First things first. How do we define a “large group”? Any group that has more than around 30 people can be safely categorized under this nomenclature.
Continue reading “5 Tips for Facilitating Large Group Meetings”
Category: FCF
The Covid-19 breakout has taken everyone and every industry by the storm. The most visible and probably the most important impact of this terrible global pandemic is the way most companies are turning towards providing their services virtually and facilitation is no exception.
Continue reading “5 Tips To Facilitate An Online Session With Ease”
The below article has been contributed by Joey NG, a Senior Facilitator with FocusU Singapore.
Here is a task for you: Count the number of passes made by the players in white, in this video here:
Did you say 12… or was it 13? Hold on to that answer…. But, midway through the video, a man in a gorilla costume walked into the middle of the action, thumped his chest and slowly walked out the other side. Did you notice the gorilla? Well, if you did not – you are in good company!…When this experiment was conducted at Harvard University several years ago, more than half the participants failed to notice the gorilla. They were so focused on counting the passes that they completely missed the chest-thumping ape. This study, titled ‘The Invisible Gorilla’ by psychologists Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, is one of the best-known experiments and it shows that our attention has a capacity limit – we can only consciously read and process a limited amount of information at any one time.
At any given moment, facilitators are exposed to vast amount of sensory information, each vying for his attention. It is humanly impossible to process every bit of information at the same time due to the limited mental bandwidth he operates with. To make up for this inherent shortcoming, facilitators need to operate with a high level of Situation Awareness (SA). SA means making sense of the current situation and mentally mapping out the cause-and-effect relationships, well in time.
Aside from detecting abnormalities, SA also allows facilitators to capture information that are subtle yet significant. While a facilitator cannot control the amount of sensory elements present, he can however determine the types of elements to focus on. The more acute his SA is, the more sensitive he will be to his surroundings and this places him in a better position to anticipate changes and introduce timely intervention. High level of SA enables facilitators to:
1) Maintain a high level of safety.
Prevention is better than cure. Having a high SA would lead to a heightened sense of anticipation. Because facilitators are able to project the plausible consequences of the current situation, this gives them that extra second to introduce preventive measures or eliminates threats before they turned into actual risks.
2) Identify opportunities to enhance the learning experience.
Seeing things that others do not is one of the hallmark of effective facilitation. While most would focus on actions that are at the heart of the activity, seldom would participants reflect on the minor incidents – incidents that come as quickly as they go. Part of SA is about being sensitive to these minor, and to many, insignificant incidences. Insightful learning, the kind that people do not recognize at first but seems so apparent when pointed out, are created when facilitators are able to spot these opportunities and create meaning out of them.
3) Adjust delivery style.
Another hallmark of effective facilitation is the facilitator’s ability to adjust his delivery style. Not knowing what participants are truly feeling is a major stumbling block because the facilitator might be thinking he is doing the ‘right’ thing and would continue doing so. By the time participants surface their concerns, it might already be too late because the damage is done. Two common cases are; 1) When the facilitator is being too strict with the rules. 2) When the facilitator uses languages that some participants are uncomfortable with. For example, jokes on sexual orientation might not fit well with participants who are strong believer of the LGBT social movement.
However, when facilitators are able to detect signs of discomfort, or feel a sense of passive aggressiveness from the participants early, they can make the necessary adjustments to their delivery before more damage is done.
4) Making better decisions, spontaneously.
Facilitators make spontaneous decisions all the time because no matter how well the programmes are designed and planned, it is not possible to factor in every possible variable. Seasoned facilitators have countless tales of curved-ball anecdotes. In order to make better and more informed decisions to respond to changing and emerging patterns, facilitators need to stay two steps ahead of the situation. For example, knowing what to do the moment grey clouds are spotted or how to adjust the programme in the event of a delay in catering services.
