100% Effective Meetings – The Art of Facilitation

Overview / who should attend and why?

• ARE YOU wasting time and money running inefficient meetings?
• ARE YOU running Six Sigma, Lean or Continuous Improvement activities but believe they could deliver more?
• ARE YOU convinced you get the most out of the groups and teams you put together?
• DO YOU know how to use problem-solving skills to obtain optimum results?
  
  Typically, meetings and continuous improvement activity workshops start late, over run, wander off the point, turn into political point scoring, don’t achieve the required results and ultimately consume valuable resources such as time and effort and therefore money. If this is a situation that applies to you or your company then you should attend the course. If you are convinced that achieving successful group working is fundamental to your business, or, you need to gain consensus on problems or solutions then a facilitator can help. This course has been run for managing directors to shop floor personnel and provides a practical learning experience to enable the skill of facilitation to be developed. If you think that facilitation could help you or your business to develop, then this course will ensure that your meetings are run efficiently and will result in you saving time and money.

Course Objectives

At the end of the course participants will be able to facilitate problem solving and continuous improvement meetings more effectively. The objectives of the course are :-

• To provide an understanding of group behaviour and how to obtain the best from a group.
• To understand and practise the role of a facilitator in a number of situations.
• To provide an understanding of both personal and other people’s learning styles.
• To introduce and practise problem solving skills.
• To understand how to control and obtain the best results from a group.
• How to plan and run an effective meeting to meet objectives in the available time.
• To understand and practise, presentation skills, communication skills and motivational skills.
• To enable the delegate to be more confident in running and controlling meetings and workshops.
• An understanding of personal strengths and weaknesses with an action plan to ensure further development.

Course Content

The course covers the following areas through the use of theory, but more importantly, practise sessions where feedback is given in order that the delegates obtain individual advice.

• The facilitation process and how it will transform meetings – How to run sessions using a facilitator and how to obtain the many benefits it brings.
• The role of a facilitator in many different situations – What is a facilitator and the many different roles are explained and discussed.
• Understanding and managing groups – Through understanding how groups interact and develop, we can focus and ensure they grow and provide results.
• Managing and controlling groups – How to manage issues such as conflict in a group.
• Managing consensus – Methods and tools for decision-making and an understanding of the decision making process.
• Communication skills – Facilitation requires individuals to be confident, motivators, presenters and have good listening and questioning skills, each of these areas will be examined and practised.
• Problem solving tools and techniques – Tools such as process mapping, cause and effect diagrams, force field analysis, Pareto analysis, brainstorming, tree diagrams, spaghetti charting, affinity diagramming, charting techniques etc, will be explained and practise sessions run. This will enable individuals to understand, practise and discuss each tool.
• Giving and receiving feedback – This will enable participants to develop individually
• Personal development action plan – Each delegate through feedback and individual counselling will develop a plan to ensure continued improvement after the course. They can also discuss individual needs, concerns and problems.
• Video session – At the end of the course, each delegate will run a real session, which will be videoed to provide further feedback.
  

Benefits of attendance

• You will run meetings or continuous improvement groups efficiently and professionally.
• You will understand groups, how to control and develop them.
• You will understand and practise problem solving tools and techniques and be given feedback on your performance.
• You will develop your communications, presentation and people skills.
• You will develop a personal action plan and have the chance to discuss your role with the group and trainers in a safe environment.
• Your meetings and improvement activity will now run effectively saving time and money.
• Your facilitator will have been trained in tools and techniques, which can easily be passed on to others.
• Your meeting will look and feel professional.
• Your facilitator will be motivated and enthusiastic to run and ensure success of all meetings.
  

Costs / Duration and Location

• The cost of this training course is £1050
• The duration is three days from 9:00 till 16:00
• Location will be determined by requests