Led by Rev. Cathy Rion Starr & Elisse Ghitelman

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Remove distractions

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Get a beverage

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Get note-taking stuff

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Center yourself

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Get anything you need to be present

Welcome to our first Skill

Up of 2023!

Community Agreements

• Respect our facilitators by letting them lead.
• Bring your full self - with your questions, curiosity, & energy (or lack thereof)
• Put your questions in the chat
• Keep the chat focused
• Share the air
• Speak from your personal experience
• Take responsibility when your actions cause harm
• Minimize use of jargon
• We are all worthy now just as we are. We are enough. Gathering to learn and act in community today brings us closer to the goal of collective liberation.

Click phone to mute or unmute

and click on video to wave hello

Click “Participants” and “Chat”

Zoom Set-up

Click “Live Transcript” Then “show subtitle”

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or “…More” if you don’t see that option

Facilitation is both:

Roadmap

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Reflection & Breakout What makes a good meeting?

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Presentation

Theory & tips

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Practice Breakouts

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Wrap Up

Which of these is your biggest pet peeve? Write your number in the chat!

When you’re in a meeting and everyone’s desperate to leave….but that one person who loves the sound of their own voice keeps asking questions

Tell me again

Why this meeting couldn’t have been just an email?

For a well-facilitated gathering, attendees should have positive answers to:

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1. Why should I come?

What might I contribute? What will I learn? Who will I interact with?

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• Why does it matter that I’m here?

Am I engaged? Am I actively involved? Do I feel safe being myself?

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• What are we taking away because we were there?

Have we seen new perspectives? Have we made new connections?

Do we have a deeper understanding of the issues and each other?

Well-facilitated meetings are…

3 minutes in groups of 3

Think of the last gathering or meeting you attended where you sensed the whole group felt engaged, actively involved & safe being themselves.

What made that possible?

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GROUP’S CONTAINER

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its capacity to hold the work*

FACILITATOR

*Thanks to Training for Change for this definition

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“A facilitator accepts responsibility to help the group move through the agenda in the time available and to make necessary decisions and plans to get the work done.” ~350.org

Facilitator

Group

Leader

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CONTAINER BUILDING

BIG PICTURE & STRUCTURE

INTERVENTION

The Basics

• Agenda - have one! Opening, Meat/Tofu, Closing
• Introductions: Get everyone’s voice & name in the room - connect!
• Roles: co/facilitator, note taker, room/Zoom set up, process observer
• Room set up for accessibility and engagement– Circle? Table? Zoom?
• Bodies – Breaks, food, movement

CONTAINER BUILDING

…..here’s 2 resources for more on that….

How to Facilitate Meetings the NO Magic way from 350.org

and in more detail (and a bit older), Meetings that Work (UUA, 2005)

CONTAINER BUILDING

GROUP’S CONTAINER

=

its capacity to hold the work

Trust to be Vulnerable

Center Relationships

Norms and Covenant with Clear Boundaries

Plan as if anybody could be there:

• Make a meeting that works for them
• Mix up the way that you do activities to meet different learning and participation styles

Begin with an agenda and a plan for each part:

• Information sharing: slide show, video, share ahead of time
• Participant sharing: large group, small groups, verbally, in the chat
• Making sure everyone gets time; using a timer if needed

BIG PICTURE & STRUCTURE

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Manage transitions and sidetracks

• Remember to “go up to the balcony” to get the big big picture of what’s happening
• Keep the meeting focused,
• Sum up one section and smooth the transition to the next
• Sense the pulse of the room (harder on Zoom)

Be ready to adjust as needed

• This comes with experience!

BIG PICTURE & STRUCTURE

INTERVENTION

Even with the best design, the meeting doesn’t run itself!

It is YOUR job to intervene

Maintain Focus

Equalize Participation

Interrupt & Invite

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Tools: go around, thumb vote, 1 minute reflection

Norm-breaking

“Let’s put that on the bike rack”

“Hold that thought - let’s stick with X right now”

“X is really juicy for us - do we want to devote time to this now?”

Name it!

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Nuance & care

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CONTAINER BUILDING

BIG PICTURE & STRUCTURE

INTERVENTION

Let’s

Practice!

15-20 minutes in groups of 5-7

The setup: The Social Action committee is meeting to decide who the “share the plate offerings” will go to next church year. The chair has invited everyone to bring their suggestions. The morning before the meeting, they call to tell you they can’t be there and could you please run this meeting. They have been the chair for a long time and run the meeting by the seat of their pants, but have a lot of “respect" from people. You are relatively new to this church and younger than many folks on the committee.

1. Introduce yourselves.
2. Take 5 minutes to talk about what could make this meeting challenging to run.
3. Spend the rest of the time coming up with strategies that might make for a more successful, less stressful meeting where everyone feels heard and you make some progress.
4. *Meta View: Notice your own breakout group dynamics*

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What made that possible?

PAPER PLATE CHALLENGE

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CONTAINER

FACILITATOR

Skills & Tools

AND

Gut & Experience

Facilitation is both:

CONTAINER BUILDING

BIG PICTURE & STRUCTURE

INTERVENTION

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CONTAINER

FACILITATOR

Skills & Tools

AND

Gut & Experience

Facilitation is both:

CONTAINER BUILDING

BIG PICTURE & STRUCTURE

INTERVENTION

YOU CAN DO IT!

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With Practice

And Tools

No, Pastor, I don’t think this budget meeting has gone on too long….

Why would you think that?

SideWithLove.org/events

BE THE FIRST TO KNOW WHAT’S COMING UP!

This Thursday!

