ELEV-TS 006: Facilitation Skills

ELEV-TS 006: Facilitation Skills

Course Number: ELEV-TS 006

Duration: One day

Course Description:

Facilitation is often referred to as a cornerstone of modern management philosophy, with a strong focus on fairness, collaboration, and effective decision-making. Creating a comfortable and structured environment through skilled facilitation helps participants better understand how a facilitator can positively influence meetings, discussions, and group outcomes.

The Facilitation Skills course helps organizations make better decisions by strengthening participants’ ability to guide discussions, manage group dynamics, and keep meetings productive and focused. Participants will gain a clear understanding of facilitation principles and practical tools they can use to lead small group sessions with confidence. A strong understanding of how a facilitator sets the tone, manages the process, and guides group energy will put participants on the path to becoming effective facilitators.

By the end of this course, learners should be able to:

• Define facilitation and identify its purpose and benefits
• Clarify the role and focus of a facilitator
• Differentiate between process and content in group discussions
• Choose and prepare for facilitation appropriately
• Apply facilitation strategies across the forming, storming, norming, and performing stages of group development
• Help groups reach consensus through participation and solution selection
• Manage disruptions, dysfunctions, and difficult behaviors
• Understand when and how to use facilitation interventions

Course Modules:

Module One: Understanding Facilitation

• What facilitation is
• The role of a facilitator
• When facilitation is appropriate

Module Two: Process vs. Content

• Understanding process
• Understanding content
• The facilitator’s focus

Module Three: Laying the Groundwork

• Choosing a facilitated approach
• Planning for a facilitated meeting
• Collecting relevant data

Module Four: Tuckman and Jensen’s Model of Team Development

• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing

Module Five: Building Consensus

• Encouraging participation
• Gathering information
• Presenting information
• Synthesizing and summarizing

Module Six: Reaching a Decision Point

• Identifying options
• Creating a short list
• Choosing a solution
• Using the multi-option technique

Module Seven: Dealing with Difficult People

• Addressing disruptions
• Common difficult behaviors and how to handle them
• Helping groups resolve issues independently

Module Eight: Addressing Group Dysfunction

• Using ground rules to prevent dysfunction
• Restating and reframing issues
• Techniques for restating and reframing
• Getting the group back on track

Module Nine: About Intervention

• Why intervention may be necessary
• When to intervene
• Levels of intervention

Module Ten: Intervention Techniques

• Using facilitation processes
• Boomerang techniques
• ICE It: Identify, Check for agreement, Evaluate how to resolve

Enhance collaboration, improve decision-making, and lead more effective meetings with the Facilitation Skills course. Join now to build confidence, guide productive discussions, and become a highly effective facilitator.