The “Course Topics” series from Manage Train Learn and Slide Topics is a collection of over 4000 slides that will help you master a wide range of management and personal development skills. The 202 PowerPoints in this series offer you a complete and in-depth study of each topic. This presentation is on "Empowering the Group".

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Empowering the Group
Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
FACILITATION SKILLS
Empowering the Group

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Empowering the Group
Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
The Course Topics series from Manage Train Learn is a large collection of topics that will help you as a learner
to quickly and easily master a range of skills in your everyday working life and life outside work. If you are a
trainer, they are perfect for adding to your classroom courses and online learning plans.
COURSE TOPICS FROM MTL
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Empowering the Group
Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
ARE YOU READY?
OK, LET’S START!

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Empowering the Group
Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
INTRODUCTION
In many traditional experiences of being and working in
groups - the family, the school classroom, the work team -
we have become used to hierarchical models of authority.
So we have become used to fitting in, adjusting to others,
letting the experts decide, doing what we're told. As a
result, many of us live lives of quiet desperation: alienated,
frustrated, defensive, powerless. The process of facilitation
aims to restore, unleash and release that lost power and put
it back where it belongs: with people.

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Empowering the Group
Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
BEING OPEN
The first step in creating an empowered climate in a group is
to model aspects of openness. There is a continuum of
empowerment options that ranges from being relaxed with
people at one end to letting people feel free to be
themselves at the other. Openness is at the heart of this
range.
Modelling openness is like presenting an open page on
which you invite the group to write its own story.
"The world is your exercise book, the pages on which you do
your sums. It isn't your reality, although you can express
reality there if you wish. You are also free to write nonsense,
or lies, or to tear the pages up." (Richard Bach)

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
TIME AND SPACE
Being relaxed about rules on time and space in a group is a
way of inviting people to set their own rules.
1. Don't force people to sit where you want them to sit.
2. Don't force people to go where you want them to go.
3. Don't force people to work to your pace.
4. Don't force people to meet your deadlines.
Empowerment is an act of trust and invites trust in return.
Some control-oriented managers will point to the abuses
that are possible if you empower people who are not ready
for responsibility. But in the hands of a skilled facilitator
even an abuse can be used as an opportunity to explore
personal growth.
"The more open I am to others and myself, the less I want to
rush in and fix things." (Carl Rogers)

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
FREEDOM
One of the most important functions of facilitation is to
encourage the group to be themselves. This means allowing
the group the freedom to make their own choices and to
face up to the consequences of those choices.
You can show you value free choice by...
1. allowing people to express views which are unorthodox,
unpopular, or minority views, without them being
derided or judged
2. allowing people to choose not to take part in activities
or discussions if they so choose
3. allowing people to take their time in learning as a way
of acknowledging that not everyone learns at the same
pace as everyone else.

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
LANGUAGE
Everything you say and do as facilitator can underline your
own openness and your invitation to others to be open.
How You Speak
1. Use OSCAR, a mnemonic for open, simple, clear,
assertive, and relevant language
2. Avoid "musts" and "shoulds"
3. Avoid judgment, criticism and put-downs.
How You Address People
1. Be relaxed, still and attentive.
2. Only speak when you have something worth saying.
3. Sit or stand with open body language signals: face
people, uncross your arms and legs.
4. Keep gestures and expressions in neutral and under
control.

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
TOLERANCE
Your demonstration of tolerance to what people say and do
is one of the strongest acts of group empowerment. When
people see that their behaviour and views are taken
seriously, they also begin to take them seriously.
An empowered workgroup is open to anything anyone does
or says: this means not filtering it through the organisation's
version of what is acceptable, the department's version or
your own. It also means tolerating mistakes and failures, the
raw material for learning and growth.
"The leader judges no one and is attentive to both "good"
and "bad" people. It does not even matter whether the
person is telling the truth or lying." (John Heider: "The Tao
of Leadership")

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MTL Course Topics
VALUING
People sometimes feel powerless in groupwork because
they have lost the trappings of their institutional power:
they cannot use their title, their status, or their power to
reward or threaten others. Facilitators work with a different
kind of power: the power that comes from being important
in your own right. In this way everyone is valued in the
group.
These are some of the ways to model valuing:
• value others by being courteous, quiet and using first
names
• value their ideas by listening quietly and attentively
whenever they speak
• value what they do by showing interest even if the
subject is otherwise not one you would normally be
interested in
• value their emotional state by being supportive and
appreciative when they confide in you.

