Facilitating Successfully Curriculum Outline
Facilitating Difficult Situations
Overview/Description
How do you deal with the group that has an exceptionally dominant person who doesn't let anyone else have say, or trivializes the contributions of others? How do you keep a faction from taking over? What is the best means of handling direct challenges to you or the group? What do you do when you know someone is deliberately trying to derail your meeting and/or success? What is the best way to clear the air when there is tension? Welcome to the tough stuff in facilitation. In this course you will learn to recognize and deal with the most difficult aspects of facilitating groups. You will explore typical trouble spots, like dealing with side conversations. Discover ways to maintain and channel enthusiasm with high-participation groups and turn around low-participation situations. Learn techniques to help you handle sabotage and passive/aggressive behavior. Capitalize on confrontation by shifting your analysis from what's wrong to assessing what is really going on. You will also learn the benefits of conflict and apply tips to transform chaos into creativity.
Target Audience
Managers, team leaders, or anyone who will conduct/lead meetings or work groups.
Expected Duration
5.0 hours
Objectives :Lesson Overview
Recognize the importance of being able to handle disruptive behavior. When Two People Argue
- Sequence the steps of the intervention model to handle two people arguing.
Deliberate Disruption
- Apply strategies to effectively diminish the impact of pessimists and critics in a given meeting.
Passive/Aggressive Behavior
- Identify the telltale signs of passive/aggressive behavior.
Recognizing Obstruction
- Use three steps to effectively deal with an obstructionist, in a given scenario.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the benefits of dealing effectively with distractions, deference, factions, and groupthink.
Acknowledging Distractions
- Apply the appropriate steps to effectively handle a distraction in a given scenario.
Diagnosing Deference
- Identify optimum questions to diagnose deference effectively.
Overcoming the Effects of Factions
- Identify methods to defuse factions.
Getting beyond Groupthink
- Identify troubleshooting techniques to challenge groupthink.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the value of generating active participation in facilitated groups.
High-participation Issues
- Effectively deal with three types of high-participation behavior, in a given scenario.
Low-participation Issues
- Effectively deal with two types of low-participation issues, in a given scenario.
Capitalizing on Challenge
- Identify techniques to handle and effectively respond to challenges.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the importance of clearing the air to release tension and get a group back on track.
Venting the Steam
- Effectively help a group vent to clear the air, in a given scenario.
Reframing the Picture
- Use reframing techniques to help a group clear the air, in a given scenario.
Listing the Options
- Identify ways to use the clear-the-air technique called listing the options.
Course Number: mgmt_08_a04_bs_enus
Back to ListFacilitating Meetings and Work Groups
Overview/Description
This situation is most likely familiar. You dread holding a meeting so much that you have butterflies in your stomach. People showing up whenever they get there. Trying to get everyone to agree or make a decision takes hours of discussion. No one is willing to take responsibility for action items. In this course, you will learn to avoid these and other pitfalls of work groups so you can approach your meetings without dread. You will start by identifying different types of groups: internal, external, on going, single-purpose and their characteristics. By knowing whom you are going to be facilitating and the inherent group characteristics, you will be able to prepare for the meeting, establishing clear expectations and a realistic agenda. You can also determine if you are a match for this assignment, or if it would be better to find someone else. You will learn techniques to start and end meetings for groups of various sizes and purpose. By learning why, when and how to intervene in meetings, you will establish ways to get groups to work through the problem-solving process so they can agree and make sustainable agreements and decisions. You will finish this course by learning how to end meetings and, with action items assigned, everyone knowing what the meeting accomplished and what they need to do next.
Target Audience
Managers, team leaders or anyone who will conduct/lead meetings or workgroups.
Expected Duration
4.5 hours
Objectives :Lesson Overview
Recognize the value of preparing for work groups and meetings. The Selection Process
- Apply the principles of effective contracting to example scenarios.
Anchoring for Success: The Mission and the Agenda
- Sequence the process of creating an effective, mission-based agenda.
Preparing the Room
- Identify the principles of meeting room arrangement.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the significance of effective meeting structure.
Beginning a Meeting
- Determine if the guidelines of effective facilitation to begin a meeting are followed, given a scenario.
Strategic Intervention: When, Why and How
- Use effective intervention techniques during a meeting in a given scenario.