Here is the good news – SA is not an inborn ability that is bestowed to a lucky few. SA is an ability that facilitators can work on and be better at, it is a sense that can be trained, like a highly trained nurse who can read the faintest of pulse or a skilled wine sommelier who can give a full description with a single sip. Increased exposure and field time is widely acknowledged as key pillars in building up one’s SA. One of the better-known case studies is about a seasoned fire fighter, who made the decision to pull his team out of a burning building moments before it collapsed, though there were no obvious signs of any structural damage. In an interview later, the fire fighter said he felt a hunch and something in his mind told him that the building was going to give way soon, and that made him pull his team out.
Although experience is key to the development of SA, paradoxically, experience is also its biggest enemy because the more experienced a facilitator is, the more likely he will fall into a routine mindset, let his senses down and allow complacency to slip in. Below is a list of techniques rookie facilitator can work on to improve their SA and seasoned practitioners can adopt to guard against complacency.
- Active involvement
SA is not a passive process, it does not just come on to the facilitator. For SA to function effectively, one has to play an active role and be with the situation. This means the facilitator has to be mentally present, consciously making sense of the events that are taking place around him. Active involvement requires the facilitator to stay engaged with the process and be as involved as the participants through the experience. - Setting goals
Professor Kip Smith and Dr. Peter Hancock, prominently researchers in the field of aviation and human behavior in dynamic situations, defined SA as ‘adaptive, externally directed consciousnesses. They see SA as an intentional behavior that is directed towards the goal. i.e, we assess what we set out to assess. Our SA is most sensitive towards the objectives we set because our focus is primarily on them.Setting goals will help funnel our attention towards key areas. Before an activity commences, facilitators should be clear on where to focus their attention on, for example, to capture specific learning opportunities and/or to mitigate risk at a precise point. These points for attention could also be a specific time, juncture, person, situation, reaction or conversation. - Delegate responsibilities to co-facilitators or participants
There will be occasions where there are simply too many things taking place at the same time. In such instances, a facilitator can either split the area of focus with his co-facilitator (one concentrate on safety while another concentrate on learning moments) or delegate secondary roles to the participants, such as ‘Safety Officer’. - Expose to a variety of experiences
Facilitators who limit themselves to a small number of programme types will develop very sharp sense of SA but only in environments they are extremely familiar with. Conversely, facilitators who expose themselves to a wider range of experiences will develop well-rounded SA that can be applied effectively across various situations. For experience facilitators, exposing themselves to fresh challenges is one of the best way to guard against complacency because it reminds them that learning is an on-going process and that no facilitator can ever claim to have enough SA.
So, if you are a Facilitator, ask yourself – how good if your SA? Are you able to latch on to behaviors so instinctive that it is invisible to most, but so apparent once they are pointed out? Or like the gorilla in the video, do you miss the “learning moments”?
Do share your thoughts with us!
Facilitators, trainers, teachers, leaders. What’s one thing these individuals all have in common? Working with groups, large and small. Whether these groups are made up of children, newbies in a company, or senior level management, crowd control is a must. The art of crowd control lies in using a multi-facetted approach to training your crowd to follow your lead and do as you request. This is not a simple process. Giving a command or request to a crowd that does not yet trust you, does not yet respect you, and does not yet know your verbal and non-verbal cues well enough to follow them will result in these commands falling flat, or being intentionally ignored.
Continue reading “Teaching Without Teaching: Handling a Crowd”
From Lawyer to Facilitator
It was just a perfect morning to start a new workshop – in the beautiful city of Vizag. The stage was set and all regular preparations for conducting the workshop were done. We had an hour in hand, before kicking off a Leadership workshop for a group of 24 participants from a local mining organisation.
Over the last few years, we have earned the experience of conducting many such workshops for senior management teams. Yet, there was something different this time. The average age of the team we were going to address was 53 – by far the most senior group by age, which we had ever handled. How was our approach going to be different? How do we add value to a group, where a few of them had more experience than our age?
