Continuing our series on facilitation, Paul asks Rob and Richard how they create the trust and ‘safety’ required to get honesty and openness from workshop participants.
Creating a safe space is one of the primary responsibilities of a facilitator.
If you get the environment and dynamic wrong, it may cause people to close down, limiting the ideas, challenge and acceptance of the group. Getting it wrong makes the facilitator’s role harder.
A series of simple interventions, from the room layout to the first few minutes, can make all the difference, even though the group may not even notice you are doing it.