Ending a Meeting
- Follow the steps to end a meeting for a given scenario.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the value of the problem-solving process as it applies to work groups and meetings.
Creating the Mindset
- Differentiate the either/or mindset from the both/and mindset as it relates to effective problem-solving.
Problem Definition and Solution Criteria
- Determine whether a facilitator effectively defined a problem and established criteria for evaluating solutions in a given scenario.
Identifying the Root Cause
- Apply the steps to effectively solve problems, given a scenario.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the importance of achieving sustainable agreements in work groups.
Group Decision-making
- Identify issues of facilitated group decision-making.
Setting Decision Rules
- Identify principles for setting decision-making rules.
Creating a Shared Framework
- Identify methods to help participants see problems from a common perspective.
Developing Inclusive Solutions
- Determine whether a facilitator used the techniques to cultivate inclusive solutions in a given scenario.
Providing Closure
- Apply the steps for providing closure for a meeting in a given scenario.
Course Number: mgmt_08_a03_bs_enus
Back to ListFacilitating Successfully Simulation
Overview/Description
Does this sound familiar? It's a Monday morning staff meeting. There are at least three conversations going on that have nothing to do with the agenda. Only half the staff has shown up, and someone is being very disruptive and argumentative for apparently no reason whatsoever. In other words, you are utterly frustrated. If this is indeed familiar and you'd like to make a change in your work group structure for the better, then the Successful Facilitator Simulation is for you. The Facilitating Successfully Simulation is designed to help participants become effective facilitators and get meetings back on track. By providing learners with the opportunity to practice facilitative techniques and strategies, the simulation will challenge and strengthen those skills necessary for overcoming productivity barriers and enhancing communication. Chosen as a member of a two-person co-facilitation team for Renaissance Foods, Inc., which owns and operates several diverse restaurant chains, learners will organize and execute a meeting between the marketing personnel of the Eastern and Western divisions of Burger Hutch, one of Renaissance's most successful chains. The divisions, tasked with creating Burger Hutch's new seasonal promotion, historically have had little success organizing similar promotions in a timely fashion, and Renaissance management has decided to make a change. The Facilitating Successfully Simulation is based on the SkillSoft series Facilitating Successfully and contains links to the following SkillSoft courses: mgmt_08_a01_bs_enus, mgmt_08_a02_bs_enus, mgmt_08_a03_bs_enus, mgmt_08_a04_bs_enus, and mgmt_08_a05_bs_enus. The simulation comprises 4 scenarios and an introduction.
Target Audience
Managers, team leaders, anyone who will conduct/lead meetings or work groups.
Expected Duration
0.5
Lesson Objectives:
Facilitating Successfully Simulation
Embodying the core values of a facilitator. Setting the mission and agenda. Practicing facilitative listening skills. Gathering diverse points of view. Successfully applying the meeting process. Applying strategies for effective problem-solving. Managing challenging situations. Utilizing techniques for effective co-facilitation. Practicing effective chart writing techniques. Fostering freedom of speech.
Back to ListFacilitative Fundamentals: Tools and Techniques
Facilitative Fundamentals: Tools and Techniques
Overview/Description
You're heading into a room full of people coming at a problem from totally different perspectives. What techniques and tools will you use to create the synergy necessary to complete your mission? What do you need to get started? This second course in The Successful Facilitator series provides you with tips and techniques that will help you become a successful facilitator. You will learn to recognize communication style differences. Learning techniques, like paraphrasing and mirroring, will give you ways to clarify and reinforce what you're hearing and make sure everyone in the group is hearing the same thing. Once you've explored the various means of communicating, it's time to take on the challenges of facilitating getting everyone to speak openly and honestly, in an organized manner that is clear and respectful of the other participants. And, don't forget to listen for the things participants are not saying. You will also discover techniques to help with the ever-challenging task of timing activities, preparing effective agendas, and handling long lists of information.
Target Audience
Managers, team leaders, or anyone who will conduct/lead meetings or workgroups.
Expected Duration
4.5 hours
Objectives :Lesson Overview
Recognize the benefits of effective facilitative listening. Appreciating Diverse Communication Styles
- Identify the impacts and characteristics of diverse communication styles.
Reinforcing What You're Hearing
- Apply facilitative listening techniques to reinforce understanding and clarify what someone else is saying in a given scenario.
