Facilitation Skills

Duration: 2 days
Delivery: Open Course for individuals or in-house option for organisations
Dates: 3rd – 4th September 2013
Location: Booths Hall, Knutsford, Cheshire
Price: £520.00 (exc. VAT)
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Facilitation Skills Training Courses

Facilitation Training

 

Perhaps you were intrigued by our facilitation services in our Consulting pages and are wondering whether it’s possible to train some of your people how to do facilitation, or perhaps become a facilitator at practitioner level. Embedding facilitation skills into your organisation will make a world of difference to the results you and your team achieve.

Facilitation training can help you to:

  • Increase productivity and energy levels in your team
  • Significantly enhance the performance of your department or team
  • Manage difficult personalities more effectively
  • Resolve group conflict with better outcomes
  • Apply a variety of practical strategies to effectively manage group dynamics.
  • Make higher quality decisions, and have fun in the process
  •  Learn, refine and demonstrate active listening skills to improve communication
  • Apply a wide variety of strategies, approaches and techniques to manage workshop participants
  • Enhance creativity, generate and evaluate ideas and explore and assess potential solutions
  • Gain commitment, obtain consensus and agreement from your team
  • Design and deliver Joint Application Design/Development (JAD) workshops
  • Courses are available at foundation level (2 days) or practitioner level (5 days).

Who will our Facilitation Skills Course help?

 

Trained and experienced independent facilitators can develop a wide range of skills and techniques within their repertoire such as group development and group dynamics, advanced communication skills, advanced listening skills, conflict resolution skills etc.

Facilitation training can be particularly powerful and effective in situations that are characterised by multi-direction communication, complex stakeholder environments and highly-charged politically sensitive or contentious discussions. Facilitation can be an equally effective and powerful way to define organisational visions, develop and validate strategy, get employee input, and a whole host of other applications.

This may be for you if you work as a Business Analyst, Project Manager, Team Leader, Change Manager, Change Agent or Senior Manager. Alternatively our Facilitation Skills course is also helpful if you generally want to improve the performance of your team or department, radically improve the quality and effectiveness of meetings, and significantly enhance your career progression by becoming a trained facilitator. The course will also benefit existing facilitators wishing to enhance, refine or update their skills.

Facilitation Training Course Content

  • Workshop Design and Preparation

Understanding Stakeholders and Sponsorship
Stakeholder Analysis & Resolving Stakeholder Issues
Effective Agendas
Process Walkthroughs, Structure and Timings
Slides, Flipcharts and Visual Aids
Pre-Workshop Checklist

      • Workshop Facilitation

Active Listening Skills
The Importance of Body Language
Managing Group and Group Dynamics
Handling Difficult Personalities
Defusing Difficult Situations
Using language for Influence
Techniques to Create and Maintain Group Rapport
Effective Workshop Closure

      • The Facilitation Toolkit

Understanding the Principles and Processes of Change
Leverage, Tipping Points and Stretch
Icebreakers & Energisers
Techniques for Problem Exploration and Definition
Idea Generation and Classification
Ideas Evaluation and Selection
Techniques for Voting and Obtaining Consensus
Solution Exploration and Assessment
Facilitating Organisational Change

      • Facilitation Training Workshop Follow-Up

Next Steps
Process Evaluation
Reflective Practice
Communities of Practice
Networks and Resources

Book Facilitation Training Online Today and view our payment terms and conditions here.

Should you wish to organise our Facilitation Skills course as a bespoke training course for your organisation or if you wish to take our 5 day course to train as a facilitator at practitioner level, please contact us today for a tailored proposal and quotation.

What does 'facilitation skills training' refer to?

What does 'facilitation skills training' refer to?

Facilitation skills training refers to empowering individuals with the skills they need to become an effective communicator and negotiator in order to help individuals or groups with decision making processes.

If you think that your business or organisation doesn't need your employees to have facilitation skills training, then take a moment to recall the last few meetings that you've been involved in and ask yourself these questions:

  1. Were they effective?
  2. Did you reach the outcome that you were hoping for? Or even any outcome at all?
  3. Were any goals or aims set out at the start of the meeting?
  4. Most importantly, did you feel - or did you recognise in other participants in the meeting - that things dragged needlessly, got bogged down in conflicts or took up more time and energy than necessary?

Your answers to these questions should highlight how effective and productive your meeting and group sessions are without facilitation skills training. If you start thinking that this is an area where your business or organisation could do with some help, then perhaps you should consider sending one or more suitable candidates along for facilitation skills training. After all, wasting energy, time and resources becomes expensive, frustrating and de-motivating for everyone concerned, not just the boss.

Who should go on facilitation courses?

Facilitation courses are, in the first instance, designed for people who routinely take charge of workshops and meeting or any other environment where decision making is required of a group of people.

Facilitation courses are also useful when other factors aside from decision making are the focus. Strategy meetings, for example, benefit from the presence of a skilled facilitator, as do brainstorming meetings where the emphasis is on creativity and vision.

Those who learn new skills on facilitation courses are better positioned to understand how to bring people together, how to communicate more effectively and how to diffuse complex situations where conflict threatens to get out of control.

Ultimately, every business or organisation benefits from having a person who has attended facilitation courses because they now have, in their direct employ, an individual whose sole purpose is to help people work together more effectively.

The skills gained during facilitation courses are useful in times of greater challenge, because a good facilitator will be neutral and recognise the importance of transparency (generally one of the first things to decline during difficult times in organisations, yet one of the most important) and fair communication when it matters the most.

Why should I enrol on facilitation skills courses with Watt Works?

When you enrol on facilitation skills courses you can rest in the knowledge that you, or the individual you have sent on our facilitation skills courses, will be receiving quality training.

The quality training all our course participants receive on our facilitation skills courses means that they all leave with the skills they need to make their workplaces a more effective, productive, and happy place for everyone. It is always better to proactive rather than reactive, meaning that the qualities developed on facilitation skills courses are just as essential in times of harmony as they are in times of strife. So don't wait for the tough times to hit, contact Watt Works today about our facilitation skills courses.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

For more information on any of our training services call us on +44 (0) 1565 759 893

All of our training services are designed to provide world-class experiences in learning and development.


We place extra emphasis on ensuring that participants on our courses have a superior learning experience that they are able to fully integrate in their personal and professional lives.


We provide pre-course preparation material, as well as a series of weekly and monthly follow ups and quizzes to ensure you make the most of your time with us.


All our courses are available via our open programme, or can be tailored extensivley to suit the needs of your organisation via in-house delivery.


Book a place on one of our open programme courses today...
More about courses
“"A facilitator is an individual who enables groups and organizations to work more effectively; to collaborate and achieve synergy. She or he is a 'content neutral' party who by not taking sides or expressing or advocating a point of view during the meeting, can advocate for fair, open, and inclusive procedures to accomplish the group's work."”
Michael Doyle

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Watt Works Consulting Ltd Booths Hall, Chelford Road, Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 8GS, England, United Kingdom T +44 (0)1565 759 893