[F4] Formats 2

Pre-requisite Courses

F1 and F2, or M2

Course Description

Like our other format training, F3, this training course equips you to use five more formats to work with groups. 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 you guide.

The five practical arrangements in this additional Format training are a bit more elaborate than the ones you can learn in F3. Therefore, they will test your facilitation and moderating skills just that bit extra. Similarly, though, you need to be able to choose the right format for the right circumstances and then execute them 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 practising the formats during the training and receiving feedback on giving the correct instructions to make them work.

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:

• Fishbowl
• Debate(s)
• Posters that Speak
• Body Vote
• Nautilus™ – Into the Core

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 the next essential training in your next step towards becoming a proficient facilitator or moderator. Therefore, it is one of the obligatory courses to climb up the four learning trees 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.

Words from Your Guide

Mike van der Vijver

My hope is that both Format trainings will prove so contagious that all learners will want to follow both of them. AMA’s objective is to equip all learners with the best possible skill set. Feeling comfortable with a great variety of formats is one of these skills.