Category Archives: Facilitation

The Five Ps of Preparing for a Session

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There is a clear difference between delivering a training session and facilitating a group session to achieve a desired output. According to Michael Wilkinson (in Secrets of Facilitation), a facilitated session is:

A highly structured meeting in which the facilitator guides the participants through a series of predefined steps to arrive at a result that is created, understood, and accepted by all participants.

A training session on the other hand is:

A structured meeting aimed at helping a group of participants learn knowledge or skills to meet a performance gap. The training session will have clear learning objectives which need to be acheived by the end of the session.

While both types of sessions may be distinct, they require mostly the same skills. A key facilitation skill that can also be used when preparing a training session is to prepare using the 5 Ps.

SMART facilitators know that whether they are preparing for running a task force meeting, delivering a presentation, or meeting with a customer, the secret to preparation is the same: they must achieve a clear understanding of the 5 Ps.

Michael Wilkinson

I would add training sessions, face-to-face or virtual to the list of meetings to prepare for in the above quote using the 5 Ps.

With that in mind, what are the five Ps?

The five Ps are, Purpose, Product, Participants, Probable Issues, and Process.

  • Purpose: Why are we holding this session? What are the key objectives? For a training session, you will need to be clear about why the training session is needed. As much as possible, you should never run a training session that isn’t necessary. That is a waste of people’s time and organisational resources. Make sure you have a clear business case for the training and when you design the learning objectives they should identify the value that people will gain after attending the session.
  • Product: What do we want to have produced once we are done? How will we know we have been successful? For training this ‘P’ points to two things. Firstly, what should the participants know and be able to do after the training session. Secondly, how will we be able to tell that they know it and they can do it? The first is what the training session’s learning objectives should clarify. The second is about deciding how to evaluate the training course before you even start designing and developing it. In fact, evaluation should be a part of the design and development process.
  • Participants: Who needs to be involved and what are their perspectives? You should have some knowledge about the participants you are training. Such knowledge may include, who they are, their knowledge and skill levels relating to the training topic, why they are attending the training, and any extra support they may need such as special needs support.
  • Probable issues: What are the concerns that will likely arise? What are the challenges that could prevent us from creating the product and achieving the purpose? From a training perspective, the question here is, what are the challenges that can prevent us from achieving the learning objectives? You should think about that beforehand.
  • Process: What steps should we take during the meeting to achieve the purpose, given the product desired, the participants, and the probable issues we will face. Gathering necessary information and following a robust design process should help you develop the necessary steps to run the training session successfully. A good training session plan should be in place to guide you.

The five Ps, though a facilitation framework can be useful in designing, developing, and delivering training too. They cover things we should always think about when we want to implement any kind of training programme.

Questions for Responding to Participants when Facilitating a Training Session

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One of the most important skills that any learning facilitator must have is the ability to manage groups with questions. Whether it’s a training or group development session that you are running, you must be able to ask questions that help you to manage the group appropriately. You should also be able to ask questions that challenge your participants to think.

In The Secrets of Facilitation, Michael Wilkinson presents us with some questions which are useful for responding to participants. The questions are:

  • Direct probe question
  • Playback question
  • Indirect probe question
  • Leading question
  • Redirection question
  • Prompt question

Let’s explore each of them.

Direct Probe Question

The direct probe question can be used to challenge the perception of a participant. Let’s say a participant challenges something you said, you can respond to them with a direct probe question. Here’s an example:

  • Participant: I don’t believe that is correct.
  • Direct probe question (from facilitator): Okay, what’s your reason for saying it isn’t correct?

This question is a direct probe to the participant to help you understand why they feel what you said is not correct.

Playback question

Use this type of question to check that you understand what the participant is saying. It is a question you can use to clarify that you understand correctly what someone said.

  • Participant: There are only two types of feedback and not three.
  • Playback question (from facilitator): So your view is that there are only two types of feedback and not three. Is that correct?

This question helps you to make sure that you understand the participant correctly.

Indirect probe question

Use this question to get the participant to clarify something they said instead of you clarifying it. Here’s an example:

  • Participant: There are only two types of feedback and not three.
  • Indirect probe question (from facilitator): So, what you are saying is…?

With this question you allow the participant to clarify what they said earlier.

Leading question

Leading questions have a bad reputation and we are usually told not to use them. But when facilitating groups and you are trying to get information out of them when they are clearly overlooking information in specific areas then you may use a leading question to prompt them to think of that area.

  • Participant(s): The different types of leadership styles are situational, visionary, and authoritative.
  • Leading question (from facilitator): Are there any leadership styles related to emotional intelligence?

Leading questions can be used to prompt participants to think of solutions and ideas in areas they may have overlooked.

Redirection question

Use this question type to get a conversation or the session back on track. This I believe is a very important question because sessions can get off track and may need to be brought back to focus especially when people start talking about things that are not relevant to the session

  • A participant raises an issue not relevant to the current discussion.

Redirection question (from facilitator): That’s an important perspective, can we note it down? We might be able to discuss it later if there is time.

Prompt question

Use this question to get the group going again if for some reason they have stalled.

Prompt question (from facilitator): You contributed the following points……what else might we need to think about here?

You can phrase this question in many different forms. The main principle behind it is that it gets the group moving again.

So, there you have it. Six questions that you can add to your group facilitation toolbox.

SMART Facilitation Skills for Learning and Group Facilitators

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About 20 years ago when I first started as a learning and development practitioner, I had just finished a train-the-trainer course and I wanted to learn more about facilitation skills. I can’t quite remember how I came across the book, whether it was suggested or I found it through a web search, but I bought a book called, The Secrets of Facilitation by Michael Wilkinson. To date, that book is still one of my best resources on facilitation skills.

Secrets of Facilitation deals with the subject from a pure facilitator’s point of view. It is not a learning and development book in any form but the skills can be used by learning and development practitioners running face-to-face, virtual and other types of group sessions. Recently, I’ve picked up the book again to review some of the skills I learned from the book, a number of which I have used in sessions. In fact, some time ago, I did a session on facilitation skills for some support group facilitators and most of what I discussed with them came from the book.

(The image shown below is for the older version of the book which is the one I bought but there is an updated version).

So, please follow me as I review some of the key skills in the book and how I have or will use them in training and other types of group facilitation sessions. Let me share a bit more about the book.

The book is based on a facilitation framework called SMART facilitation. SMART stands for Structured Meeting and Relating Techniques. What SMART does is combine various facilitation skills into a structure that flows into each other. The chart in the image below outlines the principles of SMART facilitation as a framework.

Each of the boxes in the chart (above) has a chapter in the book where the author goes into detail about each of them. Following is a top-level summary of what each of the boxes deal with (taken directly from the book):

  • Asking questions: Design the questions to get better answers.
  • Preparing for success: Know your five Ps (Preparation, Purpose, Product, Participants, Probable issues, and Process)
  • Getting the session started: Inform, Excite, Involve, and Empower.
  • Focusing the group: Establish the course, and avoid detours.
  • Using the pen: Use it, don’t abuse it, and make it theirs.
  • Closing the session: Review, Evaluate, Close, and Debrief.
  • Information gathering: Know your tools and how to use them.
  • Managing dysfunction: Conscious presentation, early detection, and clean resolution.
  • Building consensus: Create and maintain a consensus-focused process.
  • Keeping the energy high: Set the pace, anticipate the lulls, and react accordingly.
  • Agenda setting: Adapt your agenda to address the need.

In subsequent articles, I will review some of the skills I have found useful and how I have used them from the book.