PHOTO: Beijing McDonald's by Peter Durand
Follow your natural rhythm to stay connected with yourself and your group.
From Facilitation U: As facilitators, particularly when you're training, have you ever felt compelled to speak fast and spill out the goods in order to keep people interested and engaged? In a world where the McDonalds paradigm often infiltrates our better intentions, do you let quantity trump quality and speed overtake depth? I know I've done this before. I get caught up in the moment and loose myself in a frantic desire to deliver the agenda...my agenda!
Most of us already suffer from information obesity and we're starving for quality, depth, and connection. And though we're conditioned to respond to high speed, broadband relationships, I believe we all yearn for a taste of thoughtful sincerity that touches our souls.
Application
How do we deal with this pervasive expectation to deliver lots of information quickly, to keep it compelling, and still connect with our audience and their needs? Here are some tips for doing so:
Slow down. When we're spilling out information in broadband mode, we're in our heads and it's difficult to connect with ourselves, much less our audience. When you slow down and connect with yourself, you can better attune to your audience and their needs. Slowing down helps you to sense the nuances of participant's energy and behavior, giving you clues as to whether they're really interested in what you're sharing and how well their connecting with it. Slowing down also gives them space to interact with you so that you can respond to what they want to know in the moment.
Less is more. These days, information is cheap and incredibly easy to get. Don't waste your time and that of your participants with information downloads. Assume that all of your participants can read and deliver necessary information in an email before or after your meeting. Spend your time instead co-creating knowledge that is first, desired by your participants, and second, practical enough for them to put into immediate action. Just enough knowledge, that's readily useable, is of increasing value today.
Be a facilitator of experience and understanding. When we focus on "learning" instead of "training," we have to work at stepping into our client's perspective. Much of this point of view won't be available until you're in the room with them. That means improvising is a given. I find that the more I practice the scales on my guitar, the better improvisor I become. This goes for group work as well. It's paradoxical but true that the better prepared you are with a clear plan, including contingencies to deal with what's likely to happen, the better prepared you'll be to flex your agenda and respond to your group's needs in the moment.
It's not all about you. How would you feel if you could stand in a group you are training or facilitating for five minutes or more without doing a thing or saying a word? You're not doing or saying anything because your group is self-facilitating a discussion that is right on track. Could you live with that? I find this happens often in my groups and requires setting up a context, and operating with the attitude that I'm at times a catalyst rather than a performer. In a bright group of individuals, it's not you who will always have all the right information, energy, ideas, or support that everyone needs. No one can possibly be that person. But if you build a context for connection, listening, and dialogue, everyone will hear one another and they'll be space for people to meet each other's needs for information and relationship in real time.
About the Author
Steve Davis, M.A., M.S., is an Facilitator's Coach, Infoprenuer, and free-lance human, helping facilitators, organizational leaders, educators, trainers, coaches and consultants present themselves confidently, access their creativity, empower their under-performing groups, enhance their facilitation skills, and build their business online and offline. Does leading or participating in groups frustrate you? Subscribe to his free weekly ezine at www.MasterFacilitatorJournal.com and contact him here to schedule a free exploratory coaching session.
©2009. Steve Davis, www.MasterFacilitatorJournal.com. All rights reserved.
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