Module 2

Core facilitation skills

Welcome back! 

Module 2 is about the core techniques that facilitators use – from tools like Zoom and Twitter, to how to plan and organise a session, and the fundamental verbal skills you need. We’ll end with a look at participatory techniques, because we’ve found that these are another important foundational skill to have under your belt, although maybe a bit more advanced.

Let’s get started!

Module 2, Activity 1: Zoom tips and tricks

Though many of us use Zoom a lot for online meetings, we might not have explored all the options it gives us as facilitators.

  • Watch this video (duration 45 mins), which is the training session on Zoom that our first cohort did.
  • Open a new Zoom meeting using your own Zoom account. (If you can do this while the video is playing, and follow along, that’s great, but if your bandwidth won’t let you do both at the same time, open a meeting after you’ve finished watching.) In your meeting, try out some of the controls discussed in the video.
  • If you can, find a partner to practice with. You can take turns being either the host, or being the “participant” and giving feedback to the host to say what their actions look like from your end.

Module 2, Activity 2: Twitter Spaces tips and tricks

  • Go through our Bite-Size Learning Resource about Twitter Spaces.
  • In your own “Notes” doc, which you created in Module 1, list 3 points that you consider important for facilitating a good Twitter Space. To do this, you can draw on our Bite-Size learning resource, and/or on your own experiences of attending Twitter spaces; or you can research online or by asking colleagues or friends who attend Twitter Spaces.

Module 2, Activity 3: Before, during and after

The range of what a facilitator does will vary from meeting to meeting. Depending on the needs of the group, you might be more involved, or less involved, in planning, publicity, clear-up, review/retrospective, and documentation. It can often be helpful for you as a facilitator if you can have some input into these things – but keep an eye out for “task creep”, so you’re not being asked to go too far beyond your remit.

Whatever happens, a facilitator’s work usually stretches a bit beyond the meeting itself. We have tasks to do before a meeting, during a meeting, and afterwards. That’s what we will explore in this activity.

Here is a checklist of tasks that facilitators often need to do before, during, and after a meeting.

Make a copy of it.

Now, in your own copy:

  1. Look to see if there are any tasks that you wouldn’t take on in the types of meetings you want to facilitate, or that you feel are unnecessary, or not the facilitator’s responsibility. Either delete them, or make a heading (“Nope!” or “I wouldn’t”) at the end of the document and cut-and-paste them there. Note: there’s no “correct” answer here – it will depend a lot on your style as a facilitator, your skills, and the types of organisations you tend to work with. 
  2. Now look through the tasks that are left, and pick out one (or maybe two) in each section, “before”, “during” and “after”, that you think are the most important – or maybe the most likely to have an important effect on the meeting.
  3. Now add any tasks that you think are missing from the list.

Now visit this Padlet, and comment under each of the 3 headings according to what you decided above.
You can also comment on other people’s posts.

Note:
Remember that when you are planning to facilitate a particular meeting, you can use the “Before, During and After” list to help you plan, your session, in the following way:

  • Make another copy of it; 
  • Title your copy with the title of the meeting you are planning;
  • Go through and remove any tasks that are not relevant to this specific meeting.
  • Add any tasks that are missing;
  • Deleteany of the notes that you don’t need, leaving just the names of the tasks and any detail that you find useful;
  • Use the list as a checklist for yourself, and tick the tasks off when done.

Module 2, Activity 4: Verbal facilitation techniques

During a meeting, the things you say (the verbal techniques you use) can help keep the meeting on track, help everyone to grasp what’s been said, and ensure everyone feels heard and included.

Start by reading through our Bite-Size Learning resource on verbal facilitation techniques.

At the end, you will see a link to the resource as a Google doc. Follow this link, and if you have any suggestions for other verbal techniques that you have found successful and would like to add, add them as a comment in the doc. We’ll update the doc periodically to incorporate people’s suggestions.

Module 2, Activity 5: Participatory processes in facilitation

Participatory facilitation processes are ones which try to move a meeting away from being led entirely by the facilitator, and towards a more co-operative approach, where everyone is running the meeting together. They can help you to share power with the community you’re facilitating.

  • Using your own “Notes” doc, which you created in Module 1, write down 2 or 3 things that you think a facilitator can do to make a meeting more participatory.
  • Lastly – look again at the section in our Bite-Size resource about using participatory activities. A few examples are given – but often, facilitators devise their own, according to the specifics of the meeting. So in your “Notes” doc, draft an idea for a participatory activity you think would work in your community, and paste it into this doc. You can design it yourself from scratch, or you can Google, or use ChatGPT, to get some ideas – but please say a bit about what context you would be using it in, and why you think it would work.

Feedback

Before you go, we’d love it if you could complete this form to give us some feedback about how you found this module. With your help, we can make the course even better!

That’s the end of Module 2 – thanks for taking part, and see you in Module 3!