Communication skills

Facilitation Skills

How to run meetings, discussions and workshops that end in shared decisions.

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Duration

3 days, 24 hours

Format

In person / online / hybrid

Learning outcomes

designing a meeting or workshop, from its purpose and desired outcomes to the agenda and timing
involving every participant, generating, sorting and prioritising ideas, and leading the group to a decision
handling difficult dynamics (a dominant participant, silence, conflict) and running online and hybrid meetings
what facilitation is and the facilitator’s role: guiding the process while staying neutral on the content

About the course

Facilitation is the art of helping a group work together effectively: think, discuss and reach decisions that everyone supports. The word comes from the Latin facilis, “easy”: the facilitator makes the group’s work easier by guiding the process and staying neutral on the content, so that the ideas and the decision belong to the group itself. During the course, participants will learn to design meetings and workshops, involve every participant, use participatory methods such as the ORID focused conversation, Liberating Structures, World Café and Open Space, lead a group from a variety of views to a shared decision, handle difficult dynamics, facilitate online, and apply the skills they have gained in their own meetings and projects.

Who it is for

This course is designed for those who run meetings, group discussions, strategy and project workshops: managers, team and project coordinators, HR professionals, trainers, and staff of NGOs and community programmes. It is also suitable for those who want their team meetings to be short, lively and productive.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge

what facilitation is and the facilitator’s role: guiding the process while staying neutral on the content
the dynamics of group decision-making (Kaner’s Diamond of Participatory Decision-Making)
the fundamentals of participatory methods: the ORID focused conversation, Liberating Structures, World Café, Open Space

Practical skills

designing a meeting or workshop, from its purpose and desired outcomes to the agenda and timing
involving every participant, generating, sorting and prioritising ideas, and leading the group to a decision
handling difficult dynamics (a dominant participant, silence, conflict) and running online and hybrid meetings

Why choose this course

In most meetings a few people do the talking while the rest stay silent, and decisions are either not made or not carried out because people do not feel they took part in them.

This course helps you design and run meetings and workshops so that everyone’s view is heard, different perspectives turn into a shared solution, and the group leaves with clear decisions and next steps.

If you want your team meetings to become a space for thinking together and making decisions, this is the right choice.

Curriculum

24 hours

The curriculum follows the path of any group process: from the facilitator’s role and meeting design to participatory methods, decision-making, handling difficult situations and facilitating online. The course consists of 4 modules and ends with participants facilitating part of a real discussion and receiving individual feedback.

Total: 24 hours
Modules: 4
Topics: 12
Practical: 54%

FS 01 Foundations of facilitation and the facilitator’s role 6 hours
FS 02 Designing meetings and workshops 6 hours
FS 03 Participatory methods and group decisions 6 hours
FS 04 Difficult dynamics, online facilitation and practice 6 hours

TheoryPracticalEach segment = 1 academic hour

FS 01 Foundations of facilitation and the facilitator’s role 3 theory · 3 practice · 6 h

1 What is facilitation? Process and content, neutrality; facilitator, moderator, trainer and manager 2
2 Facilitator competencies (the IAF Core Competencies) and self-assessment 2
3 The Diamond of Participatory Decision-Making: the divergent zone, the groan zone and the convergent zone 2

FS 02 Designing meetings and workshops 3 theory · 3 practice · 6 h

1 Purpose, desired outcomes, participants, agenda, roles and agreed ground rules 2
2 The ORID focused conversation: facts, reactions, meaning, decision 2
3 Structures that involve everyone (Liberating Structures): 1-2-4-All, work in pairs and small groups 2

FS 03 Participatory methods and group decisions 3 theory · 3 practice · 6 h

1 Working with large groups: World Café and Open Space 2
2 Generating, clustering and prioritising ideas: brainstorming, clustering, dot voting 2
3 Building agreement: decision rules, gradients of agreement, recording agreements and next steps 2

FS 04 Difficult dynamics, online facilitation and practice 2 theory · 4 practice · 6 h

1 Difficult dynamics in a discussion: a dominant participant, silence, conflict, going off topic; facilitator interventions 2
2 Online and hybrid facilitation, visual facilitation and documenting the results 2
3 Practice: participants facilitate part of a discussion and receive individual feedback 2

Frequently asked questions

How is a facilitator different from a trainer?

A trainer teaches: they pass on knowledge and skills. A facilitator helps a group think, discuss and decide for itself; they lead the process, while the content and the decision belong to the group. To learn more about running training courses, see the Training of Trainers (ToT) course.

Do I need to be a manager or have experience of running meetings?

No. Facilitation skills are useful for anyone who runs a meeting or discussion, even occasionally. Newcomers get ready-to-use tools and structures, and experienced facilitators get new methods and feedback on their own style.

Can these methods be used in online meetings?

Yes. A separate topic of the course is devoted to online and hybrid facilitation, and most methods are practised both in person and online.