Engaging the Under-active Participant
- Apply the methods to effectively encourage under-active participants, in a given conversation .
Listening for Common Ground
- Identify the benefits of helping groups with opposing views find common ground.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the value of collecting perspectives to generate ideas and resolve difficult issues.
Collecting Perspectives
- Apply the steps to effectively gather different perspectives during a given meeting.
Generating Ideas
- Identify methods to help participants generate ideas that can be refined through further discussion.
Raising Difficult Issues
- Define three activities that enable groups to discuss difficult issues without anyone feeling singled out.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the benefits of facilitating organized and courteous open discussions.
Who Talks When
- Apply stacking techniques to facilitate group discussion, in a given scenario.
Facilitative Framing: Aiding Individual Expression
- Apply facilitative techniques to promote the individual expression of ideas by others in a given scenario.
Focusing the Discussion
- Apply the techniques to effectively directed a group's focus, in a given scenario.
Balancing
- Apply facilitative techniques to ensure that a given meeting is balanced.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the critical importance of strategies for setting and maintaining the pace of various types of meetings and work groups.
Tackling Your Timing
- Identify guidelines for determining how much time an activity will take a group to complete.
Creating Adaptable Agendas
- Identify the characteristics of adaptable agenda planning.
Managing Long Lists
- Identify the challenges involved in categorizing long lists.
Back to ListFacilitative Leadership
Overview/Description
Have you worked in this organization? You don't explain what you're doing because people will steal your ideas. It's best just to go along with whatever the majority wants, even if you can see some real problems down the road. No one will take responsibility for the results unless they're good, then everyone takes a share. If you've experienced any of these situations and want to make some changes, become a facilitative leader in your company. By utilizing facilitative techniques, you can change attitudes and create a more cohesive, supportive learning environment.
This course starts by identifying the differences between group facilitators and facilitative leaders. You will learn techniques to recognize and work with all levels of interaction. You will discover what makes an effective facilitative leader. And finally, you will learn strategies to get group members to take a personal interest in a project's success.
Target Audience
Managers, team leaders; anyone who will conduct/lead meetings or workgroups
Expected Duration
4.5 hours
Objectives :Lesson Overview
Recognize the benefits of facilitative leadership. Facilitation versus the Facilitative Leader
- Specify the traits associated with a group facilitator in contrast to the traits associated with a facilitative leader.
Traditional Leadership versus Facilitative Leadership
- Differentiate the characteristics of a traditional leader from the characteristics of a facilitative leader.
Basic versus Developmental Facilitation
- Identify the difference between basic and developmental facilitation.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the value of understanding the four different levels of interaction.
The Physical at Work
- Identify ways to create an environment where physical needs are met.
Thinking at Work
- Sequence the four stages of creative thinking.
Emotions at Work
- Determine whether a facilitator effectively handled emotions in a given team environment.
Spirit at Work
- Identify way to encourage integrity, mindfulness, and service in work groups.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the importance of integrating expectations, capabilities, and value to improve facilitative leadership abilities.
Clarifying Expectations
- Determine whether a facilitator has effectively clarified expectations in a given scenario.
Checking Capabilities
- Choose optimum questions to check capabilities in a given scenario.
Finding Value
- Determine whether a facilitator has effectively helped team members find value in a given scenario.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the importance of implementing best practices.
The Art of Full Disclosure
- Differentiate between the concepts of selective sharing and full disclosure.
Making Free and Informed Choices
- Effectively help a group make free and informed choices, in a given scenario.
Enhancing Internal Commitment
- Use effective strategies to enhance internal commitment within a team, in a given scenario.
Promoting Responsibility and Ownership
- Apply techniques to promote responsibility and ownership in a group facilitation scenario.
Course Number: mgmt_08_a06_bs_enus
Back to ListFacilitative Tools and Formats: Offering Options
Facilitative Tools and Formats: Offering Options
Overview/Description
Looking for some alternatives to the standard work group format? Need to take a different approach to getting a problem resolved? Want to hold a meeting and no one's in the office? If any of these situations sound familiar, this course will provide you with some choices to meet your needs. In this course, you will explore alternatives to the standard one-facilitator group meeting or work session. You will examine the advantages and disadvantages of co-facilitating meetings and work groups. With that knowledge, learn to divide and coordinate who's going to do what. Gain the ability to establish boundaries for each of the facilitators and determine the most effective way to communicate with your client during this process. Another alternative you will explore is breakout groups. Breakout groups that are planned well and facilitated properly can be an effective, fast means of handling a large project or quickly gathering the information needed to make a decision. You will learn to use multitasking formats as well as how to structure groups that are easy to debrief when the full group reconvenes. Other options abound. What about experiential learning techniques, structured go-arounds, or computer-aided meetings? Finally, you will explore the benefits and pitfalls of chart writing. Communicating information in meetings is an essential factor to their success. Charts can help you clarify information, track ideas and progress, and be a message-conveyor of their own. As an added bonus, you will discover some surprising dos and don'ts and learn about using chart art.
