This afternoon I facilitated a session for Advantage Travel Centres. The aim of the session was to gain feedback on a draft of a survey we (Travel Weekly) have been working on with Advantage.
There were 13 in the group sat around a table in a meeting room. I had a flipchart and a list of five topics to cover.
Facilitator is probably the wrong term - as my role was more about guiding the discussion through the topics.
And as I was stood throughout scribing points raised I looked more like a school teacher. Scribing and guiding and engaging with what people are saying all at the same time is very demanding particularly if you have a group that is not communiocating freely.
Luckily, the group all knew each other so were able to talk freely.
My main learning point was around intervention. I sensed that we were only scratching the surface on some topics but I did not want to push the group. My approach was therefore more about suggestion - putting ideas ino the mix (as questions) to see what the group would say.
Colin O'Neill at Advantage was happy with the outcome. I enjoyed it too - and now have loads of flipchart pages to type up. I am facilitating a similar group later in the week.