Thank you for joining us.
Well good yeah I think we've

got uh you know several people
uh and I think right now we

have about 12 folks uh you
know take out the host in my

little AI bot about I think
it's nine or ten so a good

start hope everybody's doing
well this morning uh it's 8 29

we'll get started in just a
minute uh nice to see uh you

know I definitely familiar
face uh in the room here

brother I forgot your name now
but but the beard you know I

always remember the beard
So nobody sees us peering.

Sorry, can I mute people? it
just in the settings? What if

you have to do before
you get into here?

All right, we are at 8 31. I
think we'll probably just give

it just another minute. I'll
see what Jennifer wants to do.

But I anticipate that we'll
get started in just a few

moments here. I am I can see
myself but I mean I can. I

know that I'm on but I can't
see myself on the screen here.

I thought you live. Yeah.
All right, Jennifer are you

still with me?
I am. I'm trying to figure out

how to record this. Gotcha.
All right. So I think if you

see a setting for more, it's
like more than dot dot dot.

Yeah. Click on that. I think
there's the option to record

underneath that menu for you.
No, it didn't. It doesn't give

it to me there. So that's why
I'm like, huh, what did I do?

Gotcha. Well, no worries. I
have my little meetings frog

in here. It'll, it'll, it'll
get the recording for Okay,

awesome. All right. Well, I
mean, with all that said, I

think we'll go ahead and get
started. It looks like we have

close to 20 people online with
us today. So I think that's a

good-sized group and roughly
half of what we anticipated

when this was going to be in
person a little while back. So

hey, folks, and welcome to
Facilitation Fundamentals.

Some of you may know, I'm Jay
Turner. I'm the owner of EDUJ

LLC. I'm a human resources and
org development company. That

works primarily with public
libraries and nonprofits. So

I'm really thrilled to be
joining you all today to

discuss what I consider a key
leadership field, and that is

facilitating productive
meetings and strategic

conversations. So I think
we've got an exciting 90

minutes ahead of us. It's
going to be packed with

insights, activities,
discussions, and other things

that are going to help you
become more confident and more

effective as a facilitator,
regardless how much or how

little experience you might
have. Now, before we jump in,

I want to take an opportunity
to get to know everybody just

a little bit more. So here's
what we're going to do. So I

want you all to read the
question on the screen here

and take just a moment, about
one minute to silently ponder

what I'm asking here. And that
is, if you had to compare a

facilitator to an animal, what
animal would it be and why? So

just contemplate that for a
moment. And what I'm going to

ask you all to do that
everybody was so awesome and

they came with equipment that
has a microphone. I'm going to

just go down the list in the
order that people are inside

of chat. And I'm going to ask
you to come off mute and give

a very concise second answer
to this question. All right.

And also the other thing I
want you to say too, when I

unmute you, let me know if you
are a facilitator or a

champion or just one of the
other people that we have

joining us today. I just want
to kind of get a sense who the

audience is. All right, are
y'all ready for this one?

Okay, so first up on the list
we have Liz. Liz, if you had

to compare a facilitator to an
animal, what animal would it

be and why? It would be the
lion because the lion would

take charge of the room to
conduct the session and the

lion's presence would be felt
by everybody. Excellent, I

love that answer. So yeah, I
mean it's definitely important

for a facilitator To be able
to take charge of the room and

really run a well-structured
meeting for the participants.

Well, I think I would pick on
a facilitator the uh I think

the orangutan or the gorilla
because they're intelligent

and very methodical and gets
to the end we get to the end

very methodically and well
thought out. I like it you

know all about driving
execution well thought out and

methodical I mean these are
all great things. One thing I

do want to just remind people
of too, this is just like

stock picture that I had. You
know, it doesn't have to be an

animal on this, on this board
here. It's okay if you use

one, but you can also get
creative. All right. Next up

in my list I have, looks like
brotting or brotting, whoever

that is. Oh my God. Hey,
what's up, man? I guess I

would go with the tortoise
because of the tortoise and

hare legend where the tortoise
just takes his time and lets

the rabbit run wild and then
he ends up coming out the

champion in the end. Thank you
very much for that. All right,

looks like next up we have
Cali.

Hi, I would say like a wolf,
kind of like the same answer

as a lion because you lead the
pack. And I don't know, I kind

of see the group as the pack
and you as the leader. Yeah,

definitely, you know, and
there's a lot to be said for

that, you know, the
facilitator is definitely the

one that, you know, kind in
charge and making sure that we

are getting the outcomes that
we need and the actions that

we need from session. But it
does take the entirety of the

pack to make the kills, if you
will, to actually get through

the outcome. So, I mean, I
really love that. I mean, you

hit that one out of the park,
Cali. 10 bonus points for you.

These are 10 Edger Jay bonus
points. The points don't mean

anything, but you still get
them, because they're really

cool. All right. So, next up
here, we have ccole. ccole,

would you come on mute and
answer our question? What do

you have? Hi, I'm Celia, and
I'm the facilitator for my

group. And I'm actually going
to choose panda because a

panda always grabs the
attention of everyone because

of its silliness and its sense
of humor. And you know, you

know, I think it grabs the
attention of the group. That's

my reason for going with the
panda. Hey, you know, there's,

there's a lot to be said about
being able to grab and

maintain attention. You know,
some of these meetings can be

complex, they can be dense,
they can be long. And you have

to be able to keep the
attention of people that we're

working with. So I mean, I
love that answer. Thank you

very much. All right, next up,
I think I may have skipped

Andrew. Andrew. Hi
there, Jay. Sorry, yeah,

joining a little bit late this
morning. Without having

too much time to ponder, I
think I'm gonna have to Take

you back off of what Cali said
and go with the wolf. I like

the analogy of leading a pack
and just sort of guiding the

efforts of everyone involved.
I appreciate that, Andrew. And

Andrew, if you would, please,
what's your role inside of

some of the work that's been
done? Are you a champion, a

facilitator, or just a
champion? Yes, a group

champion for the Healthy
Living Group. Excellent. Well,

we are the champions, my
friends. Thank for your

answers. Thank you. All
righty. Looks like Alec may

have also joined us. Alec, do
you have an opportunity to

read the question and ponder
your response?

All right, Alec, I see not
yet. That A-okay. We'll just

keep on going down to this. I
think next up I have

Christina. Hey, good morning,
Jay. This is Christina, member

of the Lifelong Learning
Group. And I'm gonna go with

the gorilla. I think Joe had
mentioned something about its

intelligence, of course, but I
think there's also been

evidence of compassion with
family members and protection

of group members and the way
gathers the group together.

