Facilitation Skills - Part 2

Rationale

This session is meant to build on the knowledge and skills of group facilitation that participants have learned in previous sessions. In Session 2, participants were introduced to the Experiential Learning Cycle and acted as an audience to role plays put on by staff. In Session 3, participants had their first try at facilitation, working on Needs Assessment techniques. In Session 4, participants created and staged their own role plays and wrote processing questions following the Experiential Learning Cycle. Now, in Session 5, they have a chance to create either Problem Dramas or Critical Incidents, decide on their own questions for processing, carry out the processing with an audience, and engage in critique of these activities.

Objectives of Session

· To plan and facilitate an entire NFE activity.
· To give and receive feedback on the activity.

Activity Sequence

Peace Corps NFE Manual Reference
Chapter 7 - Some NFE Techniques for Working with Groups

Materials Needed

· Flip chart paper
· Markers
· Flip Chart: Fears (for Warm-up)
· Flip charts for OPTIONS
· Handouts:

Learning Cross-Cultural Group Facilitation - One per participant
Hints for Facilitating a Group Discussion - One per participant

· Handouts for OPTIONS:

Demonstration Critical Incident - One per participant
Critical Incident Situations - One per participant

Trainer Preparation e NOTE: This session will take considerable preparation time, especially if you choose to write new problem dramas and Critical Incidents more common to Volunteers in your area than the examples given.

1. Review Peace Corps NFE Manual Chapter 7.
2. Read through the session with your co-trainers and decide together on the options you want to use.

NOTE: There are three major options presented in this session:

1. Doing only Problem Dramas (See Activity 2).

2. Doing only Critical Incidents (See Optional Activity 2).

3. Dividing the group in half and doing both Problem Dramos and Critical incidents (See OPTION, page 86).

3. If you have chosen to do Problem Dramas, work with three Volunteers to present the demonstration Problem Drama about Peace Corps experience. Work with them to prepare one of the suggested situations (See page 88, Demonstration Problem Dramas) or brainstorm a situation that is both commonly known and important to Peace Corps experience in your area. Work with Volunteers on the questions they will present to the audience. Ask them not to discuss their preparations with the rest of the group.

Surprise will add interest and realism to their presentation.

3a. For a PST, choose four sectors that your workshop participants are involved in. Write descriptions of four problems that are common to community members in those sectors. (See examples on page 89, Problem Dramas-Suggestions for a PST.)

3b. For an IST, participants can choose and describe problems that relate to their own work

4. If you have chosen to do Critical Incidents, read through the sample demonstration incident and questions for discussion (See page 90) or write your own incident, based on a situation that is both commonly known and critical in Peace Corps experience in your area. Photocopy enough handouts for each participant.

4a. For a PST, choose four sectors that your workshop participants are involved in. Use the examples given or write descriptions of four critical situations that are common to community members in those sectors in your local context.

4b. For an IST, participants can work with the examples or choose incidents that relate to their own work.

5. For OPTION (page 80) invite HCNs to be part of the audience for participant presentations. Find extra chairs and enough refreshments for the Break.

6. Make the flip chart for the Warm-up (Fears). See Activity 1.

7. Assemble materials

8. Be sure the participants who signed up to do the warm-up and evaluation have the materials they need and are ready.

9. Be sure the Volunteers for the Problem Drama are ready to take on their roles immediately after the warm-up.

Activity 1: Warm-up - Fears

Activity Time 15 minutes

Purpose To recognize that the fear of speaking before a group is normal, and to help participants overcome these feelings.

Step - by - Step

1. Ask the group, "If you were to do a poll of people on the street in the U.S. and asked them what their greatest fears were, what do you think they would say?" Write their responses on chart paper. Ask if the group can come to consensus on the one greatest fear.

2. Present the following list (from David Wallechinsky et. al., The Book of Lists, 1977).

The Ten Worst FEARS of People in the U.S.

