Next up – facilitation! We love facilitating small and large groups as we strive to engage participants in meaningful dialogue to accomplish a goal.
During the pandemic, we had to quickly adapt and grow our toolbox of virtual facilitation techniques to ensure that our participants get the most out of these sessions. With one of our clients, The Elgin Community Drug and Alcohol Strategy, we engaged in virtual facilitated sessions with their four pillar workgroups to review community consultation findings and identify short and long term priorities. We used a program called Mural (a virtual whiteboard) to engage our participants in the priorization process using tools including a PICK chart and the Covey Matrix. Participants told us that not only were these sessions engaging but also how they were surprised in terms of how much we could accomplish in only 2 hours together!
There are so many examples of situations when a facilitation session is a good option! Sometimes organizations feel as though something is not working, that improvements are required but they can’t necessarily pinpoint what to fix and where to start. We have had the opportunity to support several organizations with a needs assessment process that first starts by gathering information from key sources including individuals, enviornmental scan, reserach etc.and then connecting via facilitated session(s) to review the information gathered, identify solutions and prioritze actions. Organizations not only value having us as an objective third party to support this process, they also see the value in the expertise we bring to move the planning and facilitation along at an organized and rapid pace.
Our clients are now starting to request most in-person facilitated sessions and we are currently prepping for a full-day in-person facilitation in the next few weeks. I know some of you can’t wait to dust off those old post-its and start putting them on walls!!
There are so many projects where facilitation is the key to moving something great forward – if you have ever felt stuck in your work, facilitation may be what you need!