The Academy blog

Common facilitation mistakes and how to avoid them

Summary

In this article, I’m going to talk about five common mistakes that people make when structuring an innovation session and how to avoid them. Why? Well, at Ninety we believe that facilitation is really important, and that everyone should learn how to facilitate. Actually, we believe that companies see many benefits when more people can facilitate meetings or workshops better.

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Emily Gardner

Head of Training at Ninety, responsible for creating and delivering training experiences that change mindsets, increase innovation capabilities and develop first-class facilitators, including leading on global innovation programmes.

As someone who has worked as a facilitator for many years, and who runs training sessions on how to become a better facilitator, I have seen these mistakes reoccur time and again. So, what are the most common mistakes, and how can they be avoided?

Mistake number 1: making the session too long

When starting out in facilitation, it’s tempting to believe that for any innovation session, more is more. We might feel that by extending the session as much as possible, we’ll avoid stress and achieve better outcomes. Actually though, you’ll get less done.

In order to get the most out of participants, especially in the domain of innovation where speed and agility are paramount, we must create a state of urgency. By strictly time-boxing activities, we create pressure for attendees to keep working at their best. By contrast, if we let timings slide or allow too long for each activity, attention will wander and the team will spend as much time procrastinating as they do reaching a solution!

To avoid this mistake, don’t make your workshop an arbitrary length; write down the activities you will conduct during the session and map out how much time is necessary for each before blocking any time in diaries. It’s also important to set expectations at the start of the workshop - letting participants know that the session is time-boxed, and that hard work will be required to reach the right outcomes.

Mistake number 2: a long and boring opener

Death by PowerPoint is a definite no when it comes to engaging facilitation. One problem that I frequently hear about when I coach facilitators is that their participants are not engaging in their workshops. In these scenarios, it’s often the case that we give participants ‘permission’ to switch off early by not mandating active participation from the start. I’ve attended workshops where the planned activities were fantastic, but the session began with 30-40 minutes of context delivered by just one speaker. By the time the exercises came around, it was clear that some attendees were checking their emails, and many had turned off their cameras. It’s a setup that makes the role of facilitator much more difficult. 

To avoid this mistake, be explicit with participants, both in advance and at the start of the session, that they are expected to collaborate. Back this up immediately with an activity or question to the room, before diving into any detailed information. If you do need to give a lengthy explanation on anything, think of how it can be broken up with points of engagement or interaction.

Mistake number 3: avoiding the icebreaker

This leads nicely into the third common mistake - avoiding the icebreaker. A lot of people dread icebreakers. Why? Well, they can be cringey, seem like a waste of time, or a poor fit for your organisation. But actually, at Ninety, we believe in icebreakers. We believe that you don’t have to be serious to solve serious problems, and that icebreakers help to put participants into a creative frame of mind where they can solve problems more effectively.

To avoid this mistake, ensure that your icebreaker has a purpose. If it sounds like a BuzzFeed quiz (such as, which ‘Friends’ character are you?, what type of pasta reflects your personality?), it’s probably not a good idea. This is not to say that the icebreaker has to relate 100% to the topic, but you should be able to justify why you’re using it. To do this, think of the intended effect of the exercise before planning which icebreaker fits. For example, at Ninety we might ask participants to design and pitch a ridiculous fictional product in just five minutes, to get them thinking in a creative and agile way.

Mistake number 4: a middle with no definition

I really think the worst thing you can do as a facilitator is to have no plan, and expect things to work out. A clear agenda with a defined beginning, middle and end is crucial for success. We want the middle of our session to carry the most buzz; it’s a time where we should be moving from divergence to convergence, moving towards our final points.

To avoid a middle with no definition, invest time in planning your session. It should take roughly double the length of the workshop to do adequate planning (unless it’s a repeated session that you run regularly). To kick-start your agenda, ensure that you’re clear about what you need to happen in that session to demonstrate it has been a success. Next, work backwards from that outcome and think of the activities you’ll need to do to get there. Then think about the best way to structure those activities.

Mistake number 5: no real ending

The final mistake that I want to cover is allowing your session to fizzle out at the end. At this point, we risk disillusioning the participants who have invested their time, ideas and energy by leaving them feeling that nothing from the session will be taken forward. I’m sure we’ve all attended a workshop where it feels like plenty of ideas were shared, but none of them were heard of again. We don’t want to leave our participants wondering what’s going to happen next.

To avoid this mistake, try to end your workshop with some kind of decision. So for an ideation session, you might prioritise the ideas everyone came up with. Or for a later session, you might decide whether or not to proceed with an idea. It’s also important to follow up with participants; summarising what was covered and what the next steps will be. Finally, don’t make promises you can’t keep - be real with your audience about the timescales and communication they can expect from you moving forwards.