And so I think it, you know, I
would compare to for that

purpose. Yeah, that's a really
well thought out response. You

know, when we think about some
of the fundamental things that

have to happen in a really
well facilitated session, you

know, I mean, there has to be
a good degree of compassion,

because we need to have
psychological safety of other

people in the room. And
sometimes when we're having

conversations, and that's a
topic that's touchy, or it may

rub people the wrong way, or
it's been a sensitive spot in

the organization, You
definitely need a facilitator

that has that compassion and
also knows the things to do to

make the room psychologically
safe for everybody. So thank

you for that. All right, we're
going to keep on going down

the list here. I have someone
who's been throwing up his

iPhone. iPhone in the house.
Hey,

Jay, that's probably me. I
think it is. I'm trying to get

logged on to the computer
here. It decided to do updates

this morning, right when I
turned it on. This is, wait,

can you guys hear me? Okay.
This is Josh Goodman. I'm the

champion for the Vibrant
Cultural Life group. And I'm

going to go with something a
little different here. I'm

going to, I'm going to say a
honeybee. Because when I think

of facilitators, I think of
coordination. And I think

about the amount of
coordination that it takes,

you know, to run a hive. You
know, they're using, you know,

the dancing and pheromones and
all the things to do that. But

I think of those as tools in a
toolkit that each of the bees

in that hive are using
communicate to one another and

get things done. So that's the
analogy I use. Thank you very

much for that. All right, I'm
going to bounce back up here

to Jamie. And just as we
continue, I'm going to, you

know, put the reminder out.
Let's have a nice pippy,

concise 30 second response.
Keep it moving. All right, so

Jamie, I'm a Digital Services
Supervisor, and I am actually

going to choose a domesticated
animal of a sheepdog. So they

already have natural herding
skills, but they've been

trained for helping the cattle
rancher, whatever that

particular farm's role is, to
complete an actual task.

Excellent, thank you very
much. All right, I see jwisch

Hello, I would pick any of the
cats because cats are always

acutely aware of everything
going around them and a

facilitator needs to know
what's going on around them in

the room. Excellent, thank you
very much. All right, my dear

friend Kim, nice to see you
again. Kim, how would you

respond to this one? Well,
Jamie got in ahead of me. She

said sheepdog. I was going to
go with border collie, but the

kind of the nipping at the
heels, moving the pack along,

just kind of that very
attentive to every person

who's in that circle. Yeah,
absolutely. Border collie,

sheepdog, sheepdoggydog up in
here. All right. Kristen

Means. Hi there, I'm Kristen.
I'm a Youth Services Librarian

and I'm the note taker for the
Vibrant Cultural Life group. I

would say I would pick a
gorilla because of their

intelligence as well. While
they're more solitary animals,

they are known to like learn
language, they work well with

others when they can, and also
their intelligence, so.

Excellent, thank you, thank
you very much. All right,

yeah, looks like we've had few
more join. Our list got a

little bit longer than I
anticipated when we first

kicked off here. But I see we
have Lindsey in the house.

Lindsey, how would you respond
to this question? So I'm a

member of one of our working
groups. And I would pick a

Hawk because of their keen
observation skills and their

attentiveness to their
surroundings. All right,

definitely. Thank you very
much. Okay, next on the list,

we have Lisa Riley.
Good morning, I'm the

facilitator for the Meaningful
Career Journeys Working Group.

I would have to pick a working
dog, much like Jamie and Kim,

for their ability to kind of
herd the pack in the direction

that you need them to go.
Definitely. And I will say

too, so far, it's nice to see
we have a nice blend of

facilitators and champions on
the call. I think everybody's

going to get some good, some
good things out of this. All

right. So, you know, just an
extra bit of time since we are

popping in with just few more
people than what we had, we

started this activity. I'm
just going to get to a couple

more people. If I did not get
to use my sincere apologies,

but, you know, I would still
want you to think about how

you would compare a
facilitator to an animal and

kind of go with this metaphor
as you think about

facilitation. So I'm just
gonna bop down here, Marisa,

could I have you after this
one and then we'll do one

more.
Looks like Marisa may be in

disposal at second. That's
A-OK. Finally, Shelley Oakley.

Shelley, if you're on the
line, would you bring up the

caboose of the train here?
All right, Shelley just says

hi in chat. Well, you know
what, everybody, I'm just

gonna move on here. Oh, she
has a service dog. Thank you

very much, Shelley. Yeah, we
have, uh, several people

who've used the service dog
metaphor and, uh, I, I do

like, um, you know, like a lot
of thoughts that have come

around that and still is
saying that, uh, service dogs

are in tune with people's
needs. And again, this all

goes back into some really key
skill for facilitating that is

being, being able to read the
room. Um, you know, not only

been able to like read the
body language, but also kind

of like the vibe and the
energy, a lot of subtext that

happens. So we got a whole lot
to cover in, you know, the

remaining time we have today.
So, you know, I want y'all to

get ready for a fast paced
crash course in what I call

Facilitation Fundamentals with
a capital on the F-U-N. I

believe that, you know,
facilitating can be very fun.

It's my hope to kind of give
you the tools and the

equipment to do so. So
throughout our time today,

we're going to focus on four
things, and that understanding

some of the core facilitation
skills, getting some tips on

preparing for your workshop or
your meeting. Then, you know,

how do you effectively run the
show? And finally, how do you

deal with difficult
participants? So, for me, you

can expect a couple things.
First, there's a lot of

information, lots of
discussion, lots of exercises,

and it's not uncommon that you
might feel a little bit

rushed. That's kind of
intentional. I mean, my goal

today to kind of give you
smorgasbord of approaches and

things for you touch, but
you'll also be able to go and

further independently explore
those after the session. And

then second, for everybody who
identified as a facilitator or

champion, I'm going to ask you
to engage with two mindsets.

First, as a participant. And
then second, I want you to

kind of think about like your
meta-brain and consider the

how and why of everything that
I'm personally doing as a

facilitator throughout the
course. And so as you do that

for my champions and
facilitators, you know, take

note for yourself and queue up
any of those questions that

you might have. I do intend to
leave some time at the end for

So those are my expectations
for today. And I just want to

throw the floor open to you
really quickly. You know, what

do you expect to get out of
this workshop? You can just

drop those responses in chat.
So when we talk about

facilitation, this is really
all about helping a group do

efficient and meaningful work.
It's all about making sure

everybody in the room has
chance to be heard without

falling prey to group think.
And then also ensuring that we

have actionable outcomes. The
best facilitators that I've

worked with throughout my
career, they do a few things

really well. So they have a
knack for encouraging people

to think and to articulate key
ideas. And they're also on

point when it comes to asking
vital questions that are going

to help the group uncover
variables and identify

productive actions. And then
finally, one of the best

things that great facilitators
do, or more accurately, what

they don't do solve the
challenge for the team.

Ultimately, as you become more
proficient as a facilitator,

you know, you're going to be
able to supercharge your group

performance because you'll be
able to eliminate friction

that comes with collaborating
with team. And then also

you'll be providing a process
for your team to follow, and

you're going to be leading
them through that step by step

to uncover insights and
solutions. So I

want to hear from you, and
we're going to do a little

breakout activity. So what I
want you to do, I'm going to

put you all into randomly
assigned breakout rooms. I'm

going to give you five
minutes. And during that five

minutes while you're with your
breakout group, I want you to

discuss the skills that you
believe to be the most

important skills for a
facilitator. And now while

y'all were having that
discussion, I want you to

really hone in on what are the
top five skills that you think

a facilitator needs to have in
order to be successful when

they're working with a group.
After you all have had your,

after you all have come to
that consensus on your top

five, you need to pick who's
going to be the representative

from your group, because we're
going to have that

representative kind of present
your findings and drop them on

a whiteboard so we see what
the wisdom of crowd holds

here. All right, so I'm gonna
pause for a second. What

questions do you have about
this activity? Do you have any

questions? All right, y'all
ready to go? Okie dokie, it

looks like we have 30
participants. I am going to

open up for breakout now. We
will do six breakout rooms

five. So let me find my
breakout control. You will be

randomly assigned, so I can't
pick who you're sitting next

to, but everybody please have
a good time. All right, I'm

going to turn this on. I have
timer set that I'll get

clicking once we get you in
there and I'll call you back

in after five minutes. Also
keep track on your own so you

can share the conversation
stay on target. Here we go,

breakout rooms and effects.
All right, all rooms are open.

