[F3] Formats 1

Pre-requisite Courses

F1 and F2, or M2

Course Description

Formats are what facilitators and moderators offer participants in order to achieve the goals of the meeting. They are the tools in the meeting guide’s toolkit. They are what participants will actually be doing during the meeting, workshop, or conference. You guide.

This training teaches five of these practical arrangements which you need to choose carefully and then execute with mastery. Therefore, the training pays attention to both the reasons for the context in which formats may (or may not!) be appropriate, as well as to the proper way of making the most out of them. So, that means – as usual – putting the formats in practice during the training, down to the minute level, of giving participants the right instructions.

Three Highlights

1. Dive into five totally different formats to work as a facilitator or moderator.
2. Discover the minute details of all five.
3. Appreciate how a variety of activities you offer to meeting participants can create different outcomes and energy.

Modules

In this course, we cover:

• Gallery Walk
• Story Cubes
• Pecha Kucha
• The Six Thinking Hats (based on Edward de Bono)
• Bull's Eye!™ – From opinions to alignment

Course Objectives

1. Build on the general facilitation or moderation skills you have acquired and make them work in practice.
2. Practice five formats so that you know when and how to use them.
3. Leave with the confidence that you can guide a group through these activities.

Who is it for? Who is it NOT for?

This training is the logical next step after the general trainings you may have followed with AMA. It is fit for those who want to fill their toolbox with a variety of practical activities to choose from when working with groups of participants. Each format has situations where it is appropriate to use it and others where it isn’t. You need to learn to recognise these moments.

Spoiler alert: using a good tool is not the same as good facilitation or moderation! Maslow’s Law of the Hammer is highly relevant to this training and to facilitation in general: “It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”  It is important to have a repertoire of formats, but it is even more important to grasp when to use them. So if you think facilitation is a “trick” that consists of giving participants a couple of clever tools, this training is not for you! 

Professional and Organisational Impact

This is an essential training in your next step towards becoming a proficient facilitator or moderator. Therefore, it is part of the obligatory courses to climb up your learning tree and obtain AMA certification.

This one-day immersion will grow your professional confidence in facilitating or moderating groups of meeting participants.

For your organisation, it is of great importance to gain a repertoire of formats that you can use under the right circumstances. This allows your organisation to grow towards a more effective meeting culture.

What are we going to do in class?

Very simple: we are going to learn the purpose of each of the formats, the appropriate circumstances for using them, the steps when using them and then: practice!

Reading List

Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo, Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers.

Alumni Reconnect

One month after the course, this cohort will be invited to an optional online reconnect session with your guide. Join if you would like to share what happened when you applied what you learned, discuss obstacles you encountered, and receive further guidance for your practice.