Help your groups get moving when they get stuck. As facilitators, at one time or another, we will run into a situation where our groups get stuck dead in their tracks. By getting stuck, I mean that the group’s progress seems to have slowed down or stopped, energy is low, participation is spotty, and you get [...]
Use Mistakes as Tools
November 29, 2011 By 7 Comments
Each week after sending out this ezine, I sometimes receive a grateful response to the ideas I share, or a personal story or situation that relates to them. With many issues, I’ll not receive any responses. I’m not complaining. I know we’re all inundated with Internet information and can’t read and respond to everything, nor [...]
Facilitate the Voices in Your Head
October 3, 2011 By 5 Comments
I once designed and led a teleclass entitled , “Not Just Another Meeting,” for a group of 10 UN/AIDS workers in Geneva and it didn’t go all that well. I had a difficult time teasing out their issues and challenges. I prepared a great guidebook with everything I knew and could find on meeting facilitation. [...]
Be a Facilitative Leader
August 22, 2011 By 3 Comments
Many readers have commented to me over the years how facilitation is simply one of many roles they play on their job from time to time. They exercise this role officially when asked to facilitate a meeting, workshop, or retreat. At other times, they may simply be facilitative in the way they show up in the [...]
Is Charismatic Leadership Good for Groups?
August 9, 2011 By 4 Comments
This week’s article, Is Charismatic Leadership Good for Groups?, was inspired by a dialogue with my friend, Lynn Goldhammer, a Lieutenant Commander and Quality Performance Consultant in the Coast Guard. Our discussion got me questioning the value of strong, forceful, and charismatic leadership in the world of facilitation and training. It occurs to me as [...]
12 Acts of Courage to Change Meetings for Good
August 1, 2011 By 2 Comments
Last week I received a fresh shipment of my book, This Meeting Sux. 12 Acts of Courage to Change Meetings for Good. This book answers a call I received several years ago to come to the aid of meeting participants trapped in meetings that aren’t working. In this week’s article, 12 Acts of Courage to [...]
Facilitating Interim Small Groups
July 25, 2011 By 2 Comments
How often have you been invited to be part of a group assembled at a conference, planning session or workshop to explore some small group issue? Often these groups are asked to do their work without an assigned facilitator. How often have you watched groups like this struggle when no one steps in or knows [...]
Fine Points of Sushi Preparation and Consumption
July 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
This week we talk about facilitating challenging “egos” in an article submitted by my friend and colleague, Dr. Eileen Dowse. In Fine Points of Sushi Preparation and Consumption, she reviews the various manifestations of ego, a story of a typical problem ego encounter, and tips for working with big egos in healthy ways. Click here [...]
Success in Needs Assessment Interviews
July 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
How often has a company approached you with absolute certainty about the nature of their problem and what needs to be done to fix it? There is often quite a difference between what people in organizations think they need and what they really need. They’re often too much a part of the dynamic to objectively [...]
Help Participants Participate
July 6, 2011 By 2 Comments
As facilitators and trainers used to participating in groups from the front of the room, we sometimes assume that our participants know what it means to fully participate. This may not be the true. Participants’ good intentions to remain fully involved and engaged may dim as a long workshop or training progresses. One of the [...]
Recent Comments