Greetings from Barcelona☀️where I recently wrapped up Cohort 3 of my live course Breakthrough Facilitation with an exceptional group of virtual facilitators.🎉🎉🎉
🙌Many thanks for reading The Quest, your weekly round-up of tips and insights to help you design and lead exceptional virtual sessions that your group members will love.❤️
It’s something we all know.
Feedback is one of the most important things you need to be able to grow as a virtual facilitator.
But honest, specific, and useful feedback on your facilitation is one of the hardest things to get. It’s even harder when you are facilitating groups online.
I’ve written about How to Give and Get Feedback and How to Know If You Are a Successful Virtual Facilitator in previous editions of The Quest.
Feedback uncovers your blind spots. It helps you identify areas for growth. And it gives you more confidence in what you are doing well and what you can do better.
The good news is that there are many ways to get valuable feedback that will accelerate your growth as a virtual facilitator.
How? That’s our Quest for this week🔎
👉5 ways to get valuable feedback
👉Shit Facilitators Say 😅
Let’s jump right in!
🚀5 Ways to Get Useful Feedback that will Accelerate Your Growth as a Virtual Facilitator
I used to be shy about asking for feedback on my facilitation. It felt awkward. I secretly hoped that someone would just offer it up.
Not surprisingly that didn’t happen.😅 The problem was that by not seeking out feedback I was unable to see my blind spots. And I was repeating the same mistakes over and over and over again.
I quickly learned that if I wanted to grow as a facilitator, I needed to proactively ask for direct feedback, regularly from many sources.
Here are 5 tried-and-tested ways you can get useful feedback that will accelerate your growth as a virtual facilitator👇
1/ 🚀Peer feedback groups
Early on in the pandemic, I organized a peer feedback group with other facilitators making the transition online. We practiced activities and gave each other feedback. It was one of the most important (and fun!) parts of my early development as a virtual facilitator.
Peer feedback is one of the best ways to supercharge your growth. The magical thing about peer feedback is that you learn not only from the feedback that you receive. But you also learn from the feedback that other people receive. My advice to anyone who wants to accelerate their development as a virtual facilitator? Actively seek out 3-4 facilitator friends who you can practice and grow with.
2/ 🔎Post-session debrief
So often we hit “end-meeting” and move straight on to the next urgent thing that needs our attention. But it’s precisely in those precious few minutes straight after your session when valuable feedback is waiting to be captured.
That’s where the post-session feedback comes in. I ask myself two simple questions 👉What did I do well? What can I do better? The beauty of the post-session debrief is that you can do it with your co-facilitators or on your own. I keep a running list of the feedback and specific actions that I can take to improve for the next time. You will start to see patterns. That will give you cues on what to focus on.
3/ 📺Watch your session replay
You don’t have to only rely on others to give you feedback. There is another powerful way to give yourself valuable feedback. Watching replays of yourself may sound scary. Especially if your inner critic takes over the feedback session (like mine used to!).
Watching the replay is like putting yourself in the shoes of your participants. And you can notice things that are impossible to catch when you are in the midst of leading your session live. But there is a caveat to getting useful feedback using this method. You need to make peace with your inner critic first. Watch out for what you are doing well, as well as what you would like to improve.
4/ 📝Post-session survey
I know, tell me something I don’t already know. If you lead sessions, chances are you already use some form of the post-session survey. But so often the feedback focuses on your course and your content. Don’t assume that group members will give you feedback on your facilitation. You have to ask for it.
For example on my post-course survey, I ask “How effective was Gwyn’s course facilitation?” and “How can Gwyn can improve course facilitation for future cohorts?”. I get specific, useful, actionable feedback that I wouldn’t get if I didn’t ask.
5/ ☎️1:1 feedback calls
Follow-up calls with your group members after a session is not always possible – especially if it’s a one-off session. But if it is possible, short (like 15-minute) 1:1 feedback calls can give you insights that are not always captured in written surveys. It gives you the opportunity to ask for clarification and to go deeper with their feedback.
🙌 Big shoutout to Breakthrough Facilitation Cohort 3 for so generously sharing your feedback with me.
How do you get feedback on your facilitation? Hit reply to this email. And I’ll share your ideas in next week’s newsletter.
😅Laugh of the week
Ridiculously funny facilitation humor on Twitter👇
 Shit Facilitators Say |
Via Priya Parker’s Art of Gathering Newsletter (which I also highly recommend!).
💌Thanks for reading The Quest
I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Just hit reply to share your thoughts and ideas.
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Creatively yours,
P.S. Speaking of smooth tech, the image of my 2-monitor set up in last week’s newsletter did not attach … Here it is👇
