The Art of Facilitation - musings on how to deliver more interactive and fun online workshops

I’ve often said that facilitation is an art form in itself.

The beginning of my career was mainly focused around drama workshops.  I delivered these up and down the country with people of all ages and a huge variety of backgrounds.  They took an energy I’m not sure I could muster several times a week any more, but they were so much fun.  I find humans endlessly fascinating, so it was a gift to be able to laugh, play and create with so many different people.  The workshops I loved delivering the most were with the ones with the littlest kids, ones with teenagers and ones with women’s groups. 

There was a magic in all workshops though; a flow to be found.  When everyone was engaged and participating and everyone wanted to be there.  When the magic flowed and the creativity burst forth.  Those moments were special.  Behind closed doors, without an audience: a little secret spark of magic only us in the room got to share.

And whilst you certainly can’t win everybody's full engagement, over time I honed my facilitation skills which made it more likely for each workshop to be as amazing as it could be.  Throughout my career, I’ve regularly unpicked what those key skills are so I can teach facilitation to others.  Sometimes they’re really very subtle.

One of these subtle techniques, which is most definitely from the land of the drama workshop, but in essence applies to all facilitation, and that is the power of the drama circle.  At the beginning of all my workshops I’d get the group to come and stand (if able) in a circle.  Teenagers would roll their eyes at me as I would insist on a perfect circle: not an oblong or one that has a few latecomers not quite fitting in, but a perfect circle with everyone in an equal space where they can all easily see each other.  

It set the session up properly as it communicated to everyone in the room that no one had more power than anyone else, all were welcome and we were a team.  If it was a group I worked with over time, after a few sessions I would no longer need to insist on the perfect circle at the beginning as they automatically did it.  Physically moving into that shape started our work together, like the breathing you do at the start of a yoga class: it was a way to centre, connect and begin.

When I’m delivering training or any of the other facilitation fun I get to do these days, I don’t insist on a drama circle.  That would be really odd in many of the settings I now work in!  But the essence of it remains.  How can I shape a way of beginning that sets the tone and gives out that message of equality, connection and team?  It’ll differ from workshop to workshop but it’s an integral part of the planning and it makes a huge difference in the energy and engagement in the room right from the word go.

It's those subtle skills that I’m most fascinated with when it comes to teaching facilitation.  Like the tone of voice, or the body language you can employ to change the energy or feel of a room.  It can feel intangible, but with a big dose of curiosity and a sense of adventure, you can unpick it and create a step by step plan.  Although charisma and personality play a huge part, I don’t believe great facilitation is a talent you are born with and you can become an amazing facilitator from scratch and an eye on the detail of these subtle shifts in energy and purpose will get you there much quicker.

A drama circle would be utterly useless in an online workshop of course.  Although the gallery view of zoom sets much of that tone automatically: we all have the same sized box to appear in (although what we show in that box, what background we choose and how we appear in it opens up a world of creative possibility).  But size matters… and us all having the same size space creates a sense of equality before I’ve even opened my facilitation playbook and begun.  Also the sound works in our favour too online: only one person can speak at a time, so there’s a courteous structure needed for anything to happen.  I really like that.

I also really like the fact that we can be intensely engaged in a workshop but on a break we can completely step out of that world and go and hang the washing out, or something.  That ability to totally step away I find massively refreshing and it shows in the energies of the groups I work with. 

For example, I regularly facilitate Arts Award adviser training for Trinity College London.  Those training sessions are an intense 4 hours on zoom which can be quite draining, but putting a decent length break in the middle where trainees can really get away from the screen and have a proper rest really does change the engagement.  I’ve found they are more energised in the second half of the training online than they used to be when I delivered it face to face.  Not that people completely slumped when we were in the room together, as with all things facilitation, it's a subtle shift but one I’ve noticed is a repeating pattern.

I don’t see online or face-to-face delivery as one better than the other.  Both have their pros and cons and they can feel very different.  But I’m definitely an online convert.  I just love facilitating online.  And I love supporting others to do it too.

Since the summer of 2020 I’ve trained hundreds of people in how to deliver creative online workshops.  This can be creative with a big C – delivering arts focused activities, or it can be with a small c – injecting some fun, playful, creativeness into any workshop.  We have explored the basic tools of zoom and how we can utilise them in ways to increase engagement, energy and focus.

As many are now zoom friendly, there’s less demand for those workshops, but people still occasionally get in touch looking to see if I’m running any so I’ve turned it into a pre-recorded online course.  This actually has lots more in it than the live workshops used to.  It’s a series of online videos and a workbook, jam packed with facilitation ideas, approaches and ways to develop your skills.

You can read more about that here: The Art of Online Creative Facilitation.

But before you do, I’ve another idea I’m cooking up around facilitation.  Some of the people who attended my workshops last autumn were interested in some sort of networking/meet up for people who regularly facilitate stuff.  Whilst there was lots of interest, I didn’t quite get the format right and it never took off.  If you might be interested in this, do get in touch and we can shape something together.  You can reply straight to this email, or book in a virtual cuppa and we can chat further.

September 2022