Imagine this: Your workshop is buzzing with energy, participants are in small groups collaborating, brainstorming, and ideating like there’s no tomorrow. Suddenly, the timer goes off. It’s time for the dreaded report out. Cue the collective sighs and eye rolls.We’ve all been there. Small group sessions excite everyone, only to be deflated by lackluster report-outs.But fear not! Traditional report-outs don’t have to be as exciting as watching paint dry.With a few clever strategies, we can transform them into the highlight of your workshop, the moment everyone looks […]

Engagement Matters: Tips for Facilitating Large GroupsFacilitating large groups of people in a workshop setting can be both exhilarating and challenging. Effective facilitation is paramount in these sessions to ensure the desired outcomes, navigate emotional ups and downs, and provide participants with a memorable and impactful experience.Here are a few tips for facilitating large groups that will help you maintain engagement and productivity throughout the session while fostering a positive environment for collaboration and action.Facilitator Communication ClarityImportance of Clear, […]

How You Can Influence Meetings, You Do Not Lead.Are you tired of being pulled into last-minute, chaotic meetings that lack purpose, structure, and direction? Do you find yourself sitting through endless discussions that drain your time and leave you feeling frustrated and unproductive?If you’ve experienced the powerlessness of being a passive meeting participant, unable to influence the course of a meeting, you’re not alone. Regardless of their role or seniority, many professionals face the daily challenge of navigating meetings where they are not in the lead role.“How can I influence […]

In today’s fast-paced and complex business environment, it’s an understatement to say that leaders face numerous challenges. In fact, leaders face something even more complex; they face wicked questions. Wicked questions are entangled challenges with no intuitively obvious right or wrong answer or solution. Questions that “bring to light paradoxical-yet-complementary forces that are constantly influencing behaviors.” They require leaders to navigate through two seemingly opposite but equally important dynamics; they powerfully articulate the tension between what might be obvious and […]

What facilitation principles or guidelines do you live by and why? Here are a few for reflection and consideration.embrace emergenceThere is an inherent tension between structure and freedom, focus and flexibility, and all are needed for emergence. Helping the group surface and unlock what is true and real for them is one of the key roles we play as facilitators. As facilitators, we must design to keep a group focused yet allow for emergence and embrace what is revealed. Being overly rigid and/or over-designing sessions will inhibit emergence and leave the group with a feeling that something […]