All right, looks like they are
all in their room. All

right, I need to take my
little slide out of, I don't

have a choice, it has to be in
the room.

Okay. Oh, this is good to
know. Okay. So you and I, we

don't get pulled Okay. Because
we are the hosts, I think.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very good
stuff. All right. So, um,

yeah. Audio quality clear so
far, videos still clear.

Looking at the groups. Those
are good groups.

All right, so what we're going
to do is after we call

everybody back from these
little breakout rooms, you

will need to share a
whiteboard. Okay. Because

we're going to have the
representative from each group

type in their top five
facilitator skills.

I can do that.
I think I'm going to go and

just drop in couple of these
rooms and see how the

conversation is going. Okay.
I'm not going to do that. If I

do that, it's going stop my
screen share. I don't feel

like trying to fix that. Oh,
broadcast. I'm not going to

send the message. You can. Oh,
great. Okay.

I'll wait until we two minutes
left and I'll send that

message.
All right, I'll put the

whiteboard up.
I get all gonna close out the

room and give everybody back.
Got everybody starting to pop

back in from their breakout.
About another 30 seconds,

everybody should be back in
here. It takes while for these

things to switch over.
Okay,

so
just a really quick reaction.

You can share that in the chat
with me. How was that exercise

and how was using the Break
Room and Zoom particularly to

have that conversation? Just a
quick feedback and chat really

for me.
Small group was nice. Thank

you very much, Jamie. Uh,
yeah, so that was the breakout

rooms, but you know, the time
went by very quickly and, um,

you know, that's one of the
things that, that, that we

will talk about is like, kind
how do you, how do you manage,

how do you manage the time,
particularly, in, in an online

session? And we'll be getting
to that just a moment. All

right. Um, I see also Jamie
said they wanted share screen

or have a whiteboard to do a
think and share exercise.

Yeah, that's something that I
can look into. I haven't used

the breakout functionality
much in Zoom, but I'll see if

that's not something that can
go down, because you might be

able to do that when you all
are facilitating these kinds

of meetings. Okay, so what I
want you to do now, Jennifer

has shared a whiteboard and we
asked each group to designate

a representative who would
come and they would put in

their top five items On the
whiteboard, you about what are

the top skills for successful
facilitators. I'm going to

label this board here, top
five facilitation skills. All

right. And which group wants
to go first share their top

five?
Now I'm thinking, of course, I

mean, are you all seeing
annotation tools on your

whiteboard cascading down the
left-hand side? Yeah, I am.

It's letting me click on them.
Okay, that's great. So you

have to sticky or something to
type. Yeah, you can just use

sticky note and put all five
on there.

Oh, I like this. Your
organizer is just great. I'm

going to let the group do what
they do best. If I didn't want

to sticky, let's do sticky.
Alright, it's been decided.

Okay, people coming in. All
right, it is a really good

response that is going to take
shape here. Well, we're not

going to be able to make any
more heads or tails of it than

you.
All right. Yeah. So, yeah, I

mean, there's some see like
some recurring thought around,

you know, staying on point,
staying on track. I mean,

that's super important when it
comes to running these

facilitated sessions. There's
only so much time that you

have. And then every time we
get together, it's taking time

away from something else. So
you're right, maximizing the

time. You know, other ideas
here around, you know, making

sure that everyone has an
opportunity to collaborate and

participate there by ensuring
that all ideas are being

heard. There are ideas here
that revolve around, you know,

being diplomatic. And with
that, a lot of that goes into,

you know, how well are we
listening to each other? And

as facilitator, always staying
neutral. And that's a very big

distinction to make here. You
know, as a facilitator, you

know, the only dog you have in
the fight, and part of my

southern colloquialism, I'm
from Georgia, but the only dog

you got the fight here It's
making sure that the group

gets to the outcomes and the
actions that are expected from

the people who are sponsoring
and championing project. So

when it comes to your
individual thoughts around a

certain part of the
conversation, those are really

secondary. Your primary role
is to further the conversation

and keep it pushing forward.
All right, we've got some

other stickies here coming in
from side. You know, all

things that seeing in other
places, active listening, you

know, being flexible, and
showing some really good

leadership. If I can pull some
of these over into mainstream,

the view, I'm moving some of
these around y'all. There we

go. Thank you. Thanks. Okay,
so the wisdom of the crowd,

Tasking to really zoom in on
what I think are the most

important things for being an
effective facilitator. You

will see that I have my list
of top eight items for what

does it take to be an
effective facilitator. I'm

going to bring those and let's
see how y'all did. All right,

Jennifer, you can close the
whiteboard and we'll make sure

we hand this to the group
after class and they can go

back to this. I think you have
to share it again.

You know, these are my top
eight and y'all pretty much

hit most of these. I'm not
going go over them. Not all in

detail, just a few things real
quick. Facilitative mindset.

What this means to me is that
your job to separate a

conversation. I like to say
that as facilitator, we are

the guide on the side and not
the sage on the stage.

Everyone mentioned time
management, set an agenda, do

your best stick to it. We're
going see some examples of,

you know, how conversations
can get sidetracked and what

are some tips we're bringing
those back in. Another thing

that I want to mention here is
when you are, you know,

facilitating, whether in
person or online, you have to

keep your energy high because
people are going to take their

cues from you. So if you look
like you're sleepy and you're

acting like you're sleepy,
people are going to get

sleepy. Other things that I
don't necessarily know if I

thought this would come up,
but, you know, cutting off for

your discussion, was just
making sure that when things

are starting to go south or
we're circling the drain, so

to speak, as facilitator, you
can recognize those moments

and then you can kind of get
the group unstuck and continue

going forward. And then I
think out of this whole list,

another thing that I will just
highlight for mine is giving

clear instructions. Um, you
know, I hope that the

instructions that I've given
so far today have been clear.

And what I, what I want you to
try to notice, what I, what I

try to do is I try to give the
instructions once, recap them,

and then always ask, what
questions do you have? Notice

I'm not asking, do you have
any questions? That's a yes

and no answer. Some people may
have questions, but if you

ask, do you have questions?
They might not feel invited to

actually share those. So I'll
leave those with you here.

see, I have to just organize
my layout here really quickly.

Sorry about this, folks. I've
got to get my panels going up

again so I can see everybody.
All right.

Okay, we're back. Okay. So.
Now that we have a more clear

picture what facilitation
entails and skills that you

need to really slay it while
you're doing I want to talk

about how you can set yourself
up for success before your

session even begins. So let's
start off with just a few

basic facilitator pointers to
make sure that you're ready

for game day. So first thing
I'm going to recommend is if

you are relatively new to
facilitating, I would say get

partner or a co-facilitator
whenever it's feasible. You're

going to find that some of the
conversations that you have

are going to be complex and
sometimes they'll be fairly

lengthy. if you have a
co-pilot having a second set

of eyes and ears there, it's
going to be really good for

you. Not only to lend another
voice to the conversation, but

also to help you manage your
physical and emotional energy.

I mean, like facilitation
draining. I mean, it can be

really tiring because you're
having to be on the whole

time. And plus when you have
someone else with you, it

allows you to be more present
inside of the conversation.