1. Speaking before a group
2. Heights
3. Insects and bugs
4. Financial problems
S. Deep water
6. Sickness
7. Death
8. Flying
9. Loneliness
10. Dogs

3. Point out that if the list is valid, many people share a fear of speaking in public.
Since the session today-and much of NFE facilitation-involves speaking before a group, perhaps the group could take a few minutes to brainstorm ways to help overcome anxiety about group facilitation especially in a foreign language.

4. Write the group's suggestions on flip chart paper and post.

Activity 2: Problem Drama

Total rune 140 minutes

Purpose To plan and facilitate an entire NFE technique.

NOTE: This activity is divided into the following sections:

Demonstration 30 minutes
Preparation 25 minutes
Presentation 60 minutes
Feedback 25 minutes

You can take a 15 minute break halfway through the Presentation.

Step - by - Step

Demonstration (30 minutes)

1. Take about 5 minutes to let the group know that in this session they will build on the skills they have learned by planning and carrying out an entire NFE technique - preparing and presenting an activity that involves people in discussions of local problems and then processing that activity, using their peers as an audience.

The technique they will work on is the Problem Drama, as it has been found useful in getting community members involved in reflecting on problems in their experience. It can be performed anywhere: on the street, in someone's house, in an adult education class, in a training program, at the start of a meeting, etc. Problem Dramas have been used successfully in NFE work in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

You might ask the group if anyone has seen problem dramas or used them in their work.

Refer participants to related references at the end of this session for further descriptions of how Problem Dramas are used in development.

2. Let the group know that first they will see a demonstration of a problem drama that relates to their own experience as Volunteers, and that afterwards they will create other situations to present that are relevant to their work with community members.

3. Ask the Volunteer presenters to carry out the demonstration of the Problem
Drama, including processing (15 minutes).

4. Take 10 minutes to have the group analyze the components of the Problem Drama. Ask them questions which lead to the following points during the discussion:

· that there is one major character who experiences the problem
· that there are two minor characters who give conflicting advice on how to solve the problem
· that the problem is left undecided, leaving the audience free to suggest a conclusion
· that the incident is believable and common to the experience of the audience
· that the processing should aim at getting everyone involved in discussing and analyzing the problem and suggesting possible solutions.

Examples of questions to ask the group:

What are the characteristics of a Problem Drama? Are there major and minor characters? What are their roles? How much of the analysis is done by the characters themselves? How believable was the drama? Why? What made the processing work well (or what could have made it work better?)

Write the points on the board as the participants mention them, as well as any other ideas or observations they have about how to create an effective problem drama.

OPTION

Prepare a flip chart in advance with the characteristics of a Problem Drama written on it. Read and briefly discuss it with participants.

Preparation (25 minutes)

1. Divide the participants into four groups according to the sectors you have chosen (See Trainer Preparation 3a). Give them the problem situations you have written that are common to community members in those sectors.

2. Let the groups know they have 25 minutes to prepare and practice a problem drama based on the situations. They should also think of questions for discussion and practice asking them to their own group members. Suggest that different group members can practice taking the roles so that everyone has a chance to play a part. Say that the problem drama itself should take about 5 minutes to present and the discussion about 10 minutes.

FOR IST:

Divide into 4 groups by sector or area of interest. Ask participants to choose their own problem that is common in the experience of the community members who they interact with in their work.

3. Ask groups go to their break-out rooms or corners of the large training room to begin preparing their problem dramas.

4. Keep time (25 minutes).

Presentation (60 minutes)

1. Assemble everyone as a large group.

2. Remind the group that when acting as the audience they should play the part of local community members and respond as they think they would.

OPTION

You might invite HCNs who are not workshop participants to be present in the audience to help respond to the processing in a realistic way and to give their feedback in the critique. Invite drivers, secretaries, language instructors, cooks' cleaning staff, etc. If you do this, be sure to inform the groups beforehand so they can prepare their processing questions for the particular audience they will have, in the language most comfortable to that audience. Brief the invited guests beforehand on the purpose of the problem dramas and the role they will play as the audience. Let them know that their participation will help Volunteers and other workshop participants learn to be better community workers.

NOTE

If you have invited extra guests, be sure to have enough chairs, refreshments and cups for everyone.