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
OWNING
It is the facilitator's task to guide the group into taking
ownership of their needs and wants. This process can be
reflected in small but significantly empowering ways when
we help individuals change the way they speak.
1. Speaking For Others. When someone claims to speak
for others, eg "I think we all want a break", ask him or
her to check it out with the others first.
2. Blaming. When someone blames another person for
how they feel, eg "He makes me angry", ask him to own
his feelings, ie "I feel angry when he says that".
3. Speaking Directly. When someone speaks indirectly, eg
"Does anyone want a drink?", suggest they speak
directly, ie "I would like a drink".
4. Making Choices. When someone says they must do
something, eg "I have to go", ask her to check that it
isn't their choice rather than a requirement, ie "I want
to go".

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MTL Course Topics
NEVER SAY YOU HAVE TO
In his book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People",
Stephen Covey recounts the story of the student who
avoided owning his choices.
One time a student asked me: "Would you excuse me from
class? I have to go on a tennis trip."
"You have to go?" I asked. "I really have to," he exclaimed.
"What will happen if you don't?" "Why, they'll kick me off
the team."
"How would you like that?" I asked. "I wouldn't."
"In other words, you choose to go because you want the
consequences of staying on the team. But if you don't come
to class, what would be the natural consequence?" "I guess
I'll miss the learning."
"That's right. So you have to weigh that consequence
against the other consequence and make a choice. I know if
it were me, I'd choose to go on the tennis trip. But never say
you have to do anything."
"I choose to go on the tennis trip," he meekly replied.

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MTL Course Topics
NOT DOING IT FOR THEM
In traditional forms of groupwork, group leaders are often
placed in the role of expert, rescuer and problem-solver. In
this role, they are seen as question-masters with the
answers to problems tucked up their sleeves or as helpers
who will step in and do things if the group gets stuck.
Playing the part of rescuer, while it may make us feel good
and overcome a temporary difficulty, merely results in dis-
empowering those in the group. We send the message that
when things get difficult, they can opt out and do nothing.
There is no growth in that route.
When opportunities to intervene arise or we are tempted to
take the easy route and do it for them, we should stop, bite
our lips and do nothing.

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
BOOMERANG QUESTIONS
The boomerang question, also known as the "elastic
question", has become a cliché of facilitation, practically its
hallmark.
You use the boomerang question to send back questions to
their owners.
Susan: "What exactly is facilitation, Malcolm?"
You: "Well, what do you think it is, Susan?“
The boomerang question invariably works because, in asking
a question in the first place a group member usually has an
idea of an answer which he or she wants to test, explore or
confirm but is not sure about. Your response tells the person
that it is OK to voice what they think.

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
ANSWER A Q WITH A Q
Boomerang questions work best when they make people
think.
Here are 7 responses that make people do just that.
1. “I would never want to do that.” “What would you want
to do?”
2. I wouldn’t like to do this.” “What would make it more
attractive?”
3. “This will never work.” “What would work better?”
4. “There are too many problems for it to work.” “What are
the main problems?”
5. “There are lots of changes needed.” “Such as…”
6. “It’s a good plan but I have some niggling doubts.” “What
would put your mind at rest?”
7. “It’s unlikely to work in its present form.” “What changes
would you suggest?”

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
WEAVING
Weaving is an alternative technique to the boomerang
question. Instead of sending a question back to the
questioner, you thread it into the group, inviting others to
reply or referring to what others have already said. In this
way, you signal that the group, not you, is the place to turn
to for answers.
"I don't understand the question..."
"Can anyone else help John?"
or
"Rachel, you expressed a view on this earlier...“
Weaving doesn't have the same impact as the boomerang
question because it allows the questioner a way out of
finding their own answers to their questions.