Thank you!

Scroll on for Resources & Links

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Top 3

• How to Facilitate Meetings the NO Magic way – 350.org – REALLY SOLID & SIMPLE
• 350.org Online Training Monster Manual – Slide Deck Template with a lot of great online activities (See more Facilitation resources from 350.org)
• Meetings that Work – UUA from 2005 – lots of good stuff, some outdated

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More Tools:

• Building Safety In a Group – Training for Change Handout
• Sequencing Activities in a Workshop – Training for Change handout
• FacilitatingXYZ - Treasure trove of resources, videos, tools
• Liberating STructures - an app & website with lots of exercises/tools for conversation
• Public Speaking & Facilitation workshop YOU can lead with your folks

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Welcoming and Warming up Participants

• Make people feel welcomed. Go up to people you don’t know, talk, make sure no one feels left out or alone – help cliques break up.
• Pick an effective icebreaker. Get people to loosen up, and interact with each other. Re-seat people and mix up groups so they get to know each other.
• Do a team building activity. This gets people involved together in a group activity and creates the importance of group teamwork. Debrief and reflect!

Setting the tone

• Lively facilitation. You have to convey your own energy and commitment for the topic that you are facilitation so others feel it too.
• Speak clearly and loudly. So that everyone can hear.
• Pace your presentation so that it is not rushed. Give participants time to absorb and think about it so that they have time to ask questions before you move on.
• Set agreements and stick to them! Use agreements to keep people on track. You can set agreements at the beginning of the session.

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from Californians For Justice www.caljustice.org

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Encourage participation and listening

• Reinforce participation. Look at participants when they speak. Nod in agreement. Smile!
• Keep order. If there are many people that want to speak, say & write their names down in a “stack” & call them to speak in order.
• Diversify speakers. Make sure that the order you choose has a balance of men, women, people of color, youth speaking, etc. Make sure you are valuing a diversity of opinions.
• Make sure people can hear each other. Ask a participant who is speaking quietly to speak up . Say things like “Did everyone hear that?
• Make sure that participants respond to each other’s comments. Keeps the participants responding to each other rather than to just the facilitator.
• Call for a go-around. If you want to make sure everyone has a chance to speak to the topic, call for a “go-around” to have each participant speak, or pass.

Presentation and Move it Forward Tips

• Use visual aides to help clarify points and make things more interesting. Write legibly and large and make sure everyone can see it.
• Summarize main points to move discussion forward. After everyone has spoken, pause and summarize the main points so that people have a clear idea of what has been said.
• Find the proposal. The facilitator’s job is to “find” the proposal – to pull together ideas and present it to the group.
• Keep comments to the point. If someone brings up an issue that doesn’t relate to the topic, respectfully ask them to hold that point, or “park it” for later discussion.

Create Next Steps: never let anyone leave the meeting before reaffirming the commitments (sign ups) they have made.

from Californians For Justice www.caljustice.org

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1. Understanding Facilitation as a Nuanced Skill.Facilitation is…well…both nuanced and a skill: two things we don’t give it enough credit for being. In this chapter we’ll talk about why facilitation is a skill, who gets to identify as a facilitator, and the need to practice facilitation.

2. Facilitation vs. Teaching vs. Lecturing.Facilitation is a different style of engagement from teaching or lecturing. What makes it different? Why is that difference so important? What are things that we are giving up and gaining by choosing to facilitate?

3. Being Neutral.This chapter could also be called “Neutrality is non-existent” or “Neutrality: That would be nice, and so would Santa Claus.” Being a facilitator is not about being neutral, but instead about being honest and open with your group about your goals together, and recognizing the implicit bias in those goals.

4. How to Read a Group.Start by listening. Get to know them before they get in the room as much as possible, and then pay attention to what they are expressing and sharing in order to know where to go next. Groups are writing a lot about what they need; you just need to start reading.

5. Both/And is Greater than But/Or.The power of replacing but with “and” is incredible. Find out why in facilitation it can change how your participants respond and react and how you respond and react to them. Pulling ourselves out of the duality of either/or, the almighty “and” helps us see multiple realities as feasible and present.

6. The “Yes, and…” Rule.One of the foundational rules of improv has become one of our foundational concepts of facilitation. By adding to someone’s reality rather than negating it, you can often learn much more about a person’s perspective, understanding, and ideas, than any “no” could ever bring you.

7. Asking Good Questions.Good questions are more than just “open-ended” questions. Good facilitators ask good questions; great facilitators know how to do that every time. We cover what makes a good question, what kind of questions are out there to be asked, and what kind is best in what scenario.

8. Safe Spaces for Vulnerability.Facilitating can be challenging; showing up and really being seen while you’re facilitating can be even harder. We explore the impact of vulnerability on facilitation, and how courageous compassion is required to make a space where folks can learn from vulnerability.

9. Triggers.Not all experiences within a training are pleasant or wanted, and sometimes they leave our blood boiling and our heart racing. To be an effective facilitator, it’s our responsibility to manage our triggers, and we give you a model for doing just that.

10. Learning from Emotions.Emotions happen. As facilitators, we have a choice of whether to invite emotions into our trainings and what to do when they show up. We’ll explore how to make the most of those emotional moments, and the types of powerful learning available when you get ready to wrestle with emotions.

11. Role Modeling Continuous Learning (or The Myth of the Expert).We ask a lot of our participants, but perhaps nothing more important than being open to new learning. As a facilitator, we must lean into our own request, own our journeys, and role model the importance of saying, “I don’t know.”

from Unlocking the Magic of Facilitation

http://facilitationmagic.com/

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