3G - Facilitation Skills

Description:

It is impossible to be part of an organization and not attend meetings. If you have the opportunity to "run" these meetings, how do you facilitate the team interaction, rather than control it? Facilitation skills allow you to help a group be successful and reach decisions.

If you’ve been asked to facilitate a meeting, you might be wondering what that means. Some people use training, facilitating, and instructing interchangeably, but there are some very specific differences.  In this course, you’ll learn what makes facilitation different from those other activities.

There are many definitions of facilitation, just as there are books and articles written about it. Facilitation means “to make easy,” so the job of the facilitator is to create a meeting environment where work is made easier for the participants.  Facilitation will have different applications and uses in different settings. Sometimes a facilitator is asked to moderate between parties who disagree (which is probably a role better suited to a moderator). Often, facilitators are asked to act as a process leader or group leader.

In this course, we will cover the differences between facilitation, training, and chairing meetings. We will discuss the different levels of facilitation and the different types of thinking that facilitators need to be aware of.  After taking this course, you should feel ready to facilitate sessions and incorporate facilitative tools in your work.