At the end of that wonderful day, we were left enriched by the experience. Below are a few lessons we took home from there:
- Don’t Preach –
While we are naturally biased towards a facilitative style of conducting workshops, we needed to remind ourselves that each of the participants carried a wealth of experience. The challenge was to be able to tap into this treasure trove of experience in such a way that people felt easy opening up and sharing. Clearly, the facilitation had to be non-intrusive and non- threatening – and not perceived as providing “Gyan”. - Watch you pace –
We as Indians tend to speak English at a very fast rate. Especially with a older group though, a Facilitator needs to be very conscious about this. People with a lot of experience, naturally tend to validate everything that they hear with their prior experiences. Hence, too fast and you lose engagement – on the other hand, go at the right pace and you see a tremendous amount of richness in the conversations that then follow. - Don’t be rigid –
A key decision for a Facilitator is the amount of control he exercises with the group. Younger groups need to generally be controlled in a tighter fashion when it comes to time schedules & conversations. However with an older group, the same level of control could easily get perceived as policing. Due to the rich conversations, sessions sometimes could easily exceed planned timelines. As long as those conversations are adding value to the group, the Facilitator should consciously not implement rigid timelines. - Listen more and be curious –
Active listening is an indispensable ingredient of good facilitation. In this scenario, it becomes more so. People like to be heard, especially if they have years of experience to share. A Facilitator who displays the curiosity to probe just a little more below the surface of conversations, often returns with rich dividends. - Use more stories –
We all love to hear stories and this love does not diminish with age. Especially while working with older groups, stories are a very good prop to get a message across in the most non-threatening manner. Stories work particularly well during debriefs of sessions. Stories, when well told, also hand the speaker complete attention in the room. - Balance between Intensity and Energy –
A key decision that every Facilitator needs to make in every workshop is the right mix of energy (that comes from physical activities) and intensity (that comes from engaging conversations). For a younger group the balance is tilted more towards energy. For an older group, this balance clearly needs to be tilted more towards intensity. This helps tap the experience through the conversations, while keeping the workshop at a physically optimum level. - Have FUN unapologetically!! –
FUN & humour works almost universally in all kinds of interventions – which is one of the reasons, it’s a core value for us at Focus! At times though, the bias that a Facilitator himself carries in his mind – that older people may not enjoy it as much, hold him back. Big mistake. We as humans, never grow tired of fun, humour and laughter. The team we worked with simply loved to have fun, crack jokes, and pass the odd “creative” comment!
So there it is – our distilled knowledge of what works for older groups. If you read this post closely and think about it again, the key points are not much different for younger groups – are they?
What does that tell you? Do share your thoughts!
Program
TAPMI Train The Evaluators Program |Behavioral Assessment During Admission Process
Objective
The T.A. Pai Management Institute, fondly known as TAPMI is located in the city of Manipal in Karnataka. With academic rigour and experiential learning at its core, TAPMI’s Post Graduate Diploma in Management Programs are approved by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) since its constitution.
Established in 1980, it is one among the 7 institutes in India and 5% of the top business schools worldwide to have been accredited with the illustrious Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation, the oldest and toughest accreditation in the world of business education. It is also the 5th institution in India to have both the AACSB as well as Association of MBAs (AMBA) accreditation.
It is hence one of the much sought out institutes for students not just across India, but also across the world. The annual admission process for the institute starts in February. The need articulated to us was to evaluate around 3000 students in the month, in batches of 70 per day. Being big believers in Experiential learning themselves, TAPMI reached out to us to help them devise a way by which behavior assessment of the students could be done in a fairly rapid manner. They three key behaviours they were looking for included:
⦁ Being a Team player
⦁ Taking up Ownership
⦁ Communicating Effectively
One of the core tenets of Experiential learning is that “The way people play is the way people work.” This makes evaluating students through experiential activities a good lens for a quick assessment.
The task for us was to design and train TAPMI evaluators on two activities that bring out these behaviors clearly, so that the evaluators could in turn, conduct those activities for the students participating in the admission process.
Solution
We got to the drawing board and started ideating on, what is the best way to achieve this objective? While exploring various options, we had to keep in mind that the activities should bring out the objectives effectively yet should be comprehensive enough for the evaluators to understand. Also we were acutely aware that it should be fair to all the students who go through the process – and should not lend itself to ambiguity.
