Facilitation means to make something easy for others; and excellent facilitators help a group understand what is being taught through proactively engaging the audience with thought-provoking questions and other exercises. In fact, this can mean the difference between a boring lecture and a fascinating presentation.
Additionally, a strong facilitator can make a huge difference in how much the audience pays attention and remembers what was being presented and discussed.
If you feel your facilitation skills are not as effective as they could be, you might want to consider reading the 5 tips listed below.
The 5 Tips For Increasing Your Facilitation Skills Are:
1. Get Your Audience Actively Involved Quickly - Make the content appear relevant to your audience in order to generate buy-in. Also, demonstrate your interest in them by immediately using techniques to get them to participate.
2. Ask Open-Ended Questions - While it can be tempting to ask questions that have a "yes" or "no" answer, doing so does not allow participants to reach their full potential. Asking thought-provoking open-ended questions will require participants to think harder and process what he or she has heard so far. It requires a level of creativity and is ultimately more satisfying for both the presenter and the participants.
3. Energize Your Audience After A Break - When most people come back from a long break with a meal, they may feel tired. Discourage this by engaging the audience in a physical activity. Choose an energizing icebreaker that you can use to get them up, get them excited and encourage them to meet new people.
4. Encourage Your Audience To Ask Questions - Every group is different, but more often than not, people are afraid to ask questions. If you ask the audience, "Who has a question?" and your response is silence, try this exercise: Give everyone an index card and ask them to write a question down that a confused person might ask. Then ask participants to turn the card over and pass it to someone else. Have them keep passing the cards around until you say, "Stop!" (after about 15 seconds). Then make sure that everyone has a card. Now, select a participant at random and ask them to read the question on the card. Give a brief answer and continue by selecting another participant.
5. Close Your Session Properly - The key to closing a session properly is to think of it as a journey that has a beginning, middle and end. When the participants walk out the door, they should feel that it is now their journey to carry forward. Your closing should include the following: Restate the general direction of the session; highlight key points and summarize the discussion and emphasize what the group has learned or accomplished. Also, you want to: Tell the group how much you enjoyed their involvement; congratulate them for a job well done and encourage them to act or use what they have learned. Furthermore, you should ask for feedback and give participants a chance to evaluate the session.
Summary: The ideal learning environment is generally hands-on rather than hands-off. And research has proven that sitting down for long periods of time is not conducive to learning. Remember these tips and come up with your own creative ideas for facilitating a fantastic meeting or training session.
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