As team lead to a team of 6 external facilitators last week, two truths re-presented themselves to me:

Truth 1: Facilitation is about facilitation and not about telling or advising or consulting. Frequently, facilitators are also management consultants, coaches or knowledge experts. The key to being a successful facilitator is to facilitate! And not to consult, coach or share your knowledge at the outset. Facilitators can add their wisdom and knowledge later on during the workshop or session, and only once there is clear direction to the group being facilitated.

Step by step:

1. Ask, listen, suggest and agree with the group what will happen in the workshop.

2. Ask, listen, suggest and agree with the group how you will achieve the outcomes.

3. Ask, listen, ask, listen, ask, listen to obtain the input you need.

4. Let speakers explain, question and debate.

5. DRIVE THE DISCUSSION TO ACHIEVE THE GOALS by listening, asking and understanding.

6. Your knowledge, experience and advice should be applied ONLY to help clarify deadlocks.

The rest is about the group coming up with the solution or goals!

Miss this, and you fail as a facilitator.

Truth 2: When called upon by your client to facilitate, management is providing a forum for role players to collectively address or resolve a topic or issue. It is the responsibility of client role players to assist in delivering a successful workshop. How? The external facilitator cannot possibly know all the intricacies of the business which inevitably comes into the worksession! Facilitation can only be successful if there is a partnership between the role players and the facilitator. This means, as a facilitator, ask your workshop role players to help you! Role players: don’t set your facilitator up for failure. Workshopping is the forum for using synergy to get to a future level effectively!

Miss this, and your time, venue, session and credibility is wasted.