Facilitation skills training course
Effective facilitation skills enable smoother interactions, quality decisions, greater buy-in and commitment
We offer this in-company course as either a 5 day Combined Foundation and Practitioner certification,
or a 3 day Foundation only certification.
It can be run as virtual live training, or when it is safe to do so, as onsite training.
Course overview
As we move away from the ‘command and control’ way of working, effective facilitation skills are increasingly important. This certification teaches powerful skills and core competencies for enabling collaboration and drawing out the best from the skills and knowledge of people within a group.
Gain the confidence and new skills to make your team meetings more productive, facilitate team building, improve management of project stakeholder interactions, resolve issues faster and inspire your teams with creative thinking models.
This APMG International certified facilitation training course complements other professional development qualifications in project management and change management.
Facilitation skills certification content
A robust framework for effective facilitation across all areas of an organisation and in the context of projects, change, business analysis, strategic planning, operational effectiveness and business process improvement.
The following areas are covered during this course
- Applying the Process Iceberg® model and framework
- Clarifying and assessing task objectives for degree of uncertainty
- Establishing group formations most appropriate to achieve the objective
- Differentiating between the Facilitator’s role and the Task Leader’s role
- Data collection tools and techniques
- Prioritisation and decision-making techniques
- Models for problem solving and implementation
- Creative techniques for collaboration and emergent change
- Approach for designing and reviewing an event
- How to deal with different personality types and issues during an event
Facilitation course information
Foundation level
- This certification is relevant to all areas of business and industry where people come together to tackle issues, resolve problems and develop effective solutions
- The facilitation skills course will benefit anyone with a role in project and change management, or organisational development
Practitioner level
- Managers, specialists, project managers, change agents, Business Analysts, IT professionals and aspiring facilitators who need to achieve outcomes related to their specialist area through group collaboration and participation
- It is also relevant to other key individuals who work in teams to address business issues, and to managers and leaders at all levels who have to achieve real business outcomes through groups or teams of people
Foundation level
- Confirm your knowledge of the Process Iceberg® Facilitation Methodology
- How to explain the Process Iceberg model and its relevance to helping a group achieve its Task objectives
- How to outline a plan for the contracting meeting with a client, and for setting up the logistics of an event
- How to identify appropriate roles, behaviours and contracts between Facilitator, Task Leader and group
- How to draft an Agenda Process plan for a group’s work session in terms of Process, taking proper account of Task Uncertainty/Complexity/Certainty and the level of group Process Awareness.
- How to distinguish clearly and accurately between ‘Task’ and ‘Process’ issues, and state how an effective Facilitator should respond to each
- How to formulate good quality feedback, using the Feedback Model, reverse feedback and creating SPOs to introduce Process to support the Task
- How to recognise behaviours of individual group members which indicate particular personality types and related preferences
- How to describe how to use the Process Iceberg model to avoid and address problems in meetings
- How to review a meeting using the Process Iceberg, using this Process to indicate the group’s Process maturity
- How to list the key characteristics of an effective Facilitator
- How to explain the Process, uses, rationale, advantages and limitations of Models, Tools and Techniques included in the Foundation syllabus
Practitioner level
- Apply Process Iceberg thinking to help a group achieve its goals
- Recognise where facilitation is or is not an appropriate response to organisational needs and work effectively with strategic information to apply facilitation in organisation settings
- Plan meetings with a client to understand the Task needs and set up the logistics of an event
- Contribute helpfully to establishing a Contract with the Task Leader and with the group
- Design a facilitated event
- Work effectively with other Facilitators to apply facilitation in larger group settings
- Respond to situations which arise during an event, making good Process decisions which secure Task outcomes
- Develop effective interaction and decision-making in the group by using appropriate communication Tools
- As an individual taking the course, you will learn the effective facilitation skills needed to become a skilled facilitator, capable of stepping into a wide variety of situations. You will learn a broad range of practical tools and techniques for the role of a facilitator. These can help groups to handle uncertainty, improve group dynamics, solve problems, develop conflict resolution capabilities and develop answers to key questions.
- As part of organisational development, learning best practice facilitation methods will help you tackle difficult challenges, delivering timely and robust solutions in an effective way. Skilled facilitators will be better able to involve stakeholders at all levels, implementing change through effective collaboration techniques. They will generate a common language, which improves communication and understanding by active listening not only within the whole group but throughout the organisation.
Facilitation Foundation level exam
- Multiple-choice format and closed book
- 40 minutes duration, with 50 questions
- Pass mark 50%
- Takes place on the afternoon of the third day
You need to have achieved the Foundation level certification to go on to the Practitioner level certification
Facilitation Practitioner level exam
- Multiple-choice format and open book
- 2.5 hours duration, with 80 questions
- Pass mark 50%
- Takes place on the morning of the fifth day
Included in your Facilitation training
- The course handbook Facilitation, Develop Your Expertise by Tony Mann
- Pre-course support and study guide
- Course materials
- Examination fees
- Post-course support
- You can run this programme in the most convenient way for your organisation, either over consecutive days or split into separate modules.
Would you like to know more about the Facilitation certification?
Want to improve communication and understanding within your team and make team meetings more productive?
Call us on 01276 34480 or email us your enquiry, let’s get started!
What our client’s say
“I attended this Facilitation Skills course to improve how I run meetings and plan workshops for my project. I have gained many tools that I can use and will be running more workshops now using the knowledge gained.”
Rotimi Nelson, Project Manager, Research
Read what our clients have said about Facilitation training with us