What are the key skills for an effective facilitator?

• The role of the facilitator is very important in ensuring that participants feel at ease and are able to overcome any initial reticence about joining in and actively contributing to a focus group.
• Effective facilitators set the boundaries, let go of the content, and focus on the process.
• They engender confidence and trust, know when to intervene, and do not shirk difficult situations.
• They know what type of intervention is required in any given situation (telling the individual/group what to do, making suggestions and seeking consensus, or leaving the individual/group to decide how to proceed).
• They are highly skilled in observation, listening, reading body language, understanding human behaviour and building rapport.
• Effective facilitators promote conscious awareness of resources and abilities, help define and solidify values and beliefs, and guide people through appropriate encouragement and feedback.
• Perhaps above all they are good listeners, and non-judgemental, adaptable and inclusive in their approach.

 

Acquisition and development of these skills is not something that can be achieved over night. The good news is that they come through practice and reflection, so the only way forward is to try them out. Of course you will find that many of them are already there.

“The work focusing on competencies was really useful and helped us to concentrate on what matters most” West Sussex County Council Family Resources Service

“I enjoyed your style and methods hugely.” Fran Woodard, Director Modernisation Initiative