 Do I need a facilitator if I have problems reading? Do I need a facilitator if I have problems cooking? Do I need a facilitator if I'm having problems making a phone call? The answer is yes. In all seriousness though, you don't need a facilitator for those types of problems, but when do you need a facilitator? In this video, I'm gonna show you exactly when to use workshop facilitation. So what even is workshop facilitation? Workshop facilitation is a step-by-step process which allows a group of people come together to solve problems and make decisions. A workshop is facilitated by one person who guides a group of people through a series of exercises and at the end of the workshop, there is a clear decision made, there are clear next steps to follow or the problem is solved. Whether or not a facilitator is necessary for a meeting or a workshop really depends on the group's specific goals. Suppose a group has weekly meetings to make routine decisions like scheduling or assigning tasks, but the members of that group really need help to solve these sort of issues, not really. But what about more difficult challenges? Teams face difficult challenges every single day. For example, solving complex communication problems within a team, figuring out different roles and responsibilities for individuals involved in projects, resolving high-stake challenges or problems. For example, let's say a company has been stuck on the same challenge or issue for the last six months. A facilitator can come in and help that team move from A to B. Or another problem that people face or teams need help with is kickstarting a new project. In situations like these, a group is likely to make better, more effective decisions in a much more pleasant way if they call in a facilitator who knows how to support the team in doing their best thinking. At AJ and SMART, we ask ourselves three questions when we're deciding whether a session needs to be facilitated. If the answer is yes to all three of these questions, then we recommend the workshop or the meeting be facilitated. So the first question we like to ask ourselves is, is it a group of three or more people? Group size is an easy way to determine if a session should be facilitated. Is it a one-on-one meeting between two team members to catch up and talk about how they're feeling in their role? If so, a facilitator probably won't be necessary. However, if it's a group of three or more people who need to come together to solve a problem or collaborate on something or make a decision, then a facilitator will definitely be beneficial. The second question we like to ask ourselves is, is there an important complex issue that needs to be addressed? While we're advocates for leveraging a facilitator whenever possible, it's best to leverage their superpowers when dealing with a serious complex challenge or issue which the team can't seem to solve for themselves. For example, all app users aren't completing the onboarding or YouTube channel isn't growing as fast Receiving drop-off in our marketing Productive information sharing is not happening within our company. We're not getting enough food traffic in our stall. On the other hand, it probably isn't essential to have a facilitated session to decide which coffee beans to buy for the office. The third and final question we like to ask ourselves is, does the team need to buy into the outcome of this workshop or session? There are some decisions and projects which require acceptance from everyone involved in order for the outcome to be successful. An example of this would be a new company initiative which will require the entire team to stop what they're working on to implement it. The easiest and most effective way to get team buy-in, in our opinion, is through making the key decisions in a workshop where the full team is represented one way or another. This, of course, doesn't mean that every single employee of the company needs to be present. It just means that the main teams impacted by the project should have representation in the workshop by having each team lead attend, for example. With all that said, we generally have found that facilitation is appropriate and necessary in any situation where a group of people come together to solve a problem or collaborate together. So you might be wondering what types of sessions can a facilitator be most helpful in. A facilitator can be really helpful in team-building sessions, decision-making sessions or problem-solving sessions, strategic planning, kick-starting a new project or program, or if you're running a retrospective, which is a session to share feedback and improve performance, and when solutions need to be prioritized in a standardized way. Validating new products, onboarding teams to new industries, negotiating team roles and responsibilities, or a facilitator can be really helpful in off-sites like leadership retreats or strategy retreats. So there you have it. Now you know when to use facilitation and when not to use facilitation. If you want to learn more about when and when not to use facilitation, head over to our free community facilitator club where there's so many different discussions already happening about this topic. The link is in the description below. Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you next time.