Participative Dynamics by Ingrid Bens

Ingrid Bens draws on her background in Adult Education and over 20 years experience as a facilitator to create fast-paced and interactive workshops on facilitation skills.

Facilitating With Ease! Workshop - Based on the Jossey-Bass Bestseller

Course Description

Facilitation is fast becoming a core competency for anyone who leads a team, coordinates a committee or manages a project. In fact it's impossible to create buy-in, set group goals or solve complex problems without highly developed facilitation skills.

This fast paced, experiential workshop provides an overview of the role of the facilitator, plus opportunities for practice using a wide range of tools and techniques. Through small group exercises, you will gain first hand knowledge about the critical importance of facilitation in running effective meetings.

Target audience: Anyone who conducts or attends meetings or leads a team.

Length of the workshop: 2 days

Learning Outputs of the Facilitating With Ease! Workshop:

Through both demonstration and hands-on practice this workshop provides:

an overview of the role of the facilitator
instruction in essential facilitator tools and techniques
practice with a wide range of decision-making options
targeted strategies for dealing with common team challenges
practice with a wide range of decision-making options
training in group conflict management techniques
insight into the key decision-making options
strategies for maintaining peak team performance through all phases of team development

Key benefits of this workshop:

multiple opportunities for hands-on practice and constructive feedback in a supportive workshop environment
experience using a flexible, core set of facilitation tools and techniques
insights into the critical importance of process in providing structure for group discussions
options for making decisions and for overcoming blocks to consensus
first hand experience of the dynamics of the team development stages
strategies for dealing constructively with team 'storming' and for effectively moving any team towards higher levels of performance
insight into key resistance factors for your project and specific techniques for surfacing and overcoming barriers
development of your personal conflict management skills for dealing with sensitive situations and for providing constructive feedback to team members
opportunities to explore typical team dilemmas and develop both corrective and preventative strategies
powerful techniques to enhance your personal leadership style

Materials

All participants receive a copy of the book "Facilitating With Ease!, plus a copy of the Memory Jogger "Facilitation At A Glance".

A partial list of the organizations who have conducted Facilitating with Ease! workshops with Ingrid Bens:

The Boeing Company General Electric Canada - Bayer - Royal Bank - Nabisco N.O.A.A. - Bell Canada - The United Way - Noma Industries -Honeywell Baystate Health Services - Cardinal FG - Inland Board and Paper The Banff Center for Management - Genzyme -The US Navy at Annapolis Harcourt Brace - National Education Association - Thermal Components A.A.R.P. - Federal Deposit Insurance Corp - Eaton Cutler Hammer Reliant Energy- St. Luke's Medical Group - Sarasota County Government K.P.M.G. - US Sugar - Veteran's Administration - USDA Graduate School

Typical Evaluations for the Facilitating With Ease! workshop

Sampling of Comments:

"This workshop provided me with great tools to make meetings run better."

"I now have things I can do to help my team if it gets into trouble."

"I wish I had had this class three years ago! Now I realize why my team ran out of energy"

"I learned a lot about myself and how I deal with conflict."

"The best thing I got was the confidence to be able to make interventions and deal with team problems on the spot. I have always just stood by while we spun in circle. This won't happen again!"

"I had never realized that structure and process were so important to running effective meetings."

"The tools that I am taking away with me are going to help me in every area of my life, not just at work."

"What I liked best was the opportunities for practice and all of the really helpful feedback. I could see a big improvement in how well I facilitated on the second day."

"I had taken facilitation skills before, but this time there was more emphasis on understanding the group dynamics, which made it more relevant to my work with my team."

"I now realize that a couple of teams I work with have been struggling because we have been operating without proper facilitation and attention to process."

"I got about 5 techniques that I'm going to take back with me and use right away at my next meeting."

Advanced Facilitation Strategies Workshop - New in 2005

Course Description

Today there are people from a wide variety of professions who have become facilitators In addition to a growing awareness of the value of facilitation, these new practitioners have come to appreciate the challenges of facilitating well.

Unfortunately facilitating has become a formidable task given today's climate of elevated distrust and anxiety. In many organizations people have become disillusioned because of failed, past initiatives. Many groups distrust those in positions of authority. In many meeting, the real issues remain hidden. In other instances individuals may be seeking personal power. Unresolved conflicts poison the atmosphere and make productive discussion difficult. In addition to all of these factors, people are increasingly insecure about their jobs and are reluctant to speak out.

This advanced workshop provides tools and techniques that are essential for facilitating effectively in today's challenging environment The agenda includes:

A review of key core skills and further practice of facilitation techniques
Sharing of a broad repertoire of behavioral and process tools and techniques essential for dealing with today's realities
techniques to strengthen personal conflict management and interventions skills
strategies for helping groups through difficult decision-making discussion
techniques for dealing with specific facilitation situations like lack of buy-in and resistance.
strategies for assessing participant needs and designing meeting processes

This two day Advanced Facilitation Skills Workshop builds on the existing skills of participants, to further support them to manage a wide variety of facilitation challenges with confidence.

The program is custom designed for each client, based on needs assessment input to ensure that all cases, role plays and situations used in the workshop are relevant to participant needs.

Check out other facilitation related workshops taught by our associates by going to our partner web-site:
Facilitation First.