Facilitation and chairing made easy
Overview
Ask yourself:
- When you hear the word ‘meeting’ do you think ‘oh no’ and your heart sinks?
- Do you go to more meetings that you want to?
- Do you personally run meetings where you are totally confident that all who come to them would rate them as highly relevant and fully engaging?
- Do you believe that getting meetings and events ‘right’ is essential to business success?
If you answered “Yes, Yes, No, YES” then this course is for you.
Along with the mountain of emails and madly busy diaries, meetings have a poor reputation in many organisations. Yet harnessing the power of groups is at the heart of making the journey from inspiration to implementation – from having great ideas to getting things done.
Facilitators are increasingly used to help meetings run well, often brought (and bought) in from outside. Now, at a time when the need for effective meetings has never been higher, the resources for professional and independent help can be very tight.
This course gives you the opportunity to increase your own skills in designing and running great meetings and events.
Who is the course for?
This course is for anybody who has to design and run meetings – whether these are team meetings, board meetings, brainstorming workshops, problem-solving sessions, training events or other times you need to get people in a room to work together.
It’s great if you can come to the course with one or more colleagues as this will allow you to support each other after the course in putting the learning into practice. We offer a discounted rate to encourage this.
Learning objectives
The training brings together theory, top tips, group exercises and in depth reflection. Each person gets a go in running a group meeting and receives feedback from their fellow participants and course leaders on their role and interventions. The course is a blend of many different ways of working that appeal to all learning styles and personalities.
By going on the course you will:
- develop skills for designing and running your own meetings
- be able to manage group dynamics and diverse personalities
- know how to handle difficult questions or awkward participants
- gain confidence in speaking within a group and delivering your own inputs
- have ideas to help colleagues with their meetings, as facilitator or participant
- save money by minimising spend on consultants and improving team productivity
- reduce the stress associated with overloaded diaries full of poorly designed meetings.
All of this will give you better results from all sorts of meetings that you run or take part in.
Style
- Forthright, informative, interactive, high energy - and hopefully enjoyable!
- Caring - and maybe a bit challenging
- Flexible, with various choices for everyone
- Activities for different preferred ways of working and learning
- All get to practice and all get expert feedback
- Experience in groups of different sizes and composition
- Dress as you feel relaxed
Maximum number of delegates
16 people
Pre-work
A questionnaire is sent out before the course to understand the skills you have, the type of work you’re involved with and what you hope to gain from the course.
Programme
(0845-1700)
Coffee and arrival activities
Welcome and introduction
Starting well
Practice session #1 and debrief
“What we know about….good feedback”
Practice session #2, debrief and top tips - “Addressing our questions”
Break
What is facilitation – and why does it matter
Practice session #3, debrief and top tips - “To this moment…”
Practice Session #4, debrief and top tips - “Reviewing this morning”
Lunch
Practice Session #5, debrief and top tips - “Energising a group”
Practice Session #6, debrief and top tips - “Options for handling facilitation nightmares”
Tea
Practice Session #7, debrief and top tips - “Planning my meetings”
Preparing to end
Close
Follow-up
You will be sent an email version of all the slides in the workpack and also any materials/outputs generated during the course. Idenk coaches are available to answer any follow-up questions by email or phone. A survey 8-10 weeks after the programme will get your feedback on how you’ve been able to put the learning into practice.
We can also offer further help in the form of individual coaching or learning sets where requested.
