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How to Improve Your Facilitation Skills (and be a Great Facilitator)

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A complete guide to co-facilitation

One facilitator can make a workshop great. Bringing a co-facilitator can lead to even better engagement, providing participants and facilitators with additional space and focus to reach their desired outcomes.But how can you make co-facilitation a valuable and effective process that justifies the additional cost? How can you be a better co-facilitator? In this guide, we’ll explore the different styles of co-facilitation, how to work with a co-facilitator effectively, and how to pitch co-facilitation to clients too! Workshops, events and training sessions are often complex to design and exhausting to run. Facilitation is a workplace super skill, and while a single facilitator can make all the difference, sometimes they need…

How to design a learning and development strategy

Workforce development is increasing at a faster rate than ever before, especially with the shift toward digital processes. People’s working lives are far longer, and remote work and hybrid scenarios are becoming increasingly common. As the necessary skills in business are constantly evolving, staying ahead of learning and development is a must for companies today. Having a great learning and development strategy is not only important for the companies themselves but for employees too. People are not only working to make a living, and value investing in their personal growth and overall job satisfaction. Whether it’s improving soft skills in developing team emotional intelligence, or cultivating practical skills to adapt…

Free online tools for workshops and meetings

47 useful online tools for workshop planning and meeting facilitation

Effective online tools are a necessity for smooth and engaging virtual workshops and meetings. But how do you choose the right ones? Do you sometimes feel that the good old pen and paper or MS Office toolkit and email leaves you struggling to stay on top of managing and delivering your workshop? Fortunately, there are plenty of online tools to make your life easier when you need to facilitate a meeting and lead workshops. In this post, we’ll share our favorite online tools you can use to make your job as a facilitator easier. In fact, there are plenty of free online workshop tools and meeting facilitation software you can…

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27 Decision-making Techniques and Activities for Deciding Together

In our groups and organizations, we want to move forward. We want to get things done, take action and change things in the world. To do that, we need to align on what we will do together, and how. In other words, we need to decide. Deciding in a group setting is not always easy! In fact, arguments over whether a decision has been taken (and it’s time to implement it) or not yet (so we are still discussing) are one of the most common sources of conflicts in a team. In this post, we have put together a collection of 27 decision-making techniques you can facilitate to help your…

How to Improve Group Decision-making (and Take Better Decisions!)

We join forces with others, creating groups, teams, and whole organizations, in order to advance toward a vision. We want to get things done. And in order to get things done, we need to take decisions, so that we can take the next step toward achieving those aims, missions, and goals.Why is it so common to argue over whether a decision was taken or not? When should we decide together, and when is it ok for one person to go ahead? What are the different ways of taking decisions? Which will work for you and your team? In this article we’ll cover all you need to know, as a facilitator…

Stay on time while running your sessions with Time Tracker

However well you’ve planned your workshop, all facilitators know that plans can change in the moment. Activities overrun. Great topics emerge and you have to choose what to cut. All while trying to stay on schedule and finish on time. There’s a lot for facilitators to keep track of! We heard time and time again that facilitators like you wanted a simple way to stay on time while delivering their workshops. Now, you can use SessionLab to keep track of time and make changes when running your sessions! With Time Tracker, you can start tracking time in your sessions with a single click. See exactly where you are in your…

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Our Guide to Facilitation Week 2022

Where focus goes, energy flows. And in October, the world of facilitation’s focus is on the rich calendar of co-created events of Facilitation Week! Facilitation Week is a yearly marathon catalyzed by IAF, the International Association of Facilitators. This year, it will run from the 17th to the 23rd of October, in all time zones, live and online!There is always a lot to learn and you can expect every session to be lively and participatory. But before you go check out the entire event list, heed a word of warning! The week is absolutely packed with great events running for free, online, and open to anyone. There is so much…

How to Create an Inspiring Presentation for your Workshop

Have you ever been at a presentation or workshop and found yourself forcing your eyes to stay open? Bored out of your mind, and struggling to focus, the host is bleating on… and on. The concepts are too hard to follow, the words becoming a meaningless, tiresome cloud. Next time you struggle to sleep, it’ll be this guy’s waffling drivel that’ll send you to the land of nod. Together, we’ll discover how to put the “Pow!” back into PowerPoint. In this article we’ll explore: Why visual presentations are importantWhat to consider when planning presentationsHow to design an engaging visual presentationHow to choose an engaging formatWhich tools are best for designing…

40 brainstorming techniques to unlock great ideas as a group

Finding new and innovative ideas is a vital part of the growth and success of any team or organization. While the brainstorming process is rightly perceived as creative and exciting, it’s important to find a framework and idea-generation process that empowers your group to generate meaningful results. Innovation is important for many businesses, but how might you use brainstorming techniques to make true innovation a reality? In this post, we’ll explore a host of effective brainstorming techniques in categories such as creative exercises and visual idea generation games, while also considering virtual techniques you can use to ideate online. We’ll also explore some rules for brainstorming, talk about the benefits…

a graphic design representing an agenda, participants and notes in a meeting

How to facilitate a meeting (practical tips and tools)

Getting stuff done usually requires coordinating efforts with other people. Which often translates into setting up dedicated spaces in which to discuss, create, prioritize and decide together. Those spaces are different from our normal interactions. They are set aside from the rest of the flow of the day, and they have rituals to start and end: we call them meetings. Learning how to facilitate a meeting effectively and improve team interactions is a valuable skill. Read on to find out how you can improve how you plan and run your meetings! I know, from lived experience, that meetings can be pleasant experiences of learning and empowerment, where collective genius is…

How to facilitate a Quarterly Planning Process (Detailed Guide)

Setting a coherent strategy for your company is important. And getting everyone on your team to row in the same direction is essential to achieve your goals. However, creating strategy alignment across a company, and within teams is not trivial. At SessionLab, we had our round of struggles with quarterly planning and goal setting as our company was scaling from a founder-driven, few people operations to a more structured and process-driven organization. In this article I will share the insights we learned from designing and facilitating our quarterly goals setting and alignment process. After a couple of quarters of iterations, we’re happy with a format that seems to work and…

A step-by-step guide to planning a workshop

Going from a mere idea to a workshop that delivers results for your clients can feel like a daunting task. In this piece, we will shine a light on all the work behind the scenes. On a good day, facilitation can feel like effortless magic, but that is mostly the result of backstage work, foresight, and a lot of careful planning. Read on to learn a step-by-step approach to breaking the process of planning a workshop into small, manageable chunks. The flow starts with the first meeting with a client to define the purposes of a workshop. In other words, we are working on the assumption that the facilitator has…

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