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 how to step in to keep them on course?
In situations like this, I’ve often thought it would be a great gift to suggest someone take the lead facilitating these groups and that they be offered a short primer for how to do so. A simple model that so practical and easy to remember that they could actually use it.
In this week’s article, Facilitating Interim Small Groups, I’ve taken on the task of designing just such a simple model and outlined it below. I look forward to any feedback you have that might help refine this for use in interim small group leadership. Click here to read full article.
I am finally getting around to some of the emails I had to skip this summer and really enjoyed this exercise you’ve started. I would love to see the final product.
I often am leading a group in conversation and need to split into “small group discussions” that I think could use some facilitation. Wouldn’t it be AWESOME to be able to do a five minute training with volunteers while others take a bathroom break? Are there a couple of experiential techniques we could use to quickly illustrate best practices and then hand out a cheat sheet and let them go at it?
I might consider adding something about managing time. I know you mentioned a time keeper, but time keeping needs to be managed throughout, not just to know when you’re done. Oh, and managing energy–that’s key. From focus, to participation, to progress through the assigned topic.
Glad you liked this one Celeste. I’ve not taken this any farther, I guess I like the simplicity of it as is. What would you add to this to make it useful for new small group facilitators? As for experiential techniques around learning basic facilitation, I think modelling is the best. Perhaps you could facilitate a small group in front of the room (as in fishbowl style) to illustrate some of the things we’re talking about here.
Yes, as for timekeepers, definitely let them know how you want them to support you. And there’s no reason you can’t assign an energy or participation monitor either for that matter!