Any good facilitation skills training workshop will enable those attending to learn about and practise a range of facilitation frameworks, techniques and processes; it’s also likely that facilitators will be taught about different approaches or ‘styles’ that they can consciously choose to demonstrate when the situation demands it. But a really good quality facilitation skills programme that goes deeper than techniques and processes will explore how aspects of our personality influence us as a facilitator. People who have inquired within themselves to understand their preferences and motivations as a facilitator are typically those who offer a more authentic, holistic experience to the groups that they work with. Most individuals I’ve met on Incendo’s Facilitation Skills programme have been keen to improve their understanding of themselves so that they can plan more effective facilitation strategies and make best use of ‘self’.
We use the Transactional Analysis (TA) model of ‘Drivers’ as a framework within which to explore and develop self awareness as a facilitator; this idea was developed through the work of Taibi Kahler and is also known as ‘Working Styles’. Our selection of this approach is based on the valuable insight it gives facilitators and how readily it can be transferred back to the workplace for practical application – it isn’t just a navel-gazing activity!
Like other models within the TA umbrella, the Drivers approach is based on the assumption that these preferences developed over time as we grew up, as a result of the myriad messages we received about how to survive and thrive regarding:
• how we should help other people,
• good standards to aspire to,
• ways in which we ought to be reliable and dependable,
• the importance of having a go and doing our best,
• how to make good use of time.
The idea is that, as a child, you probably realised over time that if you displayed certain behaviours and acted in a particular way, you’d be viewed more favourably by the people that mattered in your life and would therefore receive more positive ‘strokes’. TA proposes that this resulted in us holding on to one or more of the following beliefs:
