Facilitation guide
Top things to think about when planning your session
Experienced facilitators from around the Co-op have a range of advice around preparation including to:
- communicate the date, time and brief agenda in a diary invite a few weeks in advance. You should tell people what the session is about, but you do not need to share every detail
- set up your collaboration or working space in advance
- think about questions you will ask to get each discussion or activity going
- if you have more than 3 or 4 people in the group, ask someone to help you group themes during discussions and set the clock on screen
- make sure people can see timings and notes being captured at the point they need it
- allow extra time for facilitating remotely. People do not have the same audio and visual cues as they do face-to-face so it can take longer to do set ups and get a point across.
- keep background information concise but long enough so that everyone understands what is going on
- plan in breaks after 45 mins to an hour. Do not be tempted to ‘get an activity finished’ if you have been going for more than an hour. People will get tired and start to switch off
- make sure people are accountable for any actions
Most importantly, finish on time. It's one of the hardest parts of facilitating and something experienced facilitators struggle with sometimes. You want people to leave on a positive note, not worried that they are going to be late for their next meeting or that you did not discuss something important.
You could also plan a way for people to provide feedback on the session after they’re reflected.
Next section of the facilitation guide
Go to being confident during a session.
Previous section of the facilitation guide
Go to session and workshop design.