Reading time

3 mins

Who is it for

Professionals that facilitate as part of their everyday job but they want to get an overview of the field to improve their work

Have you ever wondered what is facilitation? What positions do facilitators have? Why are they relevant in designing processes? What skills and tools do you need to become a facilitator? In this blog post we have designed the perfect #facilitation101 guide to give you answers what it is, why facilitation matters and the skills and tools you need to start out! 

We must say that this started thanks to an insight within the Triggers team that identified that a lot of people we knew working in corporate and non-corporate jobs were facilitating in their day to day but were unsure of what facilitation was?

So, let’s start with the basics: what is it?

Let’s first begin by defining the term… The word originally comes from the French faciliter which means to make easy or simplify. However maybe this definition give a little more context:

What value does a facilitator give?

The presence of a facilitator can be found in infinite contexts like brainstorming or reflection workshops, meetings or even in teaching and can contribute in improving these areas:

Stakeholder engagement, Strategy design, Action planning, Process/Issue mapping, Problem solving, Conflict resolution, Project/Activity Prioritization, Visualization, Team building

A good facilitation can lead to.....

1. Team optimization

2. Run more effective meetings

3. Increase awareness

4. Identify key issues 

All situations benefit from the involvement of a person that is (or plays being) impartial and their only objective is focus on getting the best possible outcome for business. Do you feel identified so far? Let 's continue…

Tools you need

There is a lot to tackle when it comes to tools and the fact is that the industry has changed a lot recently due to technology and the conditions of the pandemic. Before the world stopped for some months a lot of the practice of facilitation was done in person, but we’ve seen a recent surge of the industry shift online… 

Besides this, regardless of whether you are facilitating in person or digitally, there will always be physical objects/tools you need and then there is your toolkit. As a professional you will need this toolkit (which are the activities and techniques at your disposal when designing a session) and it really changes depending on your experience, role and goals and might take you years to perfect. There are many resources that can help you find ideas to help you start (and our ideation cards could help you out). Despite this the tangible tools you need don’t vary as much… These are suggestions of the materials you might need to make your toolkit come to life.

Check out our ideation cards that be a great resource for online and offline sessions

Let’s start with the overview of offline traditional tools and our more updated take on digital tools we use daily:

If we talk about the physical facilitation settings this might be a whiteboard, some paper, post-its (these are the most common) but you can really use other objects such as balloons, blocks… and be creative with them.

But we do agree that virtual sessions are becoming the norm and it is very important to show some of the tools that are used for managing online workshops. The basic physical materials needed in these settings are a computer/laptop and a camera however let’s dive into digital software… 

1. To create video meetings: Google Meet, Zoom

2. Make online video more dynamic: mmhmm

3. To carry out activities: Miro, MURAL

Useful Skills

If you want to start out you might want to know what are the abilities needed to become a good professional. Overall, you should be good at:

1. Listening

2. Questioning

3. Problem solving

4. Resolving conflict

5. Using a participative style

6. Unbiased view

7. Empathizing
   
   

These skills lead to building better high-performance teams that work together in any setting and will help you achieve better results.

If you are looking for more information shoot us check out our facilitation courses, follow us on socials or shoot us an email!

On a final note, Hogan described facilitation by saying the following: “It’s about helping people engage in, manage and cope creatively with the rapid changes within themselves, their communities and the globe” — so why wouldn’t you want to learn more about facilitation?

In summary