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
SHARING
One of the more humorous clichés of facilitation, and often
mimicked by groups, is the expression: "Would you like to
share that with us?" Sharing is a useful neutral word that a
person can interpret in whatever way they think best. It
could mean sharing an experience, sharing feelings, sharing
thoughts, sharing know-how.
The sharing cliché hides an important feature of facilitation
and that is the willingness of members of a group to be
open about their experiences, thoughts and feelings.
Through the patience of the facilitator and the support of
the rest of the group, people can be encouraged to put their
thoughts and feelings into words and trust them to the rest
of the group.
Review questions also encourage sharing. These include:
How do you feel about what just happened? What did you
learn from that? What do you need to do now?

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
RELEASING THEIR POWER
Not intervening to rescue people is most important when
the group hits a problem and turns to you, the facilitator, to
help them out.
You can turn the problem back to the questioner by using
these three steps:
1. Point out what the problem is
2. Show what the consequences could be to everyone
3. Invite them to do something about it.
Tom: "I think it means doing nothing..."
Julie: "I don't agree..."
You: "OK so we have a fundamental difference of opinion.
This could lead to serious problems, of course. How can we
go about producing a definition that we can all put our
names to?"

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
VOLUNTEERING
Asking for volunteers to do things should be an ever-present
feature of facilitative leadership. Anything you feel tempted
to do yourself can always be done by others.
This includes...
1. routine features of groupwork, such as distributing
handouts; serving coffee; operating video cameras
2. aspects of groupwork such as writing up the results of a
group exercise on a flipchart
3. giving input to groups.
You can trigger people's desire to be involved by inviting
them in, using gentle persuasion and kindly provocation.
One way to judge how facilitative a group has been is to
compare the amount of time you sit and observe against the
amount of time you spend on your feet doing.

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
NON-RESCUING
A fine distinction needs to be drawn in facilitating other
people's processes between those times when someone
needs to be rescued and those when they don’t.
You should throw a lifeline to people who are clearly in
difficulty and drowning, but where people are merely
looking for an easy way out, it is often better to encourage
them to swim a bit harder by themselves.
Jill: "I couldn't possibly do that!"
You: "Go on, Jill, I know you can..."
or
You: "Who would you like to help you?“
When people see that they are not going to be offered the
easy way out, they invariably do something for themselves.
This alone can be a valuable lesson in personal growth.

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MTL Course Topics
OFFERING OPTIONS
One of the most valuable themes of group facilitation is the
sequence of Offering Options. It is an alternative to solving
someone else's problems.
1. When someone asks you to do something, eg answer a
question or sort a problem out, listen empathically.
2. Tune in to where the problem is coming from.
3. Confirm the boundaries of what you agreed to do and
what others agreed to do.
4. Ask questions to help people explore the problem, eg
"What is missing here?"; "What can you do?"
5. Generate options with them until they see one they can
take off with.
"The leader who knows when to listen, when to act and
when to withdraw can work effectively with nearly
everyone." (John Heider)

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MTL Course Topics
LETTING THEM GROW
Letting people learn at their own pace and in their own way
is the ultimate act of empowerment.
People don't grow because we tell them they have to or
because we threaten them if they don't; they only grow if
we provide the right conditions in which growth can take
place.
"A Zen master once asked an audience of Westerners what
they thought was the most important word in the English
language. After giving his listeners the chance to think about
such favourite words as love, truth, failure, success and so
on, he said: "No, it's a three-letter word. It's the word, "let".
Let it be. Let it happen."" (W. Timothy Gallwey)

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MTL Course Topics
LETTING GO
To let go doesn’t mean to stop caring;
It means I can’t do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off,
It’s the realization that I can’t control another.
To let go is not to enable,
But to allow learning from natural
consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness,
Which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try and change or blame
another;
I can only change myself.
To let go is not to care for, but to care about;
To let go is not to fix but be supportive.
To let go is not to judge;
But allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all
the outcomes;
But to allow others to affect their own
outcomes.
To let go is not to be protective;
It is to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny, but to accept;
To let go is not to nag, scold or argue,
But to search out my own shortcomings and
correct them.
To let go is not to adjust everything to my own
desires;
But to take each day as it comes and cherish the
moment.”
(Anon)