Target Audience
Managers, team leaders, anyone who will conduct/lead meetings or work groups
Expected Duration
4.5 hours
Objectives :Lesson Overview
Recognize the benefit of using co-facilitation. Advantages and Disadvantages
- Differentiate between advantages and disadvantages of co-facilitation.
Dividing and Coordinating Labor
- Match co-facilitation division of labor methods to descriptions.
Maintaining Boundaries
- Determine whether a facilitator maintained healthy boundaries while co-facilitating a meeting in a given scenario.
Open Communication
- Use open communication to co-facilitate a meeting, in a given scenario.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the benefits of breakout groups.
Multitasking Committees
- Facilitate multitasking activities in a meeting, in a given scenario.
Structured Exercises
- Match structured exercise types to the appropriate group need.
Debriefing Breakout Groups
- Ask productive debriefing questions during a participatory meeting, in a given scenario.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the benefit of using alternative formats to engage work groups.
Experiential Learning
- Apply the most effective experiential learning technique to a given scenario.
Structured Go-arounds
- Identify ways to use structured go-around techniques effectively.
Computer-assisted Meetings
- Select ways to use computers as facilitation tools.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the benefits of using flip charts.
Dynamic Layouts
- Identify dynamically designed chart layouts and match the type to the need.
Effective Chart Writing
- Determine whether a given sample of chart writing is effective in a given scenario.
Chart Art
- Determine whether a given sample of chart art is effective in a given scenario.
Do's and Don'ts
- Distinguish between the do's and don'ts of effective chart writing.
Back to ListThe Facilitator Role
Overview/Description
Tired of wasting time at meetings that take too long and get too little accomplished? Learn to facilitate meetings that are both productive and time efficient. In this course, you will explore the foundations of the art of group facilitation. You will define the role of a facilitator, so that you can easily differentiate between facilitated groups and democratic or autocratic groups. Identifying the skills, attitudes and emotions needed to facilitate groups will help prepare you for taking on the task of changing your work group structure. Understanding the responsibilities of the facilitator will help establish the boundaries of what you can and cannot control when working with groups. Finally, you will learn ways to measure your successes through self-assessment.
Target Audience
Managers, team leaders, anyone who will conduct/lead meetings or work groups.
Expected Duration
4.0 hours
Objectives :Lesson Overview
Recognize the beneficial goals of facilitated groups. What Is Facilitation?
- Recognize the key characteristics of facilitated groups.
Who Should Be the Facilitator?
- Determine the most appropriate facilitator for a given group from a list of candidates.
Facilitation Goals and Core Values
- Identify the core values and goals of group facilitation.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize specific pitfalls and specific skills involved in effective facilitation.
The Facilitative Skill Set
- Effectively use the skills required to facilitate a group in a given scenario.
Perceptions and Judgments
- Use appropriate perceptions and judgments while facilitating a group in a given scenario.
Self-assessment
- Determine what actions a facilitator should follow to successfully perform a self-assessment in a given scenario.
Lesson Overview
- Recognize the benefits of the facilitative process in preparing for, conducting and concluding a successful group session.
Defining the Mission
- Define the mission of a meeting and the participants' viewpoints in order to prepare an agenda.
Roles, Rules, and Responsibilities
- Clarify the facilitator's role and expectations in order to define the meeting rules.
Fulfilling the Role of Facilitator
- Fulfill the role of the facilitator in a given scenario.
Concluding the Meeting
- Apply the steps to conclude a meeting successfully, given a scenario.
Lesson Overview
- Differentiate between the characteristics of participatory and conventional groups in order to determine which is appropriate for the assigned task.
