Facilitation: The Effective Facilitator

Audience

Managers who want to understand the behaviors and strategies of an effective facilitator.

Objective

• Differentiate between facilitation and leadership.
• Apply behaviors to succeed as a facilitator.
• Enhance their credibility as a facilitator using neutrality.
• Apply techniques to show assertiveness during a meeting.
• Apply guidelines for asking appropriate questions and offering appropriate feedback.

Topics Include

Unit 1: Background Information

• Define facilitation.
• Differentiate between a meeting's content and its structure.
• List the benefits of using facilitators.
• Identify the types of assignments facilitators handle.
• Differentiate between facilitation and leadership.
• Simulation Overview:
• In this simulation you will meet with Janet Porter Icon's Director of Business Development. Through your questions you will discover the purpose of facilitation and learn the benefits of using facilitators. You will also learn how to differentiate between a meeting's content and its structure as well as how to differentiate between facilitation and leadership.

Unit 2: Facilitative Characteristics and Responsibilities

• Identify the skills required for facilitation.
• Apply behaviors to succeed as a facilitator.
• Identify the responsibilities of a facilitator.
• Identify the functions that a facilitator serves during a meeting.
• Differentiate among internal and external facilitators.
• Simulation Overview:
• In this simulation you will meet with Nathan Iverson Amanda Douglas and Mike Becker three of Icon's Account Executives. Your department's revenues have been declining steadily over the last six months. The four of you are responsible for creating a plan to increase the team's sales volume during the next quarter. Although you are a member of the team you will facilitate this meeting to encourage new thinking on the problem.

Unit 3: Facilitative Strategies

• Facilitate a meeting using verbal strategies.
• Facilitate a meeting using nonverbal strategies.
• Enhance your credibility as a facilitator using neutrality.
• Apply techniques to show assertiveness during a meeting.
• Simulation Overview:
• In this simulation you will meet with Nathan Iverson Amanda Douglas and Mike Becker three Icon Account Executives. The four of you are reconvening a meeting in which you were discussing how the team should establish its quarterly sales goals. Although you are a member of the team you will be facilitating the meeting and suggesting different strategies to help the team reach a consensus.

Unit 4: Facilitative Behaviors

• Differentiate among the types of facilitative questions.
• Apply guidelines to ask appropriate questions.
• Apply guidelines to offer appropriate feedback.
• Follow the guidelines of accepting feedback.
• Identify the purpose of recording information.
• Use a flipchart effectively.
• Simulation Overview:
• In this simulation you will meet with Amanda Douglas Mike Becker and Nathan Iverson three Account Executives. The four of you have agreed to implement a plan to increase the department's sales goal by establishing individual performance standards. It has been one day since the decision was made and the team is reconvening to decide how to implement the new plan. You will be facilitating the meeting since it is your responsibility to help the team implement the new plan.

Duration

4

Minimum Requirements

The CDROM version of this course requires:

• At least a 486DX 33Mhz CPU.
• Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher and a Microsoft compatible mouse.
• At least 8MB RAM.
• At least VGA graphics capability with a minimum 512K video RAM (1MB video RAM recommended).
• At least a double speed CDROM drive.
• An MPC compliant sound card with attached speakers or headphones is recommended (Currently only the CDROM version supports audio).

• At least a 486DX 33Mhz CPU.
• Microsoft Windows 3.1 or higher and a Microsoft compatible mouse.
• At least 8MB RAM and 22MB available hard disk space or file server space.
• At least VGA graphics capability with a minimum 512K video RAM (1MB video RAM recommended).

Media