Affirm your roles and set aside time to connect and rehearse.
Previously (in section 2.6), we thought about how to assemble a team and define teammates’ roles on a project. We emphasized the importance of asking for help from people whose expertise and talents complement your own. We also spent time unpacking the importance of “playing your lane” during an event. When you work with a team of facilitators, everyone should have a clearly defined role during each part of your class, session, or workshop.
You need to design your team and fulfill your roles in an intentional, organized way so learners know whom to ask for help when and how to share general insights and questions with the entire group. If every facilitator tries to be all things for all learners, your team will come across as scattered and at odds with itself.
Take time between planning and delivering an event to affirm your roles across the team. Make sure
- Everyone understands each role.
- Everyone is happy in their role.
- Everyone feels supported in taking on their role.
- Everyone has the chance to suggest and discuss different roles or to suggest and discuss changing roles with other teammates.
You may have one lead facilitator for the entire event with table wranglers circulating all day or leading small-group activities or stations. You might switch lead facilitators every activity. However you divide your work within your team, be sure everyone knows and supports your plan for sharing facilitation responsibilities throughout the day.
If you run stations or small-group activities run by several different facilitators at once, script the essential learning that needs to happen in each group. Each facilitator can bring their own style and voice to the activity, but learners should feel like they’re learning the same key experiences and understandings regardless of who leads their group.
Here’s an example of a script for a spectrogram activity.
In a spectrogram, learners respond to a statement read by the facilitator by walking along a giant number line to indicate how much they agree (10) or disagree (1) with a statement. For example, a facilitator might read something like, “The only way to learn how to code is to use a computer.”
Learners who agree might walk closer to the 10 side of the number line, learners who disagree might walk closer to the 1 side, and learners who are undecided or who see multiple perspectives might wind up somewhere in between. The facilitator invites a few volunteers to explain their positions before moving on to the next prompt and inviting learners to move and “speak with their feet” again.
A script like this one helps every co-facilitator know how to frame the activity and connect it to the rest of the class, session, or workshop so that learners from different groups are equally prepared to move ahead together after the activity.
To get a feel for the timings of each activity in your agenda and to anticipate how you might transition from one activity to the next, it’s important to hold a few “walk-throughs” or rehearsals before you facilitate your event.
You may not be able to get everyone together or to block enough time for everyone to rehearse the entire event together in real time, but you should plan at least one virtual walk-through with co-facilitators at a time when everyone can make it online.
The walk-through is like a think-aloud: tell the story of the day to your co-facilitators and pause to ask for feedback and questions after you share each “chapter” or activity with them.
You should also plan a brief, face-to-face, onsite walk-through to review the agenda and answer any questions about it, your materials, or your space. That walk through might happen over dinner after touring your space the evening before an event, or it might happen over coffee or breakfast right before you begin.
The big idea is to get the big picture of the event into everyone’s head and to reinforce what needs to happen when as you transition from activity to activity during the event.
Between planning, your walk-throughs, facilitation, and debriefing, you’ll spend a lot of time at work with your team of co-facilitators.
Apart from that time, it’s also helpful and affirming to spend some time with one another outside the work. You don’t need to schedule a special outing or come up with a magic number of minutes to spend bonding as a team. No trust falls, karaoke, or confidence courses needed, unless you want them.
However, you should get to know one another as people. Make it a point to reach out to your colleagues and invite them chat after an onsite walk-through. Share a meal. Take a walk. Explore the part of the city or countryside you’re in for your event. Your appreciation for one another as people - and your understanding of how you communicate with one another - will only add to your collegiality, the trust you have in one another, and the quality of your work.
Schedule a call or meeting with your co-facilitators and create a shared document for note-taking about roles.
Start by listing likely needs during your event. What kinds of facilitation will your learners’ need from you?
Then talk about who might like to do what throughout the day. Draw on your strengths and areas of expertise to assign yourselves the roles that make the most sense for each of you to fill.
As part of the same call or meeting (or later, if need be), identify any small-group activities or stations in your agenda. Talk with one another about what every learner needs to get from each of those activities, document those understandings, and use them to draft scripts that facilitators can follow to ensure fidelity between groups. Include
- Facilitation tips that everyone leading a group should follow.
- Key information that helps “connect the dots” between each activity and the rest of your agenda.
Ahead of your event, compare schedules and send invitations for
- A virtual walk-through and think-aloud of your agenda.
- A face-to-face, onsite walk-through of your agenda.
- Team time near your event site over a meal or low-key outing.
- A face-to-face debrief as soon after your event as possible.
- An online debrief and work session iterating for next time.