Course Outcomes

This instructor-led facilitation skills training course will:

  • Provide participants with a list of actions they should take to build trust when facilitating discussions, workshops, and meetings.
  • Offer models to understand style preferences.
  • Outline techniques for framing problems, generating ideas, and evaluating those suggestions.
  • Suggest strategies for increasing engagement, balancing discussions, and overcoming common roadblocks.

Course Overview

A skilled facilitator can mean the difference between a fruitful and fruitless discussion, especially when it comes to tough topics. This online, instructor-led virtual course addresses people skills and processes for achieving better outcomes during group discussions. Taught in a workshop format, the interactive program allows participants time to learn new information and practice skills. This course is ideally suited for people who regularly run internal and external meetings where those in attendance have distinct and diverse interests, positions, and points of view.

Segment One Objectives

At this segment’s conclusion, participants should be able to:

  • List the benefits of facilitation.
  • Explain the pluses and minuses of internal versus external facilitators.
  • Describe the parts of the brain as they relate to group dynamics.
  • Recognize and accommodate communication style preferences.
  • Explain factors that influence how people approach conflict resolution.
  • Adapt to low-context, high-context, and mixed communication.
  • Create a group member profile.

Segment One Modules

  • Why Facilitation: The Benefits of Guided Discussions
  • Matters of Hard Wiring: The Brain and Facilitation
  • Style Preferences: Communication Differences
  • Approaches to Conflict Resolution: People and Disagreement
  • Said and Unsaid: Direct and Indirect Conversation
  • People Prep: Homework Matters

Segment Two Objectives

At this segment’s conclusion, participants should be able to:

  • Create a session framing statement.
  • Use a range of tactics to engage group members immediately.
  • Provide people with tools to reduce risk and encourage feedback and engagement.
  • Use tools to assess the current state.
  • Develop a problem statement.
  • Apply divergent and convergent thinking tools.
  • Identify thinking traps and barriers.

Segment Two Modules

  • Ducks in a Row: Content Preparation
  • The Right Foot: Steps for Early Success
  • Facilitation Tools: A Solid Kit
  • Process Problems: Barriers, Traps, Reasoning Flaws

Segment Three Objectives

At this segment’s conclusion, participants should be able to:

  • Explain when and how to use questions when facilitating discussion.
  • Create questions to achieve various objectives.
  • Practice active listening.
  • Apply skills discussed in this course during a facilitation exercise.
  • Troubleshoot common facilitation roadblocks.

Segment Three Modules

  • What Makes a Good Question: Beyond Open and Closed
  • Hearing People: Active Listening Skills
  • Survival Skills: Facilitation Application
  • Troubleshoot: Strategies for Managing Difficult People

By the conclusion of this course, participants should have tools to facilitate meetings more effectively.