Let Go of Control: When Vulnerability Makes You a Better Facilitator

"I'm not sure how to approach the next part, what do you suggest?" 🤔

I asked this question yesterday while facilitating a workshop with one of my teams at Elia Group. I prepared this workshop with a quite clear idea on how to start it, and a vague idea on how to tackle the last part. Because you can be perfectly prepared before starting, there is no way to know for sure what is going to happen during the workshop itself. 💁‍♂️

Active discussions? Long blanks? Not enough ideas? Too many of them?

In my first years as a facilitator, I always tried to be in control of everything : timeboxing (no it's a lie, I always sucked at that), keeping the active lead, go through every part of the workshop as planned... until it sometimes fails because I'm more focused on how I planned than how it's actually happening. What an Agile mindset, hey 😊

So when we reached that last part of the exercise, I wasn't sure if we should do it as a whole group, in pairs, individually, asynchronously... so I just asked the group for their preference. Because their current experience as workshop participants is something you just CAN'T have as a facilitator. And their suggestion helped complete the exercise with the targeted outcome. ✌

It took me some time to realize it and let things go : Instead of showing off as the facilitator who planned everything, being your true vulnerable self and admitting when you're not sure of something can be a greater way to engage the participants. Because after all, there is something that links the participants and the facilitator : you all want it to be a valuable workshop 😊