Guidelines and Tips for Facilitation
Creating a Safe Learning Space
Participants need to feel comfortable, safe, and respected during the session. As you prepare to facilitate, consider factors such as when and where to hold the training, key messages on promotional materials, whether to use group guidelines, how to ensure diverse representation, and ways of working with co-facilitators or guests. Keep in mind that some participants may have strong emotional responses during the session, so you will need to be prepared.
Opening with Intention
Facilitators have an enormous role to play in setting the tone for a session. As people enter the space (online or in person), you can welcome them and help them get oriented. You can let them know if you’ve started or whether you’re waiting for a few more people, and share housekeeping information such as where the bathrooms are, where they can put their things, or how to use online interactive features. You may want to consider using a breathing exercise together or an icebreaker activity to help put people at ease. As you begin the session, you can use opening questions that help create inclusivity, such as correct pronouns, check-in questions, or information about accessibility needs and requests.
Scope of the Session
It is important to hold space in a session for people’s feelings and experiences – shared or not. However, boundaries are also needed to allow the session to move forward and be completed within the stated time frame.
It is also important to establish at the beginning that the training is a learning space and not a counselling session (you may also want to send an email with this message to all participants prior to the session). If a participant is starting to take over the discussion with their personal experiences, you can gently redirect the conversation back to the material that you need to cover. Plan to stay after the session is over to talk to any participants one-on-one.
It’s also important to reassure participants who worry that they must “save” a student who is in distress. Emphasize that faculty and staff are not expected to be counsellors or to provide mental health treatment.
Group Guidelines
It can be helpful to ask participants to agree to a list of guidelines or a code of conduct when they register for the session. You can either send the group guidelines to participants before the session or take some time at the beginning of the session to establish the guidelines together.
When you start the session, you can ask participants if they feel comfortable with the guidelines or if they have something they would like to add or change.
Group guidelines can be an important tool for supporting safer discussion about difficult topics. You can remind participants of the guidelines if the discussion is getting difficult. Important group agreements relate to listening to and showing respect for others (e.g., not talking when others are speaking, not making rude comments, not talking o