Facilitation skills are an
important part of interpersonal relationship skills, as opposed to cognitive
skills which focus on creating new ideas or technical skills required in a vast
world of technology. Understanding what facilitation skills are, will help you
to understand how to utilize your facilitation skills.
What is facilitation?
“Facilitation focuses on how
people participate in the process of learning or planning.”
What are facilitation skills?
Facilitation skills help people
to be motivated in a positive, constructive way, directed towards specific
goals. The person with facilitation skills becomes a facilitator who remains
neutral while encouraging others to become active participants in a task or
process. How to utilize your facilitation skills is part of a
complex realm of personal growth and discovery.
Consider the following guidelines.
Become a people helper.
Recognize the reality that you have the ability to help others by allowing them
to express their thoughts and ideas without judging, criticizing or voicing
your opinion. In other words, do not stifle others or overrule what they
attempt to express.
Encourage everyone to work in
harmony as a community. Many tasks or projects are too difficult or complex for
one person to undertake alone. Working together in groups can make a big
difference and accomplish far more. Guiding others non-judgmentally while
developing a functional structure or organization, allows them the freedom to
work together freely, in a way that everyone feels good about him or herself.
Avoid being over-opinionated.
Instead, develop your facilitation horizons further, while drawing what you can
learn from the experience and expertise of others around you. Even a young
child can teach you something if you are teachable, so be open to learn from
everyone.
If you keep life in its proper
perspective by maintaining an attitude of hope, expectation and anticipation,
others will learn to do the same. Set a powerful example as a facilitator and
others will follow your lead.
Guide others in the decision
making process in such a way that the decisions made by them become appropriate
for their tasks or projects. Encourage the contributions of others, even if their
contributions do not always seem appropriate, immediately. At the same time,
allow them the opportunity to weigh the pros and cons and guide them towards
final decisions that are appropriate.
Take time to talk with others
and offer them encouragement as many people are frustrated, confused and
discouraged. Be a guide, as well as a good listener and avoid taking sides in
the arguments of others. Let them work out their differences and structure
opportunities them to do so.
Be aware of what other
facilitators around you are doing in order to plan, organize or carry out tasks
and projects. Learn how to delegate others who are open and willing to carry
out specific projects on a smaller scale, so that the entire facilitation
process does not fall on your shoulders.
Facilitation is a learned art
that is instinctive to some, but comes from experience and engaging in
research. If you know how to organize a brain storming session, you can be an excellent facilitator because the skills are similar. Being a
leader who organizes a debate between others is the art of facilitation. Note
that being able to use your facilitation skills can lead you to work with
larger and larger groups of people, in or beyond your own community. The task
can become national or international in scope.
Your attitude towards
facilitation is important, so put on a happy face and keep on smiling. Others
will do the same and become facilitators with the right attitude too.
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