If recent advances in AI have you worried about your job, we get it. ChatGPT may solve poorly written emails, but it can’t do everything. One thing robots will (probably) never do well is facilitation.
According to a recent report from the World Economic Forum, employers are increasingly looking for people with problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. And guess what? These are two skills at the center of being a great facilitator–in addition to three others highlighted below.
We wholeheartedly agree with the folks at Workshopper who put this graphic together. Facilitation is a power skill for the next normal of nonprofit leadership—nonprofit or otherwise. We believe in this so strongly that we’ve recently conducted specialized training sessions for nonprofit leaders on creating and facilitating impactful meetings and gatherings. We recently finished our second go of this 4-part series for a group of nonprofit leaders in Nashua, NH as part of a partnership with Greater Nashua Mental Health.
The series covers how to initiate or prepare for meetings or gatherings, how to design experiences, and best practices in facilitation.
There’s a lot to being a seasoned facilitator, and the fastest way to get great is by putting in the reps. If you are a nonprofit leader looking to have better meetings and increase YOUR facilitation skills, check out and integrate a few of the rituals we have into your next experience or meeting.
🔗 Rituals for Impactful Experiences:
📍 Let people get present in the space
📍 Start with a connection exercise
📍 Incorporate music in everything
📍 Give regular space for reflection
📍Give room to work on the work in the room
📍Plan tight, but also hang loose
📍Don’t default to verbal dialogue conversations
📍Close with heart, not tasks or next steps
Last — from the brilliant advice from one of our mentors, Dr Daniel Friedland — remember that the PRIMARY purpose of every meeting is move relationships forward and then secondary to that is moving the task forward. If you’ve moved the task forward without the relationship, you’ve lost the meeting.
Happy facilitating!