Understanding The Crucial Role Of Facilitators Within Companies

Facilitation is the process of making something easier or more possible. And, an effective facilitator uses their skills and experience as a protector of this process.

Increased pressure on companies to innovate and generate results makes the need for facilitators even more fundamental to the operation of companies. In this facilitation skills training for new facilitators, we focus on the main obstacles to effective facilitation skills, the facilitation process, a range of facilitation techniques, a practical and effective facilitation process, and the benefits of effective facilitation skills.

You can now download this off-the-shelf and customizable training course on facilitation skills and use it to instruct your own learners to become effective faciltators.

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Course Description

All companies, even those with highly trained staff, require employees with excellent facilitators to succeed. By developing facilitators, they will be better positioned to bolster their company’s organizational objectives.

In this training course for facilitators,  learners will discover the latest best practices and an effective facilitation process. Through hands-on exercises and examples, new facilitators will also be introduced to various facilitation techniques and will learn about the benefits of effective facilitation skills. By improving their facilitation skills, they will also be more prepared to advance the objectives of the organization.

Designed to be accessible for all categories of employees, learners will be able to identify the main obstacles to effective facilitation skills and they will understand the facilitation process.

Through engaging training material, discussion, and exercises, learners will also be introduced to the benefits of effective facilitation skills and will better understand a range of facilitation techniques.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this training, participants will be able to:

• Identify the main obstacles to effective facilitation skills.
• Understand the facilitation process.
• Understand a range of facilitation techniques.
• Build an effective facilitation process.
• Explain the benefits of effective facilitation skills.

Course Overview

These are the 7 key sections of this training course.

1. Introduction to facilitation skills
Facilitation skills in organizations represent a cornerstone of personal development skills. One of the key advantages of a facilitator is to understand how these skills can be employed across a wide variety of leadership and line staff activities. Within the context of this course, this section is practical, straightforward, and will connect with all learners. The content focuses on a definition of facilitation.

2. What is a facilitator?
What does it mean to truly be a facilitator? How does one gain the skills to be a facilitator? How can we reduce obstacles to great facilitation skills?

In this section of the course, participants will learn that the main tasks of a facilitator include:

• Setting agendas.
• Capturing data.
• Time management.
• Information seeking.
• Clarifying.
• Coordinating.
• Summarizing.
• Relieving tension.

Course participants will learn how to become more effective facilitators and that the main role of a facilitator is to protect the process.

3. Functions
The benefits of developing facilitators across the organization are central to this section of the course. The course will:

• Focus on the primary function of facilitation.
• Discuss the range of values that are needed by effective facilitators.

In this section of the training, the main facilitator styles are introduced:

• Directive.
• Exploratory.
• Delegating.
• Participative.
• Interpretive.
• Evaluative.

Keep in mind: there may be scope to add to the list provided, so encourage discussion to see if your audience can isolate further characteristics.

4. The facilitation process
This training is fully focused on developing the skills of facilitators. And, the content in this section explores the facilitation process and discusses areas like decision-making skills, outcomes, and products.

The three stages involved in an effective facilitation process discussed are:

• Stage 1: Define the purpose, outcomes, and products required from the process
• Stage 2: Design and define the actual process
• Stage 3: Implement the process and ensure the outcomes and products

If, after completion of stage 3, the outcomes and products meet the original definitions, then the process can finish. If outcomes and products do not meet the original definitions, then you must return to Stage 1.

5. Designing a facilitation process
Designing a facilitation process introduces learners to several areas that every facilitator should be familiar with if they want to be effective. In particular, this section provides a real taste of this key skillset, and the training will:

• Explore how to design a facilitation process.
• Discuss how this design relates to learners.

6. Facilitation techniques
How can we use facilitation skills in such a way that we maximize the benefits to the organization? What techniques exist? And how can they be implemented? These are central questions in this section of the course. To answer them, the training will:

• Examine tips, rules, and how to gain consensus.
• Explore self-check questions and the concept of intervention.

The content digs deeper into specific facilitation techniques that facilitators can use within a wide variety of settings. For example:

1. Awareness Technique.
2. Brainstorming.
3. NGT Technique.
4. Affinity Diagram.
5. Fish Bowl.
6. Multiple Perspectives Disk.
7. The Hanger Technique.

7. The role of people
The ability to work with people within facilitation situations is important in any organization and at all levels. Modern facilitators must master the art of working with people, listening and capturing their contributions, collating their knowledge, and inspiring an audience to actively participate within a facilitation process.  As this course comes to a natural end, aspects like group dynamics skills and personality types will also be explored. In addition, the critical areas of dealing with conflict and the role of people in the process will be discussed.