The second thing is, and this
came up in conversation just a

moment ago, and that plan your
discussion and activity timing

generously. So for example,
let's say that you have 15

minutes for a small group
brainstorming session, and you

want to talk about how your
particular branch is going to

better connect with the senior
population. So the discussion

itself might be 15 minutes.
But then if we're in person,

you need to build in time for
people to break out of the

group. Then you have to have
time for giving instructions

for what you're looking for.
Then you have to leave time

for answering their questions.
And then you need to leave

time for debriefing the
conversation. So you see a 15

minute conversation can easily
balloon into say 30 minutes

when you think about all the
things that go into the

conversation and then the
debrief. Third thing I would

like to point out is to really
prioritize psychological

safety. You know, people can't
be creative, people can't be

open if they're scared to be
judged. So for instance, you

know, some people might not be
comfortable candid when their

boss or the director in the
room. So your job as a

facilitator is to kind of like
preempt some of these issues,

you know, and ask, you know,
ask the people that you're

working with, you know, are
there certain people that you

think could be a barrier to
our conversation? So that you

can win interference and make
sure that your team is able to

have the conversation that
needs to happen. Next, I'd

like to encourage folks to
model the behaviors that you

want to see. You know, for me
personally, I'll sometimes

offer like a bizarre idea or
half-informed response just so

that people can know that it's
okay. I'm an extrovert. I tend

to think out loud on what, so
I mean, I'm even willing to

Give response. I don't have a
full answer. I'll just say,

hey, you know, I'm an
extrovert and I need to think

through this out loud. And
then I'll start thinking

through, I want people to know
that that's okay. And then

finally, you know, I encourage
everybody here to get serious

about play. Sometimes it feels
like we're supposed to have

too much fun at work. And you
know, for surgeons, that's

true, but for most of us, it's
BS. So, you know, bring your

personality, your wit, your
sense of humor, And just be

authentic self when time to
facilitate because the last

thing that people need is to
see you being uncomfortable.

And the only way you can be
totally comfortable is if you

yourself. And then also when
it's appropriate, I want you

to look for activity,
especially energizers for when

the energy in the room seems
kind of low. And that can

happen between very lengthy
discussions. It can happen

after lunch. So you want to
have some things in your back

pocket to perk people and to
re-engage them. You know, I'm

all about laughter, joy, and
goofiness. That's how I live

my life. I'm still 16 at
heart. Now, when we talk about

facilitation, there's also
this other piece and I want to

give some tips specifically
for remote facilitation. You

know, the ones I just gave are
pretty germane to in-person or

remote facilitation. These are
specifically for, hey, if

you're leading a meeting
online, here's some things you

can do. All right, first keep
that energy right? I mean, not

only should you aim to make
your sessions a little shorter

than what they would be in
person, because we all have

limited attention spans, like
up staring at a computer

screen, but you also got to
bring the energy like way, way

And also you have to think
about too, unless you have

professional gear, most
microphones can strip your

voice like it's natural
nuance. So you want to do

things like vary your pitch,
vary your pace so that you can

keep your voice interesting
for the people who are on the

other line. And then also when
it comes to energy, don't

forget your icebreakers
because we want to get people

in the mindset at the very top
of a meeting that they're

going to be interacting. So
make sure that you do those,

even if you're online. Second,
you know, I'd like to

encourage folks to adapt their
communication. Slow down a

little bit. And again, make
sure you allow more time for

discussions to unravel than
you would in person. Now, why

is that? You might be
thinking, well, here's why.

It's because when you're
online, it often takes people

more time to feel comfortable
sharing their thoughts. And

this is mainly due to the
passive way that we kind of

gotten used to like using
online stuff. I mean, remember

when webinars first started,
we were just used to sitting

there and having a talking
head talk to But when we're

inside of these facilitated
conversations, we need

everyone to participate. And
then third, you know, share

only what's needed, when it's
needed. You may find yourself

facilitating an online meeting
and you're discussing multiple

items. And that means you
might need people to use

multiple online tools, like a
whiteboard or video clips to

support your conversation. So
if you're doing all that, only

use the tools you need in the
moment and please Please,

please, my people, try to keep
the participants from having

to jump in and out between
different applications. I

mean, that ish gets confusing.
It confuses me and I do this

world living. All right, and
then, you know, I think this

is self-evident, but it goes
without saying, you have to

have a plan B for technical
difficulties. It is not a day

in technology until something
goes wrong, so I need you to

always be thinking ahead about
What's your backup plan in

case the worst case scenario
happens? Like, for instance, I

live in rural Northeast
Tennessee. storm can come

through here and knock out my
internet. It can start

raining. You know what I'm
saying, duck? I start blinking

back from tears and my
internet goes down. So like,

what do I do? I mean, you'll
see in front of me, I've got

my cell phone right here on
deck that's out there as a

hotspot. I have another cell
phone that has dual screens

that I can open up like a
little laptop and I can

present from this other cell
phone. Always have a fail safe

because your technology is
going to get you one day, but

always be prepared. You don't
have to get ready if you stay

ready. And then I do want to
call out this last thing is

keeping it simple. You know,
when it goes to any kind of

facilitation approach,
sometimes simpler is better

because we just need to stay
focused on the results.

All right. I'm going just talk
about this really quickly. So

this is all about kind of
going back to in-person

facilitation. The way that you
set your space can do a lot to

help or hinder you in the
outcomes that you're trying to

achieve. Now, you know, by a
quick show of hands, but

there's a reaction panel
inside of your, inside of your

Zoom bars here. I mean, just
give me like a thumbs up if

you've seen, I would say at
least half of these layouts in

real life before. There we go.
Yep. I'm seeing in chat. Yep.

Yep. I'm seeing a thumbs up.
I'm seeing some hands up.

