Using Facilitator Skills When Running a Team Event

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What are facilitator skills? Why are they important when you run a team development game or activity?

In this short article Sarah Cook explains how facilitators can help the trainer when running team events.

'Facilitator' comes from the French word 'facile': to make easy.  The role of the trainer when running a game or activity should be to set the game up so that participants understand what they have to do and how long they have to do it in.  After this point, your facilitator skills come into place!

Your role is not to intervene in the game (unless for health and safety reasons), to provide answers or additional information (unless this is called for as part of the game).  If you remain in 'trainer' mode the natural temptation is to provide hints and clues to 'nudge' the group towards the desired answers.

When you run the activity in 'facilitator' mode, you do not take part, you refer the group to their instructions if they have any questions, you observe and listen.

Essentially the participants control the outcome of the activity. Your role as facilitator is to draw the learning from the activity, to provide feedback and insights based on your observations, to use effective questioning to help the group come to their own conclusions.

For more information on facilitating games contact Sarah Cook, 01628 526535 Sarah Cook is Managing Director of leadership and service excellence specialists, The Stairway Consultancy.

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