FACILITATOR … WHAT IS A FACILITATOR?

Organizations attach great importance to teamwork for growth and productivity improvement. Often, the success of this teamwork can be compromised by diverse causes, such as lack of communication, trust, or the impossibility of reaching consensus. When we talk about activities to improve teamwork processes, Outdoor Training is the figure of the facilitator.
As the name suggests, a facilitator “facilitates” the team to carry out its work and shows you the methods at its disposal. The facilitator does not always follow a standardized process since his/her activity depends on the nature of the objective to be achieved, but in all cases, he/she plays a vital role when it comes to designing and guiding the activities. The task of the facilitator is to help the group by offering the tools to achieve the indicated objective, promoting participation and encouraging dialogue among the participants. It is not about giving them a masterly and theoretical session on how to work as a team, but rather on the basis of trial and error, discovering it by themselves.

In most cases, it is not part of the facilitator’s task to make decisions for the group, but rather to focus on guiding the group members towards the best results. If we had to choose a single verb to define the activity of the facilitator, this would be “guide”.
A facilitator must understand the needs of the group, but will never take sides. The facilitator’s duty is to show the way so that the team arrives only at its destination, offering indirect assistance or supervision, without forcing any concrete actions on the part of any of the members. At the end of the process, the facilitator should have given the group the keys and tools to work alone.
The role of the facilitator is extremely important when what is intended is a greater rapport between the members of a small team. Ugh… There’s so much to tell you …

What does the facilitator contribute to the outdoor training events?

1.- The facilitator helps to design the activities based on an in-depth analysis of the client’s needs.

2.- Manages the time and duration of the sessions.

3.- Suggests methods and procedures that help the team to work better.

4.- Encourages participation.

5.- Inform the participants about the activities and the steps to follow.

6.- Supervises the process and activity of the group during the event.

7.- The facilitator offers feedback on the processes and helps in the learning process.

Have you ever worked with a facilitator? What are your impressions? how was the experience?