Choosing Internal or External Facilitation
- Differentiate between the circumstances where an internal facilitator is appropriate as opposed to an external facilitator.
Characteristics of Participatory Groups
- Identify the characteristics of participatory groups.
Characteristics of Conventional Groups
- Identify the characteristics and uses for conventional groups.
Course Number: mgmt_08_a01_bs_enus
Back to List
Facilitating Successfully
There are many essential elements that are required for establishing good business practices
within a company but the meetings held to try and balance budgets and focus ideas can be utterly disastrous without
having a keen facilitator and strong leadership development. Companies need to be able to keep meetings and groups
running as smooth and efficiently as possible however with differing personalities, conflicts and goals this can be
quite a difficult task. Arguments can occur, time gets wasted and the tension created can be contagious. Our online
leadership training can help you handle these situations with a strong know-how and a firm grasp of the techniques a
good facilitator must have.
It is necessary that meetings be held within certain time frames and ended in an orderly fashion, with all parties
involved having full knowledge of what they need to accomplish. Additionally, the facilitator has to be able to handle
all of these ideas, and often difficult co-workers that can complicate the situation with understanding and capable hands.
Through our online training, professionals will gain an understanding of how to deal with challenging issues and people to
create a supportive and more unified working environment.
With CBT Direct’s online leadership training you will be trained to clearly define and observe the different roles a
facilitator plays within the business world. Professionals will learn to address problem areas and different communication
methods used to better understand and convey the right messages. With CBT Direct you will gain a better understanding of the
ways a facilitator with the right skills can have a major impact on business dealings and the office environment in general.
Benefits of CBT Direct’s Online Facilitator and Leadership
Development Training
CBT Direct boasts the most beneficial online training on the market. With CBT Direct’s online training, you have the
flexibility to study on your schedule, and with the speed and reliability of the internet, CBT Direct’s leadership development
training course is accessible anywhere you have an internet connection. Convenience finally costs less with CBT Direct - the
most affordable online training solution today.
The unique design of CBT Direct’s leadership development course emphasizes learner initiative, self-management and
experiential learning. CBT Direct’s online course design begins with the definition of user-focused performance objectives
and then proceeds to the selection and implementation of instructional strategies and learning activities appropriate for
those objectives. This effective instruction model for CBT Direct’s leadership development training course ensures the
greatest level of comprehension and retention.
Who Benefits from CBT Direct’s Online Facilitator and Leadership
Development Training?
Our online leadership training is designed to help any professionals that are in a leadership
and/or management position or anybody that holds or leads meetings, committees, and/or groups.
What Professionals Will Learn from CBT Direct’s Online Facilitator and Leadership Development Training
Our online leadership training will explain the different types of facilitators, their characteristics and the way to
figure out which kind is appropriate given a particular situation. Professionals will observe the consequences that can
occur with successful facilitation on top of the possible benefits. CBT Direct will give information on careful perception
and administering fair judgment while acting as a facilitator. The learner will also examine the manner used for performing
a personal assessment. Click here to see a detailed curriculum outline.
CBT Direct’s Online Facilitator and Leadership Development Training will look at the different pieces of information
that need to be collected in order to form a business agenda. Professionals will consider the responsibilities and expectations
along with the affect that they can have on the set rules of a meeting. CBT Direct will go into how to identify differing
communication styles as well as the listening techniques that will help reinforce good communication skills. In addition,
professionals will review how to keep participants motivated, focused and sharing.
CBT Direct will analyze the methods used to get ideas and handle difficult situations that may arise. Our online
leadership training will concentrate on aiding people individually with expressing themselves and then group-wise with
creating an efficient decision. Professionals will become skilled at identifying the physical, emotional and spiritual
needs that have to be thought of and incorporated within a facilitated situation. Our course will guide you in your leadership
development by going over the entire meeting process from start to finish and all of the details in between that will strengthen
you as a facilitator.
People come from different backgrounds and therefore develop a wide range of dissimilarities, but these differences can be
used to benefit each other under the guiding hand of a good facilitator. CBT Direct includes everything from groups and goals
as well as understanding unspoken cues and controlling situations that can potentially waste time. Upon completing CBT Direct’s
Online Facilitator and Leadership Development Training, professionals will be able to understand all of the angles that have to
be observed and appreciated in order to properly facilitate a group or function and increase their company and/or personal potential.
Facilitating Successfully
