult people and behaviours
7. Tools of the trade for organizing, problem-solving, strategizing, and decision-making
8. Above all else, a facilitator must be….