Description
Two-day, in-house training course for consultants to develop the facilitation skills required to deliver great workshops. This course is underpinned by the concept that to run a good workshop requires consultants, who are generally confident presenters, to move from presentation style to facilitation style.
This course debunks the ‘expert myth’ and helps consultants understand how to create a workshop with the right conditions to encourage participants to think, rather than telling them the answer. The focus will be on developing a confident and flexible process rather than structured, predetermined outcomes. We will cover guidelines for influencing positive group dynamics, how to structure learning, and how to ‘hold the room’ to create the right atmosphere for discussion.
Physical theatre techniques will be used to build confidence, and the course content is informed by Oliver Broadbent’s experience facilitating hundreds of workshops for audiences as diverse as boards of directors to music festival crowds.
Course content
- Enable people to move from presentation style to facilitation style
- Build confidence by developing facilitation skills and techniques
- Understand group dynamics and learn how to provide participants space to speak
- Develop techniques to create atmosphere and rules for ‘Holding the room’
- Learn how to structure workshop content to enable flow and meaningful outcomes
Structure
Two-day face to face course
We will cover: breaking down myths about workshop delivery and facilitation and introduce new techniques; use physical theatre training techniques to explore building confidence; dealing with the ‘fear’ of not knowing the answer to the workshop; techniques for how to be aware about what is happening in the room; and how to respond to things that happen – as they happen, and see the value in them. Applying facilitation skills learnt to a more familiar workshop setting in order for participants to put techniques into practice; investigate how to initiate workshops; how to establish participants goals; how to move people through the workshop process and how to develop meaningful outcomes.
About the trainer
Oliver Broadbent (From the Institution of Structural Engineer’s website:)
Oliver is an expert facilitator and trainer in design thinking for the built environment. With a background in civil engineering and teaching, he specialises in designing high-impact training that has a lasting effect on the learner.
He is Founder and Director of engineering training consultancy Constructivist. There he leads the development of Constructivist’s programme of design training for design consultancies. He also works with universities including Cambridge, Bath and Imperial to develop innovative approaches to curriculum design and delivery. For eight years Oliver was Director of Think Up, the education arm of the Useful Simple Trust.
Oliver has co-authored a series of good practice teaching guides for the Royal Academy of Engineering on experience-led learning, e-learning for engineers, effective industrial engagement in engineering education and how to teach sustainability.
He is a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at Imperial College, London.
