Great Facilitators

I like this post from Ellen over at Brain Based Business called, Five Faces of Effective Facilitators. To her fine list of five I would like to disagree with one and add one.

Here's Ellen's #2 "Face":

2. Blind to people’s differences or quirks.  Facilitators possess capability to integrate relevant parts of diverse offerings – and then suggest plans to use many of these.

I don't agree with this (but I suspect we agree on the overall point). I think a great facilitator is very aware of differences and quirks and modifies things to both accommodate individual needs and bring out everyone's participation. When I work with a group, I like to model being open about differences so that the group can help each other feel connected and heard. I have even been known to call out quirks (in the right way) because I want people to get comfortable talking about their strengths and weaknesses.

The "face" I would like to add is:

6. Acts with courage and models courage. Facilitators need to help build people's capacities for acting with courage by role modeling it. In addition, if no one in the meeting is saying what needs to be said, often the facilitator can get the ball rolling (the great conversation ball) for the group by asking a question or sharing an observation that other's are likely thinking but are too chicken to verbalize.

Comments

[ellen weber]

Lisa -- Hi and thanks for the point. Yes -- you are right and you've said it better than me! I think to be blind to what you see - you must be deeply aware. You are so right.

My point being that facilitators look beyond the barriers of appearances that stop the flow of great ideas - from those who faciliate beyond these. nuff said -- you win!

Great to see you back Lisa! You're a hero to many of us!

[Terrence Seamon]

Lisa,
Thanks for the link to Ellen's posting. I like her 5, as well as you addition.

I'd add one more:

7. Focused - Facilitators help the groups they work with to stay focused on task and on goal. As a group goes along, it's not unusual for it to hit bumps in the road, to take side trips, and even to de-rail at times. An effective facilitator knows how to help a group recover and get back on track.

Cheers!

Terry

[Lisa Haneberg]

Terry - I like #7 a lot. Focus is KEY. So here's a question, how do you train facilitators to excel at these 7 skills? And do most train the trainers do the job?