[F1] Introduction to Facilitation (Bilingual)

Course Description

This is your opportunity to get introduced to the world of AMA: our content, our vision of how meetings should work and our teaching style. Meetings shape decisions, drive collaboration and ultimately determine how effectively an organisation performs. Therefore, the ability to lead them well is a crucial competence in any organisation. In just two days, you will fundamentally shift how you approach meetings. Expect a highly interactive, fast-paced experience that equips you with tools you can apply the very next day.

Three Highlights

1. Learn through smell, touch and sight, so that theory is not only heard, but directly experienced.
2. Learn Orange Gibbon’s unique 3 Es: Effectiveness, Efficiency and Energy.
3. Look at meetings differently and grasp the basic principles of design.

Modules

In this training, we cover:

• Introductions
• Distinguishing poor from good meetings
• What is a meeting anyway?
• Facilitation defined
• The tasks of a facilitator
• The 4 Ps
• The competencies of a facilitator
• Objectives and outcomes
• Preparation
• Post-meeting
• Energizers

Course Objectives

You will learn how to create sessions that live up to our simple formula of the three Es:

1. Effective – delivering clear, meaningful outcomes
2. Efficient – making the best possible use of time
3. Energising – keeping participants engaged and contributing

Most importantly, you will not learn the theory behind the three Es - you will learn to apply the formula in practice.

Who is it for? Who is it NOT for?

This training is potentially for EVERYONE. Think about it: meetings play a vital role in all organisations: private, public, NGO or association - meetings happen everywhere. Therefore, learning how to conduct the participants towards meaningful results is a competency everyone should learn. That includes managers in general, team leaders, project leaders, etc, etc.

The only exceptions are people who are firmly convinced that nothing can be improved about the meetings in their organisation. And we would still disagree with that...

Professional and Organisational Impact

This training gives you the insights and the practical tools to start leading meetings more effectively. Especially those who lead teams or projects will see their day-to-day work benefit immediately.

Creating a meeting culture, based on the principles of facilitation, will help your entire organisation become leaner and more agile. That is why we often deliver this training course to batches of learners from all corners of an organisation. That creates the drive for the whole organisation to shift from meetings as energy drains that waste many people's time, to an instrument for effective management.

What are we going to do in class?

Practice, practice and then practice even more! There are no PowerPoint presentations in the programme. All the know-how is shared thanks to the participants actually doing facilitation exercises from beginning to end. And that includes targeted exercises to teach the main concepts underpinning facilitation. You will be on a fast learning track, with exceptionally high levels of peer-to-peer learning and guided by our experienced trainers.

Reading List

1. Priya Parker, The Art of Gathering, How We Meet and Why It Matters, Penguin Random House, London, UK, 2018
2. ngrid Bens, Facilitation at a Glance!: Your Pocket Guide to Facilitation US, 2012

Words from Your Guide

Mike Van der Vijver

Meetings shouldn’t be something people endure. Done well, they can become one of the most productive and enjoyable parts of work. I enjoy introducing people to the beautiful art of meeting facilitation because it really makes a change in their day-to-day working life. The content stems from decades of experience, where I have myself attended or led hundreds of meetings, becoming convinced that many things people do in meetings seem common sense, but, in fact, aren't. It is always a pleasure to see how the stories I have collected over the years provide moments of insight for the group of participants. The training is a modest attempt at making the world a little bit more beautiful.

Chia Lun Huang

Meetings are how we make progress and meaning out of our daily existence. Sometimes it just takes a little shift of perspective, a redesign of the format or adding a dose of interaction to build the connection and unleash the energy within. Sharing some of the experiences that I have accumulated so far, I hope this course can empower participants to make their meetings a little different and better than before.