Yeah. I mean, so we've all
seen these things. When you

are facilitating larger group
conversations, and I imagine

that some of the facilitators
here, y'all might end up

having, you know, you might
have, you might end up leading

a conversation that's more
than six people, you know, you

might end up leading ones like
today, you might have 20

people. You gotta be prepared
with the room. So I just want

talk through these really
quick. Team tables. I love

these. I use these a lot in
kind whether I'm doing a

workshop, Team tables are a
go-to for me. They are great

for building good rapport
amongst participants. They

also have an informal vibe to
They also give people enough

room to move around and still
be comfortable. Now the

downside to your team tables
is depending on the size of

the room and the way you
arrange the tables, you can

Hinder some of the sight lines
of other people. So you also,

so you always have to be
careful about how you arrange

these tables so that, you
know, like one table is not

blocking the view of the next
table. Well, we bounce off to

the right and we look at that
banquet style set These are

really great for, for the
potential for interaction,

because at a banquet style
table, you notice they're

circular everybody's facing
each other. There's no first

amongst equals. I mean, that's
the table of parity, if you

will. And also when you use
banquet salad tables, because

they are circular and because
you can fit them tighter, you

can maximize the space in a
larger room. Now, the downside

to that is that even though
banquet salad tables promote

kind of like familiarity with
the people who are sitting at

the table, it can also
encourage clicks because

people are just kind of with
their group and they have

their back to everybody Now
y'all all have seen the

classroom set up. This is very
typical, great for taking

notes. If you're going to have
a session where you're going

to asking people to do like a
lot of writing, maybe even

working on like really large
flip chart paths, you might

want to have some classroom
style tables there so that

people can maximize their
writing space. But of course,

you know, a con for these
classroom style set up is very

formal and you can have very
limited line of sight. And it

makes it challenging for
people to get between the

tables to interact with each
other. Boardrooms are really

good for if you want to have
direct interaction between

your participants in any
direction. You see at a

boardroom table, everybody has
the ability to face each

other. And a good part about a
boardroom too is that they're

oftentimes wired for, you
know, connectivity. You know,

this is great if you're
leading a session where you

want person to have their
laptop and to actively use

Great setup for that. Now, of
course, the downside of a

boardroom is that, you know,
the people at the end of, the

far end of the table, they
might feel isolated. It can

also lead to some weird
perceptions power dynamics,

particularly if one of people
who's a part of the group

happens to be the boss, right?
I mean, putting them at the

head of the table just even
reinforces the boss status

even more, even though we want
everyone to be kind of like

par when we have these
conversations. Specialists are

just kind of like a nice
hybrid between team table and

a banquet.
If you have them facing toward

the front of the room that put
all lines on the facilitator,

they're really good for brief
group work because you can

have a little bit more elbow
room between people. And then

also, since you are not having
a couple of chairs towards the

front end of the table, you
get better sight lines to the

front of the room. And of
course, the downside of your

crescent setup is that It's
not nearly as compact as like

banquet-style seating. And
then also it can lead to some

irrelevant chatter between
tables because it's real easy

for one person the crescent to
lean back to somebody behind

and be like, Hey man, did you
see that? That was whack, you

know? So, so that kind of
table can lead to And then

finally you can get to use
tables here. This makes it

where this is more geared
toward presentation. And

that's kind of outside the
scope of what we're talking

about, but I want you to be
aware of Uh, you know, for

whatever reason, if you as a
facilitator need to be center

stage, um, and you need to be
the focus, uh, you is really

good. So I might encourage
this form of feeding if, uh,

ultimately, you know, your
group, uh, gets to a point

where you have recommendations
to make or report to give, you

might actually deliver your
report in a view with

facilitator or the group lead
at the head and sharing the

information with the people
sitting around those tables. I

know that that is a lot to
take in about room layout. I

promise you all that I'm going
to give you a copy of this

presentation after our
session, along with the notes

on how do you lay out a room.
All right. I want to do just a

quick pulse check with
everybody right now. Use that

reaction panel and just kind
of, kind of give me, you know,

like, how are you feeling
right now? I mean, you can

give me like a happy face if
you're feeling that the pacing

is good and that you're
learning something. Give me a

frown if I need to slow down.
You can drop stuff inside a

chat just to make sure that
we're adjusting because we got

about to get to the stuff. All

right. Hey, y'all making me
feel good over here. All

right. Let me get some thumbs
up. Y'all bring it Okay. All

right. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay. So let's talk about the

big part here. This is the
meat and potatoes, like

running the show. So now that
you set yourself up for

success and you've been
thinking ahead about your

session, we got to get into
that dirty, dirty, into the

nitty gritty, you know, from
the dirty self and, you know,

juices up, A's down. So let's
talk about what goes on when

you run the show. I believe
that when it comes to

facilitating meaningful
conversations, you're doing

five things. You are priming
people to get into that

thought process of engaging in
a conversation and being able

to make a creative leap. And
then from there, you are kind

of framing, you know, here's
what the challenge is today.

You're kind of giving context
around And then when we

started getting into step
three, that's where you start

exploring the conversation.
You're looking for insights.

You're trying to dig deeper
into you know, some of the

challenges or the problems
that we're investigating. And

as conversation unfolds,
you'll find that you've got to

get a lot of things to come up
in that surface that you as

facilitator, you're going to
want to help your team refine

some of those thoughts.
Because, you know, because not

every idea is a great idea, or
we so many things that are

produced as artifacts from
these conversations that we

need streamline them that we
can do the very last thing.

That's kind of like review
where we are and get some

concrete action and determine
like, you know, where do we go

So I want to walk through this
and give you not only pointers

around how to do each piece,
but also some practical

examples that you can use. I
will also preface this part

our presentation by saying
that since we're not in

person, We don't have an
opportunity to really see some

of this stuff play but you
know what, you know, me being

the guy I am because I'm so
nice and I'm your guy. I went

out online and I found like,
you know, a few video clips

that have like examples people
doing some of these things so

that you can see them in
action. So I will just give

you the heads up. We four
short videos that I've

interspersed in here and we'll
kind of talk around All So.

First up priming. And when we
do priming in terms of

facilitation, this is all
about getting the mind and the

body to make creative So I
recommend that if you want to

prime people for a
conversation, you do a few

things. You send the agenda in
advance. You know, this is

going to allow your
participants to not be

preoccupied and, you know,
potentially worried about the

content of the meeting.
Sending the agenda not only

gives the flow of the day, but
it also gives folks a sneak

peek what y'all are going to
be doing. And then

additionally, depending on the
complexity and the depth of

your session, it may make
sense to say pre-work in

advance so that you can
maximize the time that you

have in your meeting. Now,
this one, number two, is

really important. I'm all
about the icebreakers, and I

would like to say don't just
choose any icebreaker. Pick an

icebreaker fits your topic.
Because, you know, icebreakers

are great and you can find so
many of these online and

that's great, you know, but
the majority of them are meant

to be generic and just to get
people and moving and talking

and it's fun, right? But I
want you to take the

icebreaker to the next level
and tie it directly to the

meeting topic. You know, you
saw how we did it today,

right? I mean, we got people
talking and the icebreaker was

specifically about the topic
of this session. And I'm going

to challenge you to do the
same thing when you do your

icebreaker. And then finally,
when it comes to priming, I

want you to also try to take
some time to discover what

your participants' desired
outcomes are. And this is

because facilitation is a
dialogue. And as the person

running the show, you should
have a really clear idea of

you want the meeting to
accomplish. But here's the

thing, your participants might
have ideas as well. And so how

can you find out what your
participants are expecting

from a meeting? How do you
find You just ask And then

also you might want to ask
them questions such as, what

does success look like for our
meeting? I mean, get the

success criteria and then, you
know, how will we know if

we've accomplished what we
needed to today?

I'm just curious. And this is
chat, quick chat, share our

brainstorm here. What are some
of the most effective

icebreakers that you've seen?
Has anyone seen like a really

cool icebreaker? You can drop
in chat, or if anyone's

feeling very adventurous, they
got one they just really want

to share, you can come off
mute and share it with the

class.
All right, well it looks like

people are mulling things over
and that is a-okay. Here's

what I want to do. So I'm
showing you, I'm showing you a

card from this thing that I
love. It's a tool called

pipdecks, P-I-P-D-E-C-K-S,
pipdecks. And they give you

lots of things that can help
you with your workshops, your

icebreakers, your activities.
But I pulled one of these

pipdecks that I personally
love. And for an icebreaker,

and I love it because it's
adaptable. So with this

icebreaker, you know, the name
of the icebreaker, and you can

read what's the screen here.
It's a, you know, it's all

your job. And essentially the
idea is where you give people

three minutes and you have
them draw, um, you know, like

what, what does their
day-to-day job look And you'll

be surprised at some of the
things you Now that's all well

and good. That's cool. But
this is easily adaptable for

almost any topic. You can say
something like, you know, draw

how you envision your job is
going to be in the future as a

result of a change you were
making. Right. If that's like,

you know, if you're doing a
workshop on like change, you

can just, you can switch the
drawing activity to that. Or

you could say, you know, draw
my role on this project team.