3. Have each of the four groups take 15 minutes to present and process their problem drama. Take a BREAK for 15 minutes after two problem dramas have been presented, and conclude with the other two after the break.

Feedback (25 minutes)

1. Ask participants to help you arrange all the chairs in a circle.

2. Discuss questions such as the following:

· What made the problem dramas particularly effective? Ask participants to cite specific examples and say what made them effective. Write their responses on flip chart paper.

· What were some of the problems involved in the planning or performance of the presentations and discussions? Ask those who presented in each group to mention their own problems first. Then ask the audience to name problems they saw or sensed in the performance or discussions. Have the group try to find solutions to those problems on the spot. List them on flip chart paper.

Example:

Problem Sometimes people spoke too fast.

Solution Practice by speaking much slower than in ordinary conversation.

(If a problem has several possible solutions, list them all.)

· How do you think local people will react to presentations of problem dramas? Why? What can be done to change or improve the approach to involve people more? What risks might presenters be taking in presenting local problems? What issues, if any, should be avoided? (Here, the opinion of HCNs will be particularly valuable.) List responses on flip chart paper.

· How can Volunteers involve local people in creating and presenting dramas around problems that they themselves name? Have the group brainstorm a list of possibilities and write them on flip chart paper.

Examples:

Find outgoing people with acting talent and invite them to form a drama group.

Get high school students involved.

Suggest the idea to people who sometimes discuss problems freely with you.

Have a separate women's group that performs for each other (or for children,) but not in public.

Etc.

Optional Activity 2 - Critical Incidents

For an alternative activity you can use Critical Incidents instead of Problem Dramas. Critical Incidents are best used for a literate audience that participating in a training program or class of some kind.

Critical Incidents are also more flexible than problem dramas in that they can present any kind of situation that you want participants to reflect on rather than posing a dilemma with various possible solutions.

Activity Time 140 minutes

Purpose To plan and facilitate an entire NFE technique.

NOTE: This activity is divided into the following sections:

Demonstration 30 minutes Preparation 25 minutes Presentation 60 minutes Feedback 25 minutes

(You can take a 15 minute break halfway though the Presentation.)

Step - by - step

Demonstration (30 minutes)

1. Let the group know that in this session they will build on the skills they have reamed by planning and carrying out an entire NFE technique-preparing and presenting an activity that involves people in discussions of local problems and then processing that activity, using their peers as an audience. The technique they will work on is

Critical

Incidents, which are used most often with a literate audience. In the developing world they have been used successfully in training programs for health, small business, agriculture and other projects, as well as in management training for government officials and in meetings of teachers and other professionals.

You might ask if anyone in the group has seen Critical Incidents used or used them in their work.

2. Let the group know that first they will read and discuss a Critical Incident that relates to their own experience as Volunteers, and that afterwards they will develop and facilitate discussion around Critical Incidents that are relevant to their work.

3. Hand out the Demonstration Critical Incident and questions for discussion that relate to Peace Corps experience.

4. Say that participants have 15 minutes to read the incident and discuss the questions in threes. Have the participants stay in the training room for their discussions.

5. Call everyone back together as a large group. Briefly process the small group discussions (5 minutes) by asking groups to report the results of their discussions.

6. Take 10 minutes to analyze the Demonstration Critical Incidents. Ask participants questions that lead them to make the following observations:

· that a brief situation is presented that leaves the characters confused, uncomfortable, angry or otherwise in "critical condition.

· that there is no one right answer or solution, so participants can give their own opinions freely about the incident.

· that the incident is believable and common to the experience of the audience.

· that the processing should aim to get everyone involved in discussing and analyzing the incident.

· that the processing questions should go through the Experiential Learning

Cycle, especially the SO WHAT? and NOW WHAT? categories.

Examples of questions to ask the group:

What are the characteristics of a critical incident? What makes it critical?. Does the story suggest a "right answer?. How believable was the critical incident? Why? How did the processing questions take you through the Experiential Learning Cycle?

Write the points on the board as the participants mention them, as well as any other ideas or observations they have about how to create an effective Critical Incident.

