Workshop and group facilitation using Participlan

by | Sep 12, 2012 | Facilitation |

Workshop and group facilitation using Participlan

Robert Brain offers Participlan for effective facilitation of groups and workshops.

Participlan is a group facilitation tool that makes excellent use of time and allows everyone to contribute, and yet the process does not allow any one person to dominate. Participlan is an ideal tool to use for group sessions where a common understanding of a business problem is required, as well as a consensus approach to resolve the problem.

Participlan is a visual mapping tool where the facilitator poses a question to the group, and every person writes down their answers on cards, one answer per card. The facilitator gathers the cards and the participants guide the grouping of cards on sticky sheets.

Workshops duration is anything between 2 hours and 3 days, depending on the complexity of the issues and the number of participants.

The benefits of the Participlan process are:

•A wider range of ideas and contributions is received. Divergent and lateral thinking is encouraged
•Everyone contributes yet no-one dominates the discussion
•Cards are anonymous so the focus is on the issue rather than the person. This also frees people to raise issues that may otherwise be avoided.
•Everyone’s contributions are heard, not just those of the senior people in the room.
•Everyone feels heard, and therefore do not feel it necessary to repeat their points of view
•A clear agenda is followed and the result is a consensus understanding of the issue and the way forward
•The process is time efficient
•An outcome is guaranteed
•The use of an external facilitator means that the leader of the group is free to participate and learn, and does not have to switch from the role of leader to that of facilitator.

Robert Brain is a qualified Participlan facilitator and is available to facilitate your workshop. He is an experienced facilitator and has used Participlan widely, with groups of 2 to 25. Customers include Dimension Data, Potion Design and Grove Primary School.