Good facilitators reflect ON action and consider what they might have done differently within a workshop. Great facilitators are constantly reflecting IN action—pivoting and adjusting their plan as they go along. Reflecting in action becomes easier with practice—and the more you do it, the more natural it becomes. In the meantime, here are 10 ideas to help you grow your pivoting muscle.
1. Challenge your mindset.
Going off plan doesn’t mean you failed or were poorly prepared, it simply means you were adaptable and responsive to participants needs in the moment.
2. Respond quickly.
Don’t ignore early signs that something isn’t working. The sooner you acknowledge it, the easier it is to adapt and move on.
3. Buy yourself time.
If you know that something needs to change, but you’re not sure how, invite participants to discuss something in small groups. This gives you space to reflect—and if necessary, talk to key people—so you can come up with a new plan.
4. Break it down.
To avoid going completely off-track and finishing the day miles behind schedule, create 2-3 way-points that coincide with breaks. Aim to be back at the way-point by the scheduled time, even if you’re changing things up in-between.
5. Know what matters.
When designing your workshop plan, decide which outcomes are critical, which are important, and which are nice-to-have. This makes it easier to decide which activity/s to cut if necessary.
6. Give your self options.
Keep building your toolkit of discussion structures, frameworks, activities and processes, so you have plenty to draw on when things need to change. If you only have a few things in your toolkit, it makes it hard to find the right activity in the moment.
7. Be prepared.
Always carry a range of resources like post-it notes, sticky dots, flipcharts, picture cards, A4 paper, felt pens, balls, string and dice—even if you don’t plan to use them. Having resources on hand means you can keep your options open.
8. Take the pressure off yourself.
Don’t be afraid to tell the group you are going off-script. Ask permission to do something a ‘little bit different’ for 10 minutes and frame it as an experiment.
9. Have different versions of activities.
Decide ahead of time how you can shorten specific activities. That way if you’re running over time, you already have a plan B.
10. Recognise that it’s the outcome that’s important, not how you get there.
Hold the purpose tightly and the plan loosely.
What would you add?