Many tCI members are having to look at ways of providing innovative methods to consult and engage with limited resource and are coming to us because they need to ensure that they have the skills to facilitate these methods in-house…

Facilitation is a skill that many of us have and carry out very successfully, however there are a great number of individuals who may think that they possess the skills only to discover when they are faced with a group of individuals who between them all have different agendas, realise that they may not actually have the skills after all.

It sounds an easy task to facilitate, but if you work for the organisation and have been responsible for the planning and execution of the project then you can feel very defensive and this shows in your body language and attitude which can in turn trigger a response from others that is not always positive.

Good facilitators are those who generally say very little and do not have to be experts or the font of all knowledge for that project. The role of the facilitator is to be the guardian of the process, keeping to time, managing behaviours and maintaining a safe environment so that all feel confident to participate in the discussions.

Facilitation is the art, not of putting ideas into people’s heads, but of drawing ideas out…  A good facilitator is one who talks little. When the work is done, the aim fulfilled, they will say, “we did it ourselves”.  LAO TZU 500 BC

Attend our Facilitation for Consultation course to give you more tools in your backpack to ensure that you have the necessary skills to facilitate effectively.