A Krash Course in Online Facilitation

Foundational facilitation skills for online virtual meetings

Online meetings are different. At times, they can be deathly. But, with planning and skill, they can be deadly.

Running meetings and group gatherings can have their risks. However, with some of the right thinking, tools skills and some tactful tactics, the role of the group facilitating can become less daunting.

This short course introduces the Five Fundamentals of Group Facilitation and demonstrates their function and value to help you effectively, and gracefully, lead your group sessions online.

This is an online version of the In-The-Room Crash Course in Group Facilitation. (Also, this underwent a name change in April 2021, just to confuse things.)

1. Facilitation Five Fundamentals

The Facilitation Five Fundamentals help you to solve problems when they arise in meetings, and more importantly they make sure issues don’t arise in the first place. Participants will find the training provides them with a solid grounding as well as fresh ideas, processes, exercises and practical tips for working with groups. These tools will help to keep your session participants engaged and actively participating.

2. Understanding On The Line

Some things are very different when we’re gathering online. We experience zoom fatigue, there’s more awkward situations, even with the best intentions there can be overtalking, in general there’s more blocks to a feeling of ‘togetherness’.

When we’re not in three dimensions, It’s a different medium, and sometimes it feels weird.

If we can get a better understanding of how this medium works (as well as how it doesn’t) this can help us to translate our skills from in-person meetings (In The Room) to the virtual realm (On The Line).

3. Designed for On The Line

This course is designed and delivered with for the specifics of the medium of online virtual meeting spaces. All the tools, processes, activities and theoretical thinking will help you to get the most out of what this medium has to offer, as well as avoiding its obvious challenges and common pitfalls.

Methodology

This course will be delivered via Zoom over 5 weekly sessions:

Getting Settled, 2.5 hours
All about what’s good to give your attention to at the start of sessions to set yourself up for success (and to make your job easier).
Culture Coding, 2.5 hours
Figuring out how to create a safe environment in the group, in a collaborative way.
Listening and Supporting Speaking, 2.5 hours
Exploring your most important skill, and including suggestions reading the room.
Case Clinic & Decisions, 2.5 hours
Looking at some tricky situations that can happen in groups, and selecting some viable solutioneering.
Further tips for online group gatherings, 2.5 hours
Collecting a final wrap up of tricks and tools for online virtual meetings.

Course Pack

20 pages of notes, posted to participants prior. The first half of the pack relates to content relevant to In-The-Room. The second half of the pack covers ideas specific to online facilitation tips.