What a rock star can teach you about facilitation skills

Tom Jones, Bryan Ferry and KT Tunstall. What do they have in common? How can this help your career and get you noticed for all the right reasons? And how can it help you be a brilliant facilitator that brings people together?

If you’re anything like me you’ve been to a number of concerts.

Live music is special, isn’t it? That energy in the room. Hairs on the back of the neck stuff.

And yet it can be a very different experience.

I’ve seen Tom Jones, Bryan Ferry and KT Tunstall live and all were good musically.

Tom Jones had the backdrop of the Edinburgh Castle behind him and Bryan Ferry’s set had the most incredible light show but both of these singers were lacking with the chat, the rapport and the connection with the audience.

Which brings me to the Scottish singer, KT Tunstall.

But what made her stand out was her ability to manage the crowd and engage with them. She used humour. She asked questions. She mixed up a bit of chat about a song or how she’d come to write it, with a story about Amsterdam. She shared some personal information about herself and kept things moving along at a nice brisk pace.

At one point she had a bit of fun and asked each band member to name their current favourite word.

It was silly and made people laugh.

In short, yes, she can sing and play a guitar.

And her facilitation skills were absolutely spot on.

I recently worked with a client to prepare him to facilitate a big event in his industry.

The event would put him centre stage and he’d be responsible for bringing people together.

It was a big thing for his career.

All eyes would be on him and he wanted to do it well.

And so we unpacked what effective facilitation skills looked like for him, and as you can see, there’s some overlap between how KT Tunstall showed up in her concert and how she facilitated the crowd.

And here are 10 things that can make you a more powerful facilitator.

1.Structure
What’s the shape of the event? What role does each participant have? When are they active and when are they passive? You’re planning a journey for your participants. Think variety. Mix things up.

2.Pace
The energy and the speed of the event can make or break it. It can keep people focused and involved, overwhelm them or have them yawning and reaching for their phones. Make sure there’s variety in the pace to keep things interesting and allow for people to absorb what’s being said: especially if what is being said is new, or likely to provoke an emotional reaction, as we all need more time to process what is new and what packs an emotional punch.

3.Storytelling
Great for bringing an idea to life or selling an idea, or deepening connection. Where and when can storytelling be part of your event?

4.Active listening
Ah, listening. Of course this one’s going to feature. Listen to read the energy in the room and to what’s being said. And to what’s being said between the lines. Paraphrasing, summarising and checking for understanding are ways to demonstrate active listening. And don’t forget your body language and facial expressions. Make sure it’s open and attentive to show you are taking part in the event, too.

5.Engagement
Asking questions and inviting people to share their thoughts makes you a thoughtful host and facilitator especially if you do this with a range of people and not just the extroverts who are keen to talk. You can boost engagement by doing some homework on your guests – what are they especially interested in, what do they have expertise in? And you can do this by taking brief notes on what it being said during the event and refer to that to deepen discussion and connection.

6.Time keeping
You might only have 20 minutes to talk about a topic that people could happily dig into for 2 hours. It can be frustrating. But your words will shape the flow and boundaries of the conversation, and that includes knowing when to put your foot on the break and move things on.

7.Involving others
You’ll have some people who speak more than others. That’s natural. But your role is a little like a conductor in an orchestra: you want to bring everyone in and create a safe and welcoming atmosphere. Which brings me to…

8.Interrupting
“Really? But I’m the facilitator, Mica, you’re telling me to interrupt people?” And yes, I am. You will have what I call “Chatty Pants” people in front of you. The people that could cheerfully talk and talk. And then talk some more. And you’ll also have introverts, quieter, more reflective souls who might not say a peep. Your role is to bring everyone into the conversation. This can mean interrupting and encouraging others. For example “Jane, great to get your input on this, but I’d like to invite those we haven’t heard from yet, today…” or “John, thank you for that. I’m interrupting you as I would like us to move on to the next section, as we’ve 10 minutes left to explore that.”

9.Fun
It’s work, it’s serious, it’s business. I get that. But being creative and involving a bit of fun when you can works wonders. Where can you add some lightness?

10.Humour
Humour keeps things moving along nicely and is a gentle but clear way of reminding people of boundaries, for example “Let’s all introduce ourselves. I know we can read out our CV by heart but keeping the introductions to a minute means we can then get moving to work on today’s agenda.”  

So, there you have it.

Ten things you can do to develop your facilitation skills.

Which of these stand out as the most important to you?

How can you bring these skills more into your day to day when working with stakeholders?

And if you’d like support in developing your communication skills if you’re hosting or facilitating an event, drop me a line here and I can support you being seen, heard and valued in the workplace.