📈The Quest #110: 5 Top facilitation trends you need to know

Hello friends,

🙌Many thanks for reading The Quest, your weekly round-up of tips and insights to help you design and lead exceptional online sessions that your group members will love.❤️

What are the 5 top facilitation trends you need to know? And why do they matter? That’s our Quest for this week🔎

Let’s dive right in!

🥁✨ Session Lab’s State of Facilitation Report 2023

There is growing interest in workshop design and leading groups. But there is not much data on the thing you need to do it well AKA “facilitation”.

Who are facilitators? What do they do? And how do they do it?

Thanks to the brilliant team over at Session Lab, we’ve got the very first State of Facilitation 2023 report. 🎉🎉🎉

The report is packed with insights. And Session Lab recognizes that there is a lack of representation of the Global South. Without these voices, there are still big gaps in our understanding.

Here are my 5 biggest takeaways from the report – and how it can help you thrive as a facilitator.👇

1/ Facilitation can be a lonely profession.

97% of respondents stated they sometimes or most of the time work alone. This is one of the great paradoxes of facilitation: you often form a bond with the groups you work with. And yet it can feel lonely when your involvement with the group comes to an end – especially when you lead groups online.

Tip 👉Find a community of facilitators. Peers who you can experiment with, who will give you feedback, and who will become your support people.

Here are 4 facilitation communities to check out (that I belong to):

🧪Session Lab Circle Community (free)

🌱Never Done Before (paid)

⚒️Nadia Chaney’s Toolsi (paid with scholarship support)

💥Breakthrough Facilitation (paid course + community with scholarship support – created by yours truly)

2/ Facilitation lacks diversity and inclusion.

I was startled to learn that I fit the most common profile of a facilitator in the report: a white, middle-aged woman from North America and Western and Northern Europe. Most of my facilitation mentors don’t fit into that category. I’m asking myself — how it is that they are not represented? And how can I work to lift up others in the field, just like others have lifted me up?

Tip 👉Support underrepresented facilitators. Educate yourself. Do your personal work. Fund scholarships. Mentor others. And hire under-represented facilitators.

3/ There are many ways to become a “facilitator”.

I have called myself a facilitator for 20+ years. And yet I have never done a degree in facilitation. I’ve taken method-specific certifications. And I’ve spent years learning with experienced facilitators. There is no “one” pathway to becoming a facilitator.

Tip 👉Get exposure to a variety of facilitation methods that best fit your work. This will give you a range of tools and techniques so you can find a unique combination that works for you.

🔌(Here comes the shameless plug…) Join the interest list for the April cohort of Breakthrough Facilitation where I’ve condensed everything I know into an immersive 5-week course.

4/ Most sessions in 2022 were delivered remotely.

True – almost an equal number happened in person. This combo may be where the dust settles in our emerging COVID world. But one thing is clear – remote meetings and sessions are here to stay.

Tip 👉Practice honing your online facilitation skills. Experiment by “sprinkling” in some icebreakers and activities that fit your audience and purpose. Here are 5 free toolkits that will give you more ideas than you know what to do with:

🔧Session Lab Library of Facilitation Techniques.

⚙️IDEO’s Creative Tips + Tools.

🔩Changemakers x Change Virtual Toolkit.

⛏️Hyper Island Toolbox.

🪛Partners for Youth Empowerment Free Tools

5/ Facilitation is everywhere.

Facilitation is becoming an essential skill for ✨everyone✨ who leads groups – whether you call yourself a facilitator or not. And you are already ahead of the game as someone who sees the value of facilitation.

Tip 👉Keep learning. Check out these 📚12 books here and here that will help you become an exceptional facilitator (and a better person).

What findings surprise you in the report?

📅You’re invited to The State of Facilitation Report Virtual Brunch – March 14 @ 12pm CET

I am thrilled to be a guest speaker at the State of Facilitation Report Brunch tomorrow. Join me and members of the Session Lab team for a live discussion. Topic: Is facilitation a woman’s world?

We want to hear from you!

Here’s how you join this free event:

1. Join the Session Lab community (free)

2. Go to Community Events and RSVP.