PhD & ECR Intro to Facilitation Workshop

We are pleased to invite you to our forthcoming ‘Introduction to Facilitation Skills’ workshop delivered by Dr Amanda Slevin and hosted by QUB’s Centre for Sustainability, Equality and Climate Action (SECA).

This workshop is aimed at PhD students and Early Career Researchers as an introduction to building key facilitation skills and competencies. The event will be held from 10.30 – 13.00 on Friday 26th of September, in 27 University Square. It offers participants an opportunity to develop their knowledge of facilitation and practically apply their skills in scenario-based mock discussions.

The workshop will cover:

• What does it mean to be a facilitator?

• When might we use facilitation skills? (e.g. meetings, workshops, participatory research)

• What makes a good facilitator? (styles of facilitation and self-reflexivity)

• Group dynamics, group work processes and how to manage different audiences and difficult personalities. (preparation when co-facilitating and strategies for managing discussion)

• Organising, designing and evaluating a session. (setting expectations and establishing common goals, learning from what works/ doesn’t work for you as a facilitator)

Registration will close on Friday 19 September

If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact event co-organisers Karl Vidamour (kvidamour01@qub.ac.uk or Eoin Magorrian (pmagorrian03@qub.ac.uk)

Introduction to facilitation skills:

Facilitation can take various forms with a commonality being the facilitator’s focus on enabling groups to explore issues, make decisions and take action on matters they articulate.

When assisting discussions, a key task of a facilitator is to help the group to reach an accord, based on goals they set themselves early on in the discussion, by focusing the energy of the group towards the predetermined objective.

To achieve this effectively the facilitator acts as a neutral party; they do not contribute or evaluate ideas and instead ensure the discussion remains focused on the task at hand. The core ways in which a facilitator will achieve a productive discussion is through encouraging participation from all parties and providing a safe platform for individuals to share their ideas, acting as a referee in times of tension or conflict.

Having an awareness of personal strengths and weaknesses is a powerful way to identify the approaches a facilitator can take to maximise their effectiveness in managing group discussions, as well as identifying areas that may need to be developed in order to maintain a balanced atmosphere. Guiding individuals to mutually beneficial solutions is the goal, and so having a flexible understanding of facilitation skills and techniques is mandatory when providing alternative perspectives for problem solving.

Individual personalities and group dynamics are diverse, so facilitators must be well equipped to deal with tensions that might arise from conflicting personalities. Recognising and mediating tension is a vital part of the facilitation role. Understanding how tension can arise through over/under-participation, distractions, complainers or passive discussions allows the facilitator to equip themselves with the necessary resources to deal with these difficulties.