The art of facilitation
In this sixth chapter, Jari Ylitalo discusses facilitation in super-practical level. The focus of this chapter is on a single event/workshop/meeting level, and how can you be the best possible facilitator in those situations. Jari has years of experience as a leadership development professional and as a facilitator, and in this lecture he shares the best tips and things to consider, based on his theoretical knowledge and real life experience.
Content
- What is facilitating?
- The process of facilitation
- Adding probability for success
- Preparation when facilitating
- Maintaining flow when facilitating
- Closing when facilitating
- Further readings
- Exercise
The lecture slides for all the videos in this chapter can be downloaded from here.
1. What is facilitating
The chapter starts by discussing what actually is facilitation?
2. The process of facilitation
After defining the term, the process of facilitation is explained, focusing on facilitating a single event to keep the lecture practical.
3. Adding probability for success
In the third video, Jari gives his best tips on what you should consider to make the chances of succeeding as high as possible.
4. Preparation when facilitating
After the introduction, each step of the facilitation process is discussed separately, starting from preparation and discussing how to maintain the flow when facilitating, before shortly discussing the closing of the workshop.
5. Maintaining flow when facilitating
6. Closing when facilitating
Further readings
Exercise
The exercises were part of the course in spring 2020, originally done in pairs and submitted by email to receive credits from the course. In this online handbook, the exercises cannot be submitted for feedback, as it is not possible to receive credits. Yet we highly encourage you to check the exercises, and do, or at least think about them. They are best done with a pair, for example a colleague or a fellow student, but can also be done alone, thinking of your own current situation.
This chapter’s exercise is about reflecting your course experience this far. If you have been going through the material with a partner it is especially good to have a reflection, but stopping even for just a minute to reflect your learnings is helpful even if you are just scrolling through the material on your own.
