This is Part Three in a four part series in planning, facilitating, and evaluating a workshop, designed to assist you if you’re new to the world of workshop facilitation or want to find more ways to improve what you’re already doing.

In Part One, we focused on essential things to consider before planning your workshop. In Part Two, we learned how best to structure a workshop for maximum effect, using my workshop breakdown. This week, let’s focus on how to be an effective workshop facilitator. Elements from Part One and Part Two are found throughout Part Three, so make sure to read up on Parts One and Two before diving into Part Three.

While a nicely structured workshop is great, knowing how to be engaging with your workshop material and with your participants is just as important. Regardless of the format (a staff meeting, community group meeting, or an interactive workshop) or your own personality traits, you want your time with your participants to be productive and meaningful.

The role of a workshop facilitator is, in some ways, similar to the role of a symphony conductor. If you’ve ever attended a symphony concert, the conductor stands on a podium, conducting baton in hand, with her back turned to the audience. The conductor is there for a specific purpose: to make sure that that musicians stay on track, making sure that each section of the symphony is able to stand out, as well as blend in nicely with the rest of the symphony.

Like a conductor, your role as the workshop facilitator is to guide the participants as they work towards meeting the objectives of the workshop. You are there to help the participants learn about the workshop topic and to apply it to their current outlook. By putting your personal spin into the workshop, and by planning well in advanced, you can make your participants’ time in your workshop very valuable.

Before we begin, here are some common misconceptions about people who regularly facilitate workshops:

*Workshop facilitators are primarily extroverts: In my personal life, most people would say that I have an introverted personality, and it’s assumed that someone who is introverted wouldn’t want to be “in the spotlight”.  While that may be true for me in certain areas of my personal life, I’m “on” when it’s time to facilitate. This doesn’t me that I’m being fake. What it means is I’m well prepared and I know what I’m talking about. Regardless of your personality, if you know your stuff, plan ahead, and are able to go with the flow when changes are needed, you can be an effective workshop facilitator.

*Workshop facilitators are the authority: You should know as much about your topic as you can, but your role as the facilitator should be more supportive rather than authoritative. Yes, you’re in front of the room and your participants will be expecting you to know more than they do on the topic; however, it’s important to show your participants that you’re there to support their thinking, encourage everyone to contribute to the discussion, and be open to the ways they process the information.

*Workshop facilitators are never anxious: Whether it’s your first time as a facilitator or your 10^th workshop, anxiety always creeps in. Concerns over whether participants will actually show up, having enough copies of handouts, and making sure that you stick to your agenda will always be at the forefront of your mind. There will always be things that are beyond your control. You’ll always deal with some level of anxiety, but try to focus on understanding the needs and the dynamics of your participants in order to help them work together to get the best out of everyone.

Now that we’ve gotten these misconceptions out of the way, let’s look at the important skills that you need to develop to be successful at workshop facilitation: (more…)

(Image: Safe Space aggreements made during my CLPP 2012 workshop, “The Revolution Starts with Me”)

This is Part Two in a four part series in planning, facilitating, and evaluating a workshop, designed to assist you if you’re new to the world of workshop facilitation or want to find more ways to improve what you’re already doing.

In Part One, we focused on essential things to consider before planning your workshop. For Part Two, let’s discuss workshop flow and how best to structure your workshop for maximum impact. Many of the considerations from Part One will be sprinkled throughout Part Two, so be sure to check out Part One.

Before We Begin…

You need to know the topic of your workshop, how you want to get your information across, and as much about your participants as possible. Here are some important questions to think about. Knowing the answers to these questions beforehand will guide you in breaking down your workshop:

Are you facilitating a broad overview of a topic, or are you facilitating a workshop on a particular aspect of it?

Are you expected to focus more on skills building or behavioral change?

Are you facilitating a workshop for volunteers, service providers, or people who are directly impacted by the service or work?

Is attendance mandatory or do the participants have more control over their attendance (i.e., at a conference?)

Are you presenting a new concept that the participants may have some knowledge on, or will the participants be at a more advanced level?

Now that you have the answer to these questions, let’s look at the following scenario, and turn it into a workshop: You are facilitating a workshop on a college campus. Based on statistical data provided by the campus’ health services center, more first-year students are being tested for HIV, yet the percentages of HIV testing are lower for female first-year students.

Remember WWWWWWH? Using the example above, let’s focus on the WHO, WHY, and WHAT:

*WHO: Female first-year college students

*WHAT: HIV testing

*WHY: The percentages of HIV testing are lower among female first-year students

Our topic: HIV testing among first-year female college students

Now that we have our topic, let’s look at how we can develop this into a workshop. Below is a workshop breakdown template that I’ve been using for some time now. Let’s explore it while thinking about our topic. Having a workshop breakdown template comes in handy and can guide you in focusing more on developing your content, and less on figuring out what to do: (more…)

Are you facilitating a workshop for the first time? Do you have experience with facilitating workshops but want learn other ways to hone your development or facilitation skills? There’s a lot that goes into a workshop, including logistics, anticipating what questions or insights may come up during your workshop, and how you will measure the workshop’s effectiveness based on participant feedback. This is Part One in a four part series on planning, facilitating, and evaluating a workshop, designed to assist you if you’re new to the world of workshop facilitation or want to find more ways to improve what you’re already doing. This week, let’s discuss some things to consider when planning your workshop.

Why workshops?

Workshops are a great way to share information with others in a short amount of time. They can be hands-on, full of discussion,  an ideas generator, connects like-minded and open-minded people, and what participants learn can be sent back to their offices, homes, campuses, or communities. The best part of facilitating workshops is seeing the “a-ha” moments participants can get, and most of the time these insights come from the participants themselves, rather than from the facilitator. I’ve been developing workshops and facilitating them for a while, and one thing is always constant:

Things probably won’t go as planned

There’s going to be some type of hiccup during your workshop. 35 participants are signed up, and only 6 are in attendance. Your workshop is tailored to participants who have a working knowledge of the topic, but when the workshop begins you see that most participants are being introduced to the topic for the first time. You were informed when you signed up that you’re allotted 90 minutes for your workshop, but on arrival to your venue, you discover that that it’s been shortened to 45 minutes. Things happen, and you need to be prepared. Here are some important things to consider: (more…)