Facilitation week is over.   A time for facilitators to celebrate all achievements, to self-criticise and to learn new techniques…..and there are so many to learn!   

Sometimes the learning is forced – Covid made us change and work on-line.  More often the learning is hampered by our successes. Why should we try new methods when we get the results our customers want? Why bother when we get the praise and the income we need?

Being a bit aged (love to say like a fine wine, but……..), I remember well the professional trainer carried a bundle of 3M acetates and sessions were lectures. Bosses made the decisions and the workforce was told what to do.  As the ‘teacher’ melted away to a facilitated approach, new techniques came to the fore. Self-directed teams made amazing progress. Agile is all the rage.

Flip charting was and is the standard, Post-its have become popular superseded by techniques like Sticky Walls and Pinpoint. Graphic recording has become huge. During this time we had Indigenous American circles, story-telling and there are a host of techniques listed on the IAFs Methods Library – 501 to be exact.

So, when you see a course coming up that you feel may help you and add to your tool box? Don’t say you are too busy – unless you plan time to learn you will, in the end, fall behind. Don’t say you can’t afford it – unless you really can’t – it will probably be less than a day or two’s billing.