Facilitator Magic

According to Wikipedia, a facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them in achieving the objectives without taking a particular position in the discussion. It is important to not take a position but remain neutral and objective in order to make quality decisions about controlling the group. The facilitator eases the flow of communication between members of the group. Good facilitation practice is particularly important when training adults. Do you want to be a great facilitator and work magic? Here are ten tips to get you started: 1. Make your participants feel welcome and happy they came to your session. 2. Use unique techniques that keep them wide awake for the total time. 3. Use techniques to keep them actively and emotionally engaged. 4. Always make them feel like they are contributing to the success of the session. 5. Always make the material easy to comprehend and grasp. 6. Manage the session by controlling motor mouths but don’t intimidate them. 7. Make the discussions realistic and interesting by using real work place situations. 8. When people say, “I don’t know,” help them come up with the right answer and then praise them as if they knew all along. 9. Give the participants plenty of “take away” techniques they can put into practice immediately. 10. Always provide an answer to their questions even if you have to research and provide it later.