Who Needs Effective Facilitation Skills?

• Senior management that wants facilitation skills to strengthen their relationships with staff.
• Managers, supervisors, and team leaders need facilitation skills to lead, manage and motivate their teams.
• Administrative, support staff and line staff need facilitation skills to maximize their engagement and participation within the organization.
• HR professionals need facilitation skills to meet the needs of the departments that they support.
• Project managers need facilitation skills to create more engagement and collaboration with their teams.
• Organizational development professionals need facilitation skills to secure relationships and participation from all functions within the organization.
• Consultants and independent contractors who are being asked to play a role in organizational initiatives.

What You Get

• A 70 Page Instructor Guide
• A 67 Page Participant Manual
• 84 Customizable PowerPoint Slides
• Training Games And Training Icebreakers
• A Course Advertorial
• Eight Pre-written Expert Training Guides
• Customizable Exercises And Tests
• Further Reading Lists

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11 reviews on

Nicole Harris

2021-10-06

I had the opportunity to thoroughly review the training content and I am extremely pleased with the structure, training material and learning objectives. The quality of the content is Excellent!

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Darryl Treadwell

2021-09-29

Oak Innovation's product are extremely well designed and contain additional information, reading materials, and resources that add great value to their already valuable products. The staff is helpful, knowledgeable, professional, engaging, and very responsive. These courses will provide a solid foundation for your training needs.

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Christy Crump

2021-07-20

I purchased the full offering of training programs from Oak Innovation a few years ago. I still refer back to the trainings after all these years. Their trainings are professional, organized, and full of pertinent information.

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Richard Whelan

2021-07-11

The training materials are comprehensive, professional, to the point and great value. Together with handbooks are a great resource which saves so much time as a training provider. I have been using Oak for nearly 20 years. Thanks to the team at Oak Innovation

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Jeffrey Buller

2021-06-16

As someone who’s been involved in training for more than twenty years, I’ve never known a resource that’s as consistently valuable as Oak. I’m always amazed at their willingness to provide purchasers of their complete range of presentations regular updates and new training packages at no additional cost. That makes my purchase become more valuable all the time. And their speed in responding to questions is phenomenal. One of the sessions I often provide is a Training the Trainers workshop. In it, the very first resource I encourage people to purchase is the library of resources from Oak. These packages have made my job infinitely easier, and I recommend them to anyone who’s looking for the highest quality in training materials. Jeffrey L. Buller, Senior Partner at ATLAS Leadership Training

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GK Lim

2016-07-20

“During the early days of HRD Gateway, a 40,000-member international NGO dedicated to excellence in HRD/HRM, I got to know Des Fitzgerald (Oak Innovation) and his courseware. I become one of his early customers. I had clients in Asia who wanted training in certain areas. Instead of searching through the net for material, I logged onto his site, found what I wanted, bought his programs, and customized them to suit my clients requirements. The process saved me much time. Later, I bought the Oak full set of courses. Over the years, I saw Oak grow from a small operation to what it is today. That takes dedication and focus. Because they allowed me to download updates and new versions of the courseware, I found I did not have to go to another provider for my raw material." GK Lim President, HRD Gateway International

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Stephen Fraundorfer

2016-07-17

WOW!!! An extremely thorough program. Covered the subject from beginning to end.

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Rey Carr

2016-07-16

Oak continually attends to the needs of various businesses and either creates or adjusts training modules on a variety of topics to be self-contained, practical and easy to use. And they stand behind every product with personal service."

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Tom Heck

2016-07-16

I've developed an alliance with Oak -- a company that has developed a wide assortment of training "modules" that you can download right now. When you download a module you own it forever and have permission to edit it, customize it (logos, etc.) and deliver the module as many times as you like. You receive a Word document, PDF, PowerPoint and comprehensive participant manual and your satisfaction is guaranteed or your money back. The modules are designed for trainers, coaches and consultants looking to increase the range of products and services they can offer their clients. Oak content is also ideal for managers and employees looking to extend their knowledge of organizational, management and employee titles. Tom Heck, President, International Association of Teamwork Facilitators

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John Paul

2016-07-16

“It is excellent - covers all of the important aspects and explains the topics in a very easy to understand format. The entire training is nice looking, professionally prepared and very participant friendly. You do an outstanding job of creating training modules that are practical and easily adapted to most training sessions." John Paul, Partner Association Works

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Kay Fitzgerald

I am Kay Fitzgerald, the founder of Oak Innovation. With 25 + years of experience in the training and development industry, our team is here to help you access the training you want to deliver.