Executive Overview | Meeting Design | Meeting Roles | Facilitation Techniques
How Facilitators Can Help After Disasters
In a recent training offered by Global Facilitators Serving Communities (GFSC), I learned a lot about the range of facilitation skills needed to help communities recover from disasters and other crises. [...]
Team Leader’s Secret to Good Meetings: Think Like a Host
A good meeting is like a meal that leaves participants feeling nourished and energized. A not-so-good meeting leaves people hungry, tired and irritable. A really-bad meeting can feel like food [...]
Similar but Not Identical: Speakers, Trainers and Facilitators
At first glance, the roles of speaker, trainer and facilitator look very similar. All involve standing in front of a group and talking. All require excellent communication skills. All call [...]
The Boss with Bad Meeting Habits
I hear with alarming frequency from employees who report that when they suggest ways to improve their organization´s meeting culture, they encounter resistance from managers who do not believe in [...]
The Facilitator’s Tightrope
Inserting a facilitator into a group´s existing power dynamics is a risky business. Often a facilitator’s help is requested because dysfunctional behaviors are inhibiting the group´s effectiveness. The client allegedly [...]
Stage fright: It happens to all of us!
In the same way that an actor can have a moment of stage fright before the curtain goes up, facilitators sometimes experience a similar sensation before taking our place in [...]
Co-facilitation: Mutual support or power struggle?
Sharing responsibility for the facilitation of a complex meeting or a large event such as a workshop or conference presents challenges and opportunities that are different from those we face [...]
Facilitator – Not super hero, not martyr
Facilitating a participatory process is not the job of one person. Even though those who are in the role of facilitator usually stand in front of the group where we [...]
Why and how to say "thank you" in meetings
When people think about working in groups, they often focus on unpleasant aspects such as conflict, boredom or rampant egos. They almost never mention saying “thank you” as a memorable [...]
Picture yourself in the role of facilitator
Still unclear on the concept of what a process facilitator does and why you might want to become one? Don´t worry. It is an occupational hazard. Sometimes I long for [...]
Five things I love about being a facilitator
The puzzled expression on people´s faces when I tell them what I do. Of course, health I often wish that group facilitation were a more readily understood occupation. But I [...]