Get people more on the mindset
of thinking about, well, this

is what I'm doing for this
particular working group. You

know, so, so there's lots of
different ways that you can

pick something as simple as
this and just, Tweak it just a

little bit to make it tied
directly to your topic at

hand. Again, you will get a
copy of presentation, and if

you want this step-by-step
exercise, it'll be here for So

after we have primed our
people, one the key things

that we have to do is to frame
the challenge effectively. And

when we talk about framing,
this is all about setting

clear objectives, helping
people see why the

conversation important, And
it's creating a structured

environment where we can
really get people to be

creative. And so this concept
of framing crucial for guiding

the group toward what I
consider productive and

innovative outcomes. So when
we talk about defining the

problem clearly, there's a few
things that we want to be

specific, and that is we want
to make sure that the problem

is clearly articulated and
we're not using vague language

abroad statements. We also
want to provide some

background information that's
going to help our participants

understand, here's why this
conversation is important, and

here are some of the
implications that this might

have for And then finally, you
know, when it comes to

defining your problem or
defining the session clearly,

have clear objective, have
actionable goals, and make

sure that you're always
thinking about, what is it

that I want to accomplish by
the end of this session? And

then we talk about relevance,
and that's explaining Really

why this is important and
finding a way to connect to

the interests of the people
who are in the room with you

and also to the broader
organizational context. And

then finally, you know, talk
about the impact, right? If

this goes well, if we do what
we're supposed to do, how is

this impact going to
successfully make us even

better as an organization? So
many great opportunities for

that. And then finally here,
setting clear parameters. I

think this huge. It's
important as facilitator that

we define what's in scope for
our discussion and what's not.

And then also, if you happen
to know what the resource

constraints are for whatever
project or initiative you're

working whether that's
resources around people,

around time, around budget,
establish those frames up

front because we need to have
guardrails for the

conversation. So here's
another one of my go-to

activities for, you know, how
do establish constraints?

Again, I mean, this is just,
you know, from some PIP decks,

you know, I use these, I keep
them in my back pocket in a So

with this one, you're
literally just asking people

to sit down and five minutes
to brainstorm what do they

think the constraints will be
for a given, I mean, for like

the given conversation. And
you let everybody silently

brainstorm for five minutes
about constraints, and then

bring the group together and
have them pool their

constraints, you know, and
obviously there might be some

duplicates, some of the
duplicates. But you would get

like a really nice and
interesting list around like,

what are some of the strengths
that people might see for the

conversation? And so, you
know, for example, I'm working

with a client, they are
revamping their performance

management process. We did
this, you know, building a

fence around the playground,
so to speak, activity. And

some of constraints that we
got were, you know, and again,

it's around performance
management. So constraints

were early in the process, so
dare to dream big. Basically,

like nothing's off the table
right now because we're so

early Another constraint that
we came up with was, you know,

this was our initial focus was
mainly on the performance

review timeline. So for this
conversation today, we're only

going to talk about the
timeline. We're not going to

jump down the rabbit hole
trying to fix the performance

review form, because right now
just care about the timeline.

Use the sense method to get
some of those really good

constraints so that you can
keep your conversation on

point while also keeping your
audience bought Now,

once you've properly framed
the conversation by clearly

defining your topic, you've
established it's relevant,

you've set some clear
parameters, the real work is

to start. And so exploring is
all about, you know,

leveraging your good
facilitation techniques to get

the maximum amount of
participation from everybody.

And then also asking the right
questions to spur conversation

so that you can delve deeper
and to get some insights that

matter. And as you explore,
the important question is

you'll also find yourself
capturing these insights from

the wisdom of the crowd. And
you've got to be doing a lot

of capturing on like, you
know, post-it notes and flip

charts and whiteboards. And
then again, since we're not in

person, I can't show you this.
You know, like I would love to

have done if we were together,
we'd actually role play and do

some exercises, but lot of
good friends at the University

of Massachusetts have like
some really good videos that I

free for our sessions. I'm
going to play this video right

here around maximizing
participation. All right. I

think I have everything set up
where you should be able to

hear the audio and see the
video in real time. You know,

ping me in chat if we have
issues.

The best team meetings include
the voices of each

participant, but not everyone
comes to the table with the

same comfort level in using
his or her voice. Watch how

the facilitator demonstrates
three different techniques to

encourage and value
participation from each team

member.
A round-robin process is when

each person is invited to
respond to a specific

question. The key to this
process is each person has an

opportunity to express their
opinion without interruption.

No one else responds to
disagree or even to agree. You

can make the round robin
efficient by setting a time

limit for each person. This
technique is useful when it's

important to know where
everyone stands. We've been

working hard on our proposal
to solve some key safety

concerns. It's important that
we understand how each of us

feels about this proposal
before we move it up to the

next level. So our round-robin
prompt is, in a few words, how

satisfied are you with this
current proposal? We'll hear

from each person before we
address any issue raised. I

think it's ready to move
forward. Okay. I think it's

mostly strong, but I have some
concerns about And I have a

minor concern with one piece
of Okay, so let's hear the

concerns and talk through each
Some people contribute their

best work when they have time
to think individually about a

problem first. You can get the
best from your team by giving

them time to reflect before
opening up a group discussion.

Today we're going to talk
about safety, health, and

well-being in this
organization. To start we're

going to take five minutes and
jot down our thoughts on the

following two questions. What
contributes to safety and

well-being while we're at
work? And what stands in the

way of safety and well-being
while at work? List your

thoughts to this question on
your piece of paper and then

we'll have a general
discussion about these safety

issues based upon what we've
written and I'll keep track of

the time so you can think and
write and I'll give you a one

minute warning before the five
minutes

Many people find it easier to
talk to one person than to

talk to a larger group. This
is especially true when team

members are still getting to
know each other. Talking in

pairs can build team members'
confidence to contribute and

can raise the quality of the
discussion. The process you're

about to see is called
pair-share. This is especially

useful when you have a large
number of participants and you

want everyone to contribute.
Today we'll talk about safety,

health, and well-being in this
organization. So to start us

off, let's take a look at
these two questions. What

contributes to safety and
well-being while at work, and

what stands in the way of
safety and well-being at Turn

to your neighbor and present
your thoughts to each other.

Next, choose three thoughts
that we'll talk about as a

full group. I'll meet with
Abby. In this

video, you saw the facilitator
use three different

participation techniques.
Round robin, personal

reflection time before a group
brainstorm, and pair share.

All So I'm curious, I mean,
because I'm sure all of us

have sat facilitated
conversations before, whether

it's a work meeting or
strategic planning sessions,

or even a workshop, like maybe
one that I brought down to

Florida, because I see some
familiar faces When it comes

to facilitator getting you to
participate, you know, like

what, what tends to work best
for you? And I'll start this

one off. So I'll say that, You
know, I mean, I might appear

very gregarious on paper, but
you know, sometimes when I'm

in a room and it's all full of
new people, I can be a little

intimidating. So I mean, I
like a pair share. I mean, so

pair shares are one that I
like a I see Jamie saying,

thank them, right? So get a
little bit of self-reflection

time and then able to share
out to a group. What's some

other thoughts? What, what are
some these things that work

best for you to get you
engaged? All

right, Lisa is another fan of
the pair there. All right,

Cali, the round robin. Yeah, I
really love the round robin as

a way for, you know, making
sure that everyone has an

opportunity to participate and
also a sexy expectation that

everyone should participate.
All right. It looks like round

robin is probably our popular
one at the moment by a

landslide, round robin by a
landslide and then think and

share coming in second. I want
to talk a little bit more

about exploring, and that when
you use skills like, you know,

your round robin, reflect
them, brainstorm, and then

pair share, you got to get
your participants ready to

fully engage for the duration
of the conversation. But of

course, it takes a certain
degree of mastery about asking

the right questions so that
you can separate a dialogue

that's going to be meaningful
and impactful. So I'm going to

show another quick video here
about three questioning

techniques that you can use to
make sure that you're driving

things forward.
As a facilitator, how you ask

questions can have a powerful
impact on how your team

responds. You want to ask the
right kind of question based

on what you're trying to
accomplish. Watch how the

facilitator uses open-ended
questions Opt-out questions

and opt-in questions to
accomplish different types of

goals. A yes-no
or closed-ended question can

get you a fast answer, but it
doesn't generate creative

thinking or help you
understand a situation more

deeply. Instead, use an
open-ended question when you

want to learn more about a
topic or when you want to

understand how people view a
situation. An open-ended

question helps team members
think in new ways about a

problem. We start an
open-ended question with

phrases like, what do you
think about, how might we, why

do we think, or can you say
more about that? What do you

think about the idea that Abby
just proposed? So like part of

it, but I don't think it goes
far enough because we won't

get good results if only some
people choose to participate.

