Facilitating an engagement event

So you’ve planned and organised your engagement event. If you haven’t, come back after you’ve read the section on planning and organising an event!

Now you just need to make the planning all worthwhile for you and your participants. It’s time to learn the art of facilitation.

Facilitation is how you conduct the workshop. It’s about managing, motivating and inspiring your group.

Good facilitators:

tell a story about that helps people understand why they’re there and what’s expected of them
prime participants with the information they need to contribute
listen carefully
are unbiased
make sure the group stays on track, but guide the conversation, rather than taking control or showing off their knowledge
know when to move on or change tack

Practicalities on the day

Make sure you’ve got all the stuff you need to run the activities you’ve planned. You don’t want to interrupt the flow by going off hunting for missing pens and sticky notes
Share an agenda and timetable. Let everyone know what to expect
Use a warm-up exercise to set the tone and alleviate any tension people might be feeling. Choose an exercise that involves the kind of thinking you want to encourage for the rest of the event
Some people may be more familiar with the topic than others. Bring everyone up to speed, so everyone can contribute
Some activities could be a big jump for some participants, so build the group up to maximise their potential. For example, do a problem-framing exercise before a problem-solving exercise
Sometimes it is useful to give participants space to work on their own before coming back together as a group to share, reflect and discuss
Give the group a break if your event is longer than an hour. If it is a whole day, give them multiple breaks including lunch
Give people a way to give you feedback after the event, so you can do even better next time

Think carefully about who is in the room:

Children might be more open with people closer to their age. Depending on their age, children might be more open with or without parents or carers there
If you’re talking with an excluded or underrepresented group, the demographics of the facilitators might alter their engagement
People might be less willing to honestly share opinions if their bosses or other senior managers are present

Good planning will help the workshop go smoothly. But don’t expect everything to go to plan. Common challenges include:

conversations going off-topic, going on too long, or going round in circles
conflicting opinions or conflicts over language
negativity and internal politics
some people dominating the discussion – make sure every person in the room gets heard
technical issues

Stay sharp, and if any of these happen to you, you might need to react and intervene!