The other key challenge was that the activities needed to be of a short duration of maximum 10 minutes so that the whole process could be done rapidly, leaving time for the evaluators to also run their other evaluations.
Two activities were curated for this purpose that met all these criteria. One was called “The Tower of Brahma” and the other was the famous “Marshmallow Challenge.” There were around 8 evaluators who needed to be trained on the activities.
The program was conceived in 4 steps:
⦁ Step1: Understanding of the Experiential learning cycle
This was important since TAPMI themselves use the Experiential methodology. It was important that we were on the same page before we got into the activity itself.
⦁ Step 2: Experiential learning
The 8 evaluators were put through the both the activities, followed by an in-depth debrief. This was followed by a rigorous discussion between our Facilitators and the TAPMI faculty (the evaluators) where we dived deep into all the nuances of the activity and the possible different behaviors it can throw up, with the implications of each. To help prepare them for doing a dry run by themselves as the next step, FocusU also helped the evaluators with a detailed activity script. We also co-created an assessment form that they could use while running the activity. The assessment form detailed out the positive and the negative behaviors that the evaluators needed to watch out for.
⦁ Step 3: Learning by doing
Once the evaluators had no more questions, it was time for them to run these two activities themselves. For this, we called students volunteers. Multiple runs were done, followed by debriefs and discussions, so that the essence of the activity was preserved. This hands-on dummy run was a critical piece of the whole experience in ensuring that during the actual run, it was done extremely professionally by the evaluators
⦁ Step 4: Actual usage in the admission process
On Day 2, the FocusU team was there to overlook the evaluators conduct the activities by themselves. This time actual students applying to the MBA program in TAPMI were the participants. Truth be told, we had to do very little hand-holding or intervention at this stage. No wonder that TAPMI has such a good reputation!
Impact
The TAPMI evaluators went on to do the same activities at different locations in India for their admission and evaluation process. Since they had done the activities under the supervision of FocusU team, they were fully aware of the process and how to identify the behaviors during the activity.
This is what Jeevan J Arakal, one of the Professors had to say about the whole collaboration:
TAPMI deeply values teamwork among program participants, this is reflected in our team-based activity evaluation during the admissions process. In line with this focus we run team building and outbound activities as part of the induction process. These activities focus on collaboration, team building and informal bonding, creating a culture of trust among program participants. Program participants are encouraged to go outside their comfort zone, by actively participating in a combination of indoor and outdoor activities.
As mentioned earlier, we wanted the following outcomes as part of the induction process:
⦁ Teamwork
⦁ Collaboration
⦁ Informal bonding
In consultation with FocusU we devised several activities focused on the following aspects.
⦁ The importance of planning in a team, leadership and clear communication with feedback
⦁ The importance of prioritization in the work that we do
⦁ The contribution that different people in a team bring into a team task
⦁ The impact that each member in a team makes to the overall team
⦁ Success & trust have a domino effect in organizations: success breeds success! And trust given begets trust
⦁ The role of teamwork – and importance of leveraging every single person in a team
@FocusU Engage (India) Private Limited is clearly one of India’s best training organizations. Students greatly benefited from an intensive and high energy collaborative environment.
Download this Case Study
Moving from training to facilitating was an easy call. However, the path ahead was unknown. Training and facilitation are two different worlds. Think of it this way – training is centred around giving, while facilitation is rooted in extracting.
Continue reading “What is the difference between training and facilitation?”
Sometime back I was reading an article about guiding principles that are rapidly affecting the future industries. These 3 principles reminded me of the famous lines from The Pursuit of Perfect author Tal Ben-Shahar, who said, “Those who understand that failure is inextricably linked with achievement are the ones who learn, grow, and ultimately do well. Learn to fail, or fail to learn.” Yes, you guessed it correctly! All three principles are based on the most important directive to drive a business or a team – FAILURE. And this is true even for a facilitator who strives to be the best.
Two weeks ago someone dropped in to our office to interview for the role of facilitator. The interview itself went off quite well and the candidate seemed to have checked off most of the boxes we were looking for. As a final courtesy I asked him, “Is there anything else you would like to share?”