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MTL Course Topics
LEVELS OF LEARNING
Groupwork affords people the opportunity to learn on three
different levels.
Level 1: Technical learning Technical learning is the nuts and
bolts of any subject you wish to master. For example, this
programme provides technical information about facilitation
skills. In groupwork, technical information is based on the
formal inputs people receive.
Level 2: Interpersonal learning Interpersonal awareness is
what you learn from interacting with others. It includes the
ability to communicate, to influence, to lead, to serve, to
follow. It follows from technical learning.
Level 3: Personal awareness Personal awareness is perhaps
the greatest prize of facilitated groupwork and includes
personal insights about the way we learn.

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MTL Course Topics
LEARNING HOW TO LEARN
Learning how to learn is a longer-lasting benefit from the
self-learning process of groupwork than simple technical
learning. It enables us to speed up our own future learning
rate.
Learning how to learn includes the following skills:
1. admitting what we don't know and can't do
2. recognising possibilities inside us
3. letting go of old ways
4. trying out new ways without fear of failure
5. developing non-judgmental curiosity
6. getting back up when things don't work out and trying
again
7. overcoming the mental blocks that say "I know all that!"
or "I'm too old to learn!" or "It's too hard!“
“Recently, I heard someone describing the complex human
activity of walking as a “series of falls punctuated by brief
moments of balance”. This strikes me as a powerful
metaphor both for an individual’s learning journey and for
the development of a team.” (Kevin Cherry)

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MTL Course Topics
BATESON’S DOLPHINS
In "Steps to the Ecology of Mind", the anthropologist
Gregory Bateson describes how he saw dolphins learning
how to learn in a dolphinarium.
On the first day of a new routine, the dolphins were taught
a new trick. If they performed it correctly, they were
rewarded with a fish.
The next day, when they performed the trick, no fish were
given. Fish were only given when a new trick was mastered.
This continued for two weeks. Then on the fourteenth day,
the dolphins performed four new tricks they hadn't been
shown before but had learnt by themselves.
The dolphins had learnt that learning, not tricks, is what gets
rewarded.

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MTL Course Topics
STATES OF PERSONHOOD
Our learning has no end. Once we start to develop
ourselves, we can plumb ever-deeper levels that can take us
through six states of personhood:
1. The Unaware Personality: blind, no growth, no change.
2. The Stuck Personality: fixated; confined; excessive;
obsessive; stuck in routines; repetitive.
3. The Conventional Personality: habitual; reactive;
responds to the environment; lives a life in tramlines.
4. The Creative Personality: steady change, using personal
gifts to perform and grow in the present environment.
5. The Artistic Personality: reaches beyond what went
before to find new forms of self-expression.
6. The Self-transfiguring Personality: discovering new
powers.
"Before asking someone to do something, you have to help
them to be someone." (The Service Master Company)

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
MAN’S DIVINITY
This re-telling of an ancient Hindu legend comes from
Christian Godefroy, author of "Mind Power".
There was a time when all men were gods. But they so
abused their divinity that Brahma decided to deprive them
of their divine power. The only problem was where to hide
this power so that man would not find it. An assembly of
minor gods was called to discuss the problem.
"Let's hide it in the earth," they said. "No," said the Brahma,
"they will dig it up."
"What about the ocean depths?" they suggested. "Not
much better, " said the Brahma. "Sooner or later man will
explore every region of the world and the universe."
After a lot of discussion, it was concluded that there was no
safe place to hide man's divine power.
Then Brahma said. "This is what we'll do. We'll hide it in the
one place man will never think of looking for it: in the very
depths of man himself." And that's what the gods did.

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
THAT’S
IT!
WELL DONE!

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Facilitation Skills
MTL Course Topics
THANK YOU
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn