Facilitation Training
On April 20th a day long facilitation training was held as part of From the Ground Up. The training was run by Tree Bressen and Lotus Allen, facilitators/trainers from the Fellowship for Intentional Community.
The purpose of the training was twofold. Firstly, we wanted to have a number of facilitators trained in order to facilitate the breakout groups planned for the Healthy Communities Forum. Secondly, it was an opportunity to have a training that would increase citizens’ skills in group process and decision making.
The training was well attended with a total of forty seven participants including people with different levels of experience and skill, representing diverse issues and groups.
See Appendix I for the handouts that were given to participants of the training.
Facilitation Workshop Agenda
Saturday April 20, 2002 9am to 4pm
(30) Opening
(70) Facilitation: part 1
(10) brainstorm on what the role includes, what do you expect or want from a facilitator?
(20) principles
(15) Facilitator’s Box practice?
(10) Managing open discussions and equalizing input
(15) Interrupting
(15) break
(65) Facilitation: part 2
(20) Working with blocks and concerns
(40) Listening & Reflection practice
(5) refer to ground rules, formats, and roles in handout
(60) LUNCH BREAK, 12-1pm
BIG TRACK:
(15) Light & Lively
(10) Brainstorming
(10) Creative questioning
(25) Agenda for May 4, with goals (presented by Heike and Sharmila from Program Committee)
(25) Consensus
(15) break
(30) Q&A on Facilitation Challenges
SMALL TRACK:
(90) Design Work on breakout sessions
(15) break
(25) Design Work on breakout sessions
TRACKS REJOINED AT 3:10pm
(20) Report-back from small track to big track
(10) Get list of facilitators for May 4
(20) Evaluations & Closing
Evaluation/Participant Input From Facilitation Training
Overall participants stated that the training was a very positive experience. The feedback on the evaluation forms ranged from “great food and drinks” to “a lot of useful info I can put into practice.” The section of the evaluation forms that had numerical ratings was mostly 5’s (Excellent) or 4’s (Very Good), especially in the areas of “content” and “relevance.” There was a general interest in having more opportunities in the future to learn and practice facilitation techniques and related skills, possibly in smaller groups and in ongoing sessions.
Comments included:
“Excellent modelling of facilitation”
“Clearly laid out - I liked the combination of the facilitator speaking, flip-charts and the hand-out”
“Lots of very useful and relevant tips with good examples”
“Covered lots of ground in one day”
“A lot of useful info I can put into practice.”
See Appendix J for the full summary of the evaluation form input.
Analysis and Evaluation of Facilitation Training
Overall the facilitation training was very successful, and as is evident from the evaluations by the participants it was also highly worthwhile. A number of the participants remarked that the training was useful for them personally as well as for the various groups and organizations they are involved in. It was also successful in contributing to the skill and preparedness of those who facilitated the breakout groups at the Healthy Communities Forum. A number of participants mentioned that they were highly impressed with, and inspired by, Tree and Lotus as facilitators and trainers. Working with the FIC on the training worked really well and their skill and knowledge was very much appreciated.
There was a significant interest in future workshops and training in this area and it was suggested that it would be great to have similar workshops on an ongoing basis in the region. The point was also made that, although the FIC trainers were an excellent resource and brought new experience and skills to the community, we could have local people leading workshops in the future. There were also a number of suggestions for improving the training and for any future workshops. These suggestions included:
- Divide the training into separate groups based on levels of experience.
- Have training with smaller groups in order to have more interaction and participation.
- Ensure that there is a lot of time and space made for participants to practice what they are learning, such as doing role plays (eg. mock meetings).
- Have workshop leaders train on specific techniques and skills, as well as for specific contexts (such as facilitating in time sensitive environments).
It is evident that having future workshops and training opportunities on facilitation skills, for people involved in healthy community initiatives, would be very useful (and well attended) in the Waterloo Region (and beyond).