I think we need a more
comprehensive solution. A very

useful question form is called
an opt-out question. Use this

question if you're trying to
see if anyone strongly objects

to something. You can use an
opt-out question for many

situations. For instance, you
can use it to make sure the

team is ready to keep moving
or to see if someone disagrees

with the course of action.
Here are two examples. Is

anyone not ready to move on to
the next topic? I have one

more suggestion. I actually
think that Abby would be the

best person to take on that
task. Does anyone object to

Abby taking on this task? I
think Abby would be great. The

last question we'll
demonstrate is the opt-in

question. This is where you
ask for people to affirm their

agreement to a decision. It
requires that people really

think about their level of
commitment. Use an opt-in

question for times when we
need all team members to

support a decision or course
of action. Today we've made

excellent progress designing
solutions for the problem of

coffee burns on the job.
You've produced three

intervention options to
present to management, but now

we need to make a decision
before we can move forward.

Let's do a round-robin to hear
from each of you. How willing

are you to propose these three
interventions as they are

written to the Steering
Committee? Or does something

have to be changed before you
can support this proposal? I'm

satisfied with all three
options. I'm fine with

intervention one and two, but
I really think intervention

three would not be worthwhile
unless we add training to I

agree with Betty. Without
training, Intervention 3 would

be meaningless. Okay, Betty
and Carlos, it sounds like

training needs to be part this
proposal. So, Abby, are you

willing to add a training
component to Intervention 3?

Yeah, I think we need to take
another look at that. Perhaps

we could do it next time? In
this video, you learned about

open-ended questions, opt-out
questions, and opt-in

questions. Try practicing
these techniques the next time

you're working with a group.
Choosing the right question

for the right purpose can have
a powerful impact on your

team's decision making. All
right, so just again, using

chat, what are some your key
takeaways from using these

three types of powerful
questions? Feel to share those

in chat while I get us queued
for our piece of content.

As a facilitator, how you
ask... Sorry about that. I

ended up running the same
video twice. All right. But

yes, feel free to share your
key takeaways. So, as you're

thinking about that, I want to
kind of bring in something

here. And that as we are
encouraging people to

participate by doing stuff
like asking the right kinds of

questions, really important
that we go beyond just talking

and move toward capturing
these key concepts they come

So two really easy ways, and I
think these will get you a lot

of mileage when you're
relatively to facilitating. So

two easy ways to do some good
captures is brainstorming and

mind That's a great way to
really start getting some

ideas down on paper and having
some of the artifacts that

you'll produce from these
conversations. So when we

think about brainstorming,
it's not about a meeting or a

session, What are some of the
materials that you need to

have? Like we just need to
think about like material

wise, we're going to do a
brainstorm or a mind mapping

session. Like what's some the
stuff that you need to have in

the We're going to drop those
in chat. And definitely thank

you all for, um, you know,
the, your insights here. Um,

yeah, see Kim. Yes. The opt in
opt out were new ones for When

I first looked into this, I
was like, yeah, this is great.

It was a really good way of
putting something that already

kind of new by having the
terminology. All there we go,

Jamie's on whiteboards,
papers, sticky markers. Yeah,

I mean, beyond just for by
brainstorming. Yeah. I mean,

like this is stuff that should
always be inside of your

facilitator's toolbox. I think
Jennifer's with me enough and

she knows that when I come
down and, you know, people

asking like, what materials do
you need? Even if I don't know

what my workshop is going to
be, I'll just be like, oh,

give me the usual, man, you
know, give me some flip charts

and give me some broad tip
markers, some ink pens, a ream

of paper, some note cards,
some post-it I mean, these are

all things that you just need
to kind of have in your back

pocket so that you'll have a
range tools that you can do

these exercises. Now, when
we're doing a brainstorm, you

know, it's really easy to just
get people to move together

into the small group. And you
give them the topic of

conversation and then just
give them time, you know, to,

to really unload what some of
their thoughts I typically

find that with brainstorming,
I encourage people to put one

thought per sticky because
oftentimes you'll want to grow

your, you want to, you want to
transition your brainstorm

from just a random brainstorm
into something that's more

themed and clustered. We'll
talk about that momentarily. I

call those affinity But
brainstorm and just give them

time and make sure that people
stay on task and on topic. The

best way to do this, if you're
doing small groups, and if

you've been one of my
workshops before, you'll

notice that, you know, just,
just walk around the room and,

you know, be present. Also,
you know, be a fly on the wall

and listen to some of the
conversations and, you know,

and see if people are still
brainstorming and being on,

being, being like a fully
engaged on top of there.

Another thing that you can do
for capturing faults while

exploring ideas is mind
mapping. I'm relatively sure

that most people here have
heard of mind maps, but this

is a great tool use,
particularly in small groups,

where you'll have people
discuss a topic. What I like

about mind mapping is if you
have multiple topics and you

have multiple small groups,
you can assign one topic to

each group and you can cover a
whole lot of ground that When

it comes to a mind map, as you
know, I mean, you put the main

concept as like a node, I call
that the parent. In this case,

this is a mind map of like
progressive discipline. So you

put the parent node at the top
or in the center of your

paper, and then items that are
related to that main topic,

those are your subcategories.
I call them children, you

know, I mean, because like in
real life on the parent, I got

like 50 million children, you
same thing with a mind And

then if you have a subcategory
to your category, then I call

those grandkids. So for
instance, if you're looking at

this mind map here, when we
get to the child item of the

steps around progressive
discipline, you'll notice that

there are four individual
things that you think about

for grandkids that you got to
see, so to speak, that's your

verbal warning, written
warning, et cetera. So a mind

map, again, just a really easy
way to add more structure to

something that would be a
brainstorm. All right. Now I

want to move on to like, what
can we do to refine our ideas?

So, you know, we capture a lot
of things with a brainstorm

and with a mind map. It's
important that we make the

time to make sense out of all
that stuff that we're

generating, or in other words,
to refine And so a couple of

techniques of doing that, I
think that these will give you

like a lot of mileage here,
and that is affinity mapping.

If you start off with a
brainstorm, and again,

remember I encourage people to
put one idea post-it you'll

see, and I know this is really
tiny, but will see that you

can start grouping individual
post-it notes into categories.

