March 1, 2010

Facilitate

I love being a facilitator. Of all my consulting work, facilitation is what makes me happiest and the feedback I get is that I am good at it.

Tonight I facilitated a focus group for one of my arts clients. It was so much fun. Something about "holding the room" and ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to provide input that makes me quit satisfied. I am also getting better at handling people who dominate, are negative or throw us off course, what my consulting partner David and I call "grenade throwers". They are the most difficult.

I am able to incorporate facilitation into most of my work - teaching, strategic planning, marketing research and Board development. So good to have identified what I enjoy. In contrast, I notice that projects where I am working alone, implementing processes, are the least satisfying. Being an extrovert, I get my energy from human interaction.
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