Facilitating

Facilitating


Facilitating

Ambassador role

The role of an ambassador is facilitative and catalytic, rather than technical. Your currency is trust with all stakeholders involved. Your effectiveness will be compromised if you are perceived to be advocating for a technical position or ‘taking sides’ in controversies or confrontations that emerge during the 100 days.

Ambassadors will do what it takes to help leaders and teams stay focused until the goals are achieved. You will wear different hats during the challenge to keep pushing the agenda forward: convener; challenger; coach, healer; taskmaster; cheerleader;  etc. Anytime, anywhere, as needed. Often in the background, making things happen and taking little credit for it.

The video provides a quick look at three of the main hats that an ambassador wears.

Sharpen your skills

The best way to learn how to facilitate is to “JUST DO IT”. You do not need to be a subject matter expert on the topic of the challenge. The knowledge and expertise on the topic are drawn from the team.

Practice self-awareness –  ask for feedback from the team and other facilitators after a session.  Watch and learn from others, read books and articles or watch videos. Jump onto google and sharpen your facilitator “pencil”. 

Flipcharts

Make maximum use of flip charts in workshops, or their equivalents in virtual workshops (e.g. Mural). Writing down team members’ thoughts helps them build on each other’s ideas.  It also helps each team member to be visually reminded about their contributions to the team’s work. Here are some tips on using flipcharts.

Prepare and practice

  1. Meet with your fellow ambassadors for the district, and go over the workshop slides and facilitation guide. If there are questions on the flow or the content, please jot these down and bring them to the next “office hour” session.
  2. Customise the slides for the session, as you see fit.
  3. Go over the overall flow with the mentors, if possible, and get their input. You may need to make adjustments to the agenda based on this.

Thought starter reflection questions

Jot down thoughts on these questions – to the extent they are relevant to your experience at the session:
  • When did the mood in the event shift from “why are we here?” to “this could be interesting – I am excited to be part of this.” What triggered this shift? 
  • When did you have to go “off script” on the agenda or to change the agenda? What triggered this? What did you adjust? How did it go?
  • What was most surprising to you at the event?
  • What new insights did you gain about the issue at hand, and about the way leaders in the system interacted with each other?
  • Where did the conversation get stuck? What got it unstuck?
  • How would you characterise the level of trust among participants in the meeting? To what extent did this shift as the meeting progressed? To what do you attribute this shift, if indeed it happened?

Thought starter...

Reflection Questions 

Jot down thoughts on these questions – to the extent they are relevant to your experience at the session:

  • When did the mood in the event shift from “why are we here?” to “this could be interesting – I am excited to be part of this.” What triggered this shift? 
  • When did you have to go “off script” on the agenda or to change the agenda? What triggered this? What did you adjust? How did it go?
  • What was most surprising to you at the event?
  • What new insights did you gain about the issue at hand, and about the way leaders in the system interacted with each other?
  • Where did the conversation get stuck? What got it unstuck?
These are 100-Day Challenge Mentors. 

They did some work before you received the Challenge Note. This included:

  • Writing the Challenge Note, and making sure that the leaders of all the organisations represented on the team are comfortable with it – and committed to supporting the work of the team
  • Helping the leaders of these organisation recruit you and your colleagues to the team
  • Gathering some baseline data and other information that will help you and your teammates set your 100-Day goal and develop your plan.
  • Making sure all the preparations are made for a successful Lift-Off workshop, when you and your teammates will meet and get your 100-Day Challenge started. This includes venue, facilitation support, food, swags, comms, travel arrangements and whatever else is needed.

 

Mentors will participate in all or part of the Lift-Off Workshop, mostly at the start to provide context and answer questions, and at the end to give you and your teammates feedback about the goal and plan you develop.

During the 100 days following the Lift-Off Workshop, here’s what the Mentors will do:  

  • They will check in every two weeks with the team leaders to see how the team is doing and what support they and the team need.
  • They will keep other organisational leaders informed and engaged during the 100 days, and pull them in to help as needed.
  • They will participate in the last part of the Refuelling Workshop, halfway through the 100 days, to see what additional support the team needs, and to begin to plan with the team for sustainability and scale-up.
  • They will work with the team at the Sustainability Workshop to finalise recommendations on sustaining the results and building on the work of the team.