And so you do this by really
encouraging your participants

To look at all the stickies
that they've made their

brainstorm. And for them to
start thinking about

thematically, how do they fit?
And you let the individuals do

this violently. And then they
go up to the whiteboard they

put their stickies on a
whiteboard in the categories

that they have been And then
other people will start doing

And then once have all the
stickies on the board,

together as a team, you can
look for overarching

categories. Name them and
you'll find that you're going

to have like a whole lot of
stuff that tend to have an

affinity toward each other or
make these really great

categories. And so this is a
really good way to start

making sense of a lot of the
things that may appear random

in a conversation when we
first get started. And then

finally, while you're all
together and you're looking at

the things that have come and
materialized, It gives an

opportunity to have a
conversation, an even more

refined conversation around
some of the emergent themes

that came out of your
brainstorm when we put them

into an affinity Now, of
course, when you are wanting

to get more so toward action,
you can take the items on your

affinity map, if I say that
three times fast, And really

get people to vote for the
ideas that they think are the

best or the ones that they
want explore even more. And

you can do this by having
people vote with points. So

typically when I do voting of
this nature, would give people

say five And what I'll say is
I want you all to look all the

items on our affinity and you
have five And I don't care how

you send your five points, you
got five. And so what you'll

find is that some people might
put one point on five

different because they were
like, Hey, this is, this is a

good response. I'm going to
give five items one for a

total of five points, right?
Then the next person might

really like two And so they
might put, um, you two votes

on two different items, a
total of four points. And then

they have one point left,
they'll put in a third. Or you

might have that person who's
like really gung-ho about this

one particular thing that came
up in the conversation and

they might put all five of
their votes in that one As a

facilitator, your job is,
after all of that voting has

been done, is to go through
and look at each item and

tally up the votes to see like
which ones have emerged the

top items. And then you have
to figure out like, what do

you want to do with like these
refined responses? Like, what

do we want to do for like the
best ideas that came up or

like the, or the items that
people say, Hey, you know,

these are the biggest
challenges that we face. You

have to determine, well, like,
what's your what Do we need to

have a further conversation
around these items? Do we need

to have another meeting about
these items? Is this something

that we can take these items
and then actually do some real

action toward them? As
facilitator and as a group,

you all need to come to a
consensus around what's going

to be the next step for what
you identify for your voting

process. And again, when we
talk about refining these

things, this is just one
simple way that you can refine

your thoughts. There are tons
of methods out there and I'll

be happy to help you find some
additional resources. Now,

finally, I know that some of
us there, we would love to

learn how to deal with
challenging situations that

come up during facilitation.
what I want to do is just give

you an opportunity to see,
well, I mean, how can we best

deal with A key
part of your role as

facilitator is to manage the
meeting so that everyone feels

welcome and safe in
participating. On occasion,

you may find yourself in some
tricky situations where team

members breach the ground
rules they set for themselves.

In this video, we'll
demonstrate how you can

intervene to remedy three
common situations. The

scenario is a team of coffee
shop workers who are designing

solutions to the problem of
getting burned while serving

coffee. Behaviors such as
interrupting, monopolizing,

and contradicting can get in
the way of people sharing

ideas and learning from each
other. Watch how the

facilitator acts quickly to
navigate these uncomfortable

moments to restore order and
keep things moving forward.

I have an idea for preventing
coffee burns. How about we

redesign the coffee stations
so that there's less chance of

them bumping into each other?
I have a similar idea with

thinking the same thing. Hang
on a second, Carlos. Let's

give Abby a chance to finish
her thoughts. We have a ground

rule that we get everybody a
chance to talk without

interruption. Sorry, my No
problem. All right, Abby, why

don't you continue?
Here are my thoughts on how we

can cut down on coffee burns.
I think first we need to get

better quality cups and lids
because if you squeeze this

the top comes right We also
need to improve training

because baristas are checking
to make sure the lids are We

also need to redesign the
layout because people are

bumping into each other during
rushes. And last week I got

burned and I could not find
the first aid kit. Hang on

Betty, I'm just going to pause
you right there. I can tell

you have a lot of ideas about
solutions to this real

problem. But the prompt on our
agenda is for each person to

just share two ideas before we
start to discuss. And I've

written down your suggestions.
So are you okay with us giving

Abby and Carlos a chance?
Okay, who wants to

I have an idea on how we can
cut down on coffee burns when

we're serving coffee. One of
the root causes is that spills

happen when we're rushing
about. What if we just bought

new coffee dispensers so we
wouldn't have to handle the

same pots all the time? The
company is never going to

spend that kind of money on
new machines. I think it's

more important turn down the
temperature on the existing

machines and invest in better
quality cups and lids. So I

want to pause you guys for
just a second. I just want us

to remember that at point
we're just exploring our

options. We're not evaluating
or making any decisions right

now, so it's actually okay to
have different perspectives on

how to solve this problem.
We're going to get a chance at

our next meeting to evaluate
each solution based upon the

criteria that we set. So just
so we're clear on what Betty's

offering, you're suggesting we
work with the existing

dispensers and get better
lives, I'm sorry Abby. Okay,

Carla, what are your
suggestions? In this video,

you saw the facilitator pause
when there was a breach in the

ground rules. She reminded the
group about the rules and the

process before continuing with
the discussion. This way,

everyone's clear about
expectations. As a

facilitator, you play an
important role in minimizing

disruptive behaviors so the
team can accomplish its goals.

I'm curious, after seeing how
this facilitator handled three

relatively common situations
that you might deal with when

you're running a meeting or
facilitating a family session,

I'm curious, where do most you
struggle? And what's one of

the best things that you took
from this for how you might

combat your struggle
Extra points if someone's

feeling brave wants to come
off the microphone this

morning. Thank you.
I really like that the sample

facilitator referred to the
ground rules so it seems like

that's one of those
preparatory steps that need to

be included is establishing
confirmed set of ground rules

for not interrupting that if
we're going to present ideas

let's go for one to two that
way everyone has a chance to

share that kind of Absolutely,
ground rules, mean they're

indispensable when it comes to
one of these sessions and they

should be all mutually agreed
upon depending on how serious

the conversation is you might
even might want to have people

even sign off them. Kim has a
lead in with the comment here

the facilitator jumped in
quickly and didn't take up a

lot of time to correct the
issue. Absolutely. When you

see things going off the
rails, the best thing you can

do pause, acknowledge, and
then redirect. I love Anyone

else want to share a struggle
area for them and maybe

takeaway that they can put
back into practice almost

immediately?
All right, so I know that we

are approaching the top of our
hour. And like I said, I did

want to make sure that we had
a few minutes left for Q&A. So

I mainly just want to make
myself available to you all,

primarily my facilitators and
champions. What questions

might you have of me? And how
might I be able to assist you

in becoming an even more
awesome facilitator?

All right, so I mean, what
I'll do then, I'll end with

last little chat box exercise.
So on a scale of and relief,

when it comes to facilitation,
now that you sat through and

participated very actively
this hour and a half that

we've had together, I know
that you have to be a

facilitator. Are you feeling
more grief or more relief

around your facilitator's
role? Go ahead and drop that

All right. Well, my friends,
it has been great morning for

myself and I hope for you
well.

As always, it's a pleasure to
be here and to share with you

just get to be a part of some
of the awful things that y'all

been doing down at LHR. mean,
it's the world to I hope that

y'all have a great day. And I
know that this will not be the

last time that we talk. But
you know, in the interim, if

you need me or anything from
me, here's my information on

the screen here. I'm jay at
edujay.com. You can always

shoot me an email and I'd be
happy respond to And with that

said, folks, have a lovely and
blessed and take

All right. Thanks, Jay. I will
make sure that I get the

recording of this over to you
and also a copy of the slide

Awesome. Thank you. Have a
great one, Jay.