Facilitator Tools
All Things Sticky – Care and Use of Sticky Walls
What is this sticky wall tool? Many of you have seen me or others around the world use the infamous facilitator tool called the sticky wall. Sticky walls typically come in blue or purple and other colors, are 5’ X 12’ (about 1.5 X 3.7 meters), and are made of ripstock nylon. You can purchase…
Leverage Your Tools – Turning One Method Into MANY
How many of us have a smartphone that we rarely use just as a phone? It was originally designed to be a phone but now we also use it for a GPS, an audio recorder, a camera and video recorder, alarm clock, newspaper, MP3 player, social media, email, restaurant and movie finder, TV, blogger, etc….
Wake Them Up! Raising Energy in Meetings
Low energy, boring, waste of time. What do these 3 words conjure up for you? Likely most of you answered – meetings! What if we could get all of our meetings off to a positive, high-energy, anything but boring start? Today, we’ll focus on the benefits of perking your group up right from the start…
Things Go Better With Planning – Three Proven Processes
For many of us, sometime over the next few months, we begin to think about how we want our next year to be (i.e., plan!). If you are working with your own team, it’s likely that you will make planning for your upcoming year a high priority. Some of you will be doing a simple…
When Things Heat Up – What Expert Larry Dressler Does
Over the last year we have featured a number of facilitators asking them the same questions. This month we have the wonderful treat from hearing from a well known facilitator and author, Larry Dressler. Larry wrote “Standing In The Fire” and has just had his book translated into Japanese! I met Larry for the first…
Stop Wasting Everything You’ve Learned About Facilitation
I pulled a book off my shelf today by Susan Jeffers, “Embracing Uncertainty: Breakthrough Methods for Achieving Peace of Mind When Facing the Unknown”. The title is totally relevant to what I call facilitation design. (Ms. Jeffers also wrote “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway”). In this blog, I’m going to talk about a model…
Let’s Talk About My Mistakes
Making mistakes. We all make mistakes yet it is fairly painful to talk about them. It also potentially compromises our credibility. I listened to a radio show last night about a Canadian doctor who shared a TedTalk about the biggie mistakes he had made. Wow! Doctors talking about mistakes! Then I heard Brene Brown talk…
Just Say “Yes” to Small Groups
I heard some birds chirping outside my window while I was meditating the other morning. I am supposed to just notice the chirping and then go back to my breath. But instead I took a moment to really enjoy those sounds. Unfortunately, I digressed even further because it reminded me of my childhood. I used…
I Don’t Know What to Ask My Client – Tips for a Successful Interview
A Coaching Model to Help Us Interview Our Clients Awhile back I spoke about a Danish colleague who presented at the International Association of Facilitators Conference in the USA. (See “Space: The Final Frontier of Facilitation”) His name is Jens Lillebaek. He is an IAF certified professional facilitator (CPF©), a coach and a chief advisor…
Just Say “No” to Icebreakers
Over the last few months, I’ve had many opportunities to work with a variety of teams and I’m beginning to get a sense of some overarching “things to do” to ensure a stronger unified team. In the past, I’ve been well aware of the need to create comfort for the group early in the game. …
