Over the last few months, I have had the good fortune to teach several Creative Facilitator Workshops. This tip is inspired by watching our students grow their skills during the workshop through successive rounds of practice. Not only does the facilitator build their skills, the resource group gets better at offering specific ideas and collaborating to develop persuasive campaigns.
Learning to facilitate is a lot like learning to play a new instrument. You, as a facilitator, begin by learning the basics and following a script, just as the musician learns basic notes and set chord patterns. With practice, the musician plays those notes and patterns in their own way which allows them to begin to create their own songs.
The same is true with facilitation. It is in the practice that the process becomes your own. You just have to be willing to play! The resource group will never know whether you missed a line in your introduction. What your client or agent will remember is how you helped them clarify a marketing objective or develop a campaign.
Whether you were trained as a Creative Facilitator last month or years ago, here are some ways to apply, practice and play with the skills you learned!
- Get on the sales meeting agenda. Ask for 30 minutes in your next sales meeting to introduce or refresh your team on the Creative Resources Process and how to put your facilitation skills to work. Consider using the "Introducing Facilitator Capabilities" script in your Creative Facilitator Resource Book.
- Schedule a Round Robin session. Invite three or four agents who need help with ideas to participate in a Round Robin session. Consider using the "Round Robin Overview" in your Creative Facilitator Resource Book to help set expectations and guide you through the session.
- Facilitate in your next one-on-one meeting. Whether you are in an internal meeting or sitting across the desk from a client, your facilitation skills can be put to work in a one-on-one setting. Use the behavior of making lists and making choices to identify an objective, make a list of options by taking detours and then choose what to do next.
The more you find new ways to put your process expertise and facilitation skills to work, the faster they will become your own!
Contact Creative Resources for more facilitator tips.