FACILITATION

Facilitation is the cornerstone of all Deer Hill Corporate programs. All of our programs have a large experiential component. These activities require a facilitator who will maintain a safe environment that encourages participants to develop new ideas. The facilitator must be skilled at encouraging full participation, helping the group make progress with difficult issues and maintaining discussion structure that leads to conclusions which help the group. Our facilitators have years of experience facilitating teamwork activities and meetings, managing conflict resolution and providing personal coaching. This staff is available to facilitate your meetings, and to provide you with training that will enable you and your staff to facilitate effectively.

MEETING FACILITATION

As with all of our programs, our facilitators will put a good deal of time into pre-meeting planning. We will help you define meeting goals, create an agenda and develop strategies for dealing with difficult issues. In most cases we will recommend inclusion of some interactive challenges to maintain positive energy and develop the group’s collaboration skills. Once the meeting begins, our facilitators will keep the meeting on track while allowing everyone to feel their contributions are important. These facilitators are very good at understanding the needs of groups and diffusing any conflicts. We have received a great deal of feedback from clients who feel that their meetings were productive because important interpersonal issues were aired and managed in a productive way.

Meetings can be facilitated in the meeting room at our affiliate, Deer Hill Ranch (see “RETREATS”), or at the location of your choice. The Ranch provides an excellent atmosphere for allowing guests to relax and not feel the daily stresses of the workplace. We can also provide catered meals and snacks, as well as a large open lawn area that is excellent for team building activities. Should you choose to have your meeting elsewhere, we will work with you to provide an environment and amenities that are most conducive to achieving your meeting goals.

FACILITATION TRAINING

We have found that our Team Development Programs provide an excellent framework for teaching facilitation skills. Groups of 10 are led through a series of increasingly difficult challenges through which they learn that positive support, planning and clear communication lead to the development of trust, cohesion and ultimately success for the group. As described in the TEAM BUILDING section herein, their facilitator describes each challenge, then lets the group struggle through it without any assistance. When the group is finished with the activity, the facilitator leads a debriefing by asking questions that generate a discussion of what worked, what didn't work and how lessons learned can be applied to the workplace. After this debriefing, the facilitator describes their strategy and actions for facilitating the activity just completed. He/she then engages the group in a discussion of the theory and expected outcomes behind these actions. As with the development of teamwork skills through the progression of activities, the group builds on its knowledge of facilitation techniques with each succeeding activity. Participants learn facilitation using the highly effective experiential learning model, which enables them to be coached while they learn by doing.

Facilitation training can be provided at Deer Hill Ranch or at a location you choose. We find the Ranch to be ideal for this training because we can use the high ropes course to provide a level of challenge that brings out many facilitation issues clients find useful.