Preparation (25 minutes)

1. Divide the participants into four groups according to the sectors you have chosen (Trainer Preparation 4a). Give them the descriptions you have written of the critical situations that are common to community members in those sectors.

FOR IST:

Divide into 4 groups by sector or area of interest. Have participants choose their own critical situation that is common in the experience of the community members who they interact with in their work. Give them the examples in the handout on page 91 to get them started.

2. Let the groups know that they have 25 minutes to prepare a critical incident, questions for discussion and large group processing. Mention that the rest of the group will act as an audience and will play the part of the group for whom the incident was written.
The small group discussion should last about 10 minutes and the large group processing should take about 5 minutes.

3. Give each group two sheets of flip chart paper and a marker or two. Ask them to write the whole text of their incident and small group processing questions on flip chart paper.
Have groups go to their break-out rooms or corners of the large training room to begin preparing their Critical Incidents and questions for discussion and processing.

4. Keep time (25 minutes).

NOTE

A common mistake in writing Critical Incidents is doing the analysis within the story instead of leaving it up to the discussion group to do afterwards. For example, participants will write: "The group leader dominated the discussion" or "The old man preferred to go to the traditional healer.

Instead, they should show by ACTIONS or DIALOGUE how the characters behaved and let the participants draw conclusions about what that behavior meant. Tell participants to write the incident as they imagine it happening, or as they would tell it to their best friend over a glass of beer, rather than as they would write it up in a report.

NOTE: If groups need more time to write their incidents, reduce a little of the time for the critique. Better still, let the session go a little overtime.

Presentation (60 minutes)

1. Assemble everyone as a large group.

2. Remind the group that when acting as the audience they should play the part of the group for which the incident was written (e.g. agricultural extension agents, or community health workers, etc.) and respond as they think they would.

3. Have each of the four groups take 15 minutes to present and process their Critical

Incident. Take a BREAK for 15 minutes after two Critical Incidents have been presented, and conclude with the other two after the break.

Feedback (25 minutes)

1. Ask participants to help you arrange all the chairs in a circle. Be sure all the Critical

Incidents and processing questions are posted where the group can see them.

2. Discuss questions such as the following:

· What made the Critical Incidents particularly effective?

Ask participants to refer to the flip charts around the room and cite specific examples. Write their responses on flip chart paper.

· What were some of the problems with the Critical Incidents and processing questions? Ask each group to name their own problems first.

Then ask the audience to name problems. Have the group try to find solutions to those problems on the spot. List them on flip chart paper.

Example:

Problem The questions didn't really relate to the incident.

Solutions Make the questions more specific.

Ask how the characters felt in order to understand their point of view. Etc.

· How do you think community members might react to Critical Incidents?

In what kinds of situations would they be appropriate? What issues, if any, might create embarrassment if they were the subject of Critical Incidents? Here, the opinion of HCN participants will be particularly valuable, especially in a PST. List responses on flip chart paper.

· How can Volunteers involve community members in writing and facilitating Critical Incidents?

Ask the group to brainstorm a list of possibilities and write them on flip chart paper.

Examples:

Try one out on a group of HCN friends and ask for their feedback and their suggestions for use.

Try working on one together with high school students who show up at your house wanting to practice their English.

Get invited to a training program and do one there. Get people's reactions.

Option

If you are working with a co-trainer and want to do both Problem Dramas and Critical Incidents in the same session, divide the group in half. As much as possible, allow participants to choose a group that will work on the skill they want to practice.

Now divide each of these groups in half, so that two groups will work on Problem Dramas and two will work on Critical Incidents. The timing is the same for both types of skill practice. You will need two separate rooms for the initial demonstrations. Have your co-trainer take complete charge of facilitating one half of the group.

After the small groups prepare their presentations, assemble everyone in one large group. Present Problem Dramas before the break and Critical Incidents after (or vice versa). Do the feedback first on one type of presentation, then on the other.

Choosing this option lets everyone see both techniques and adds interest to the final presentations. However, it relies on the ability of the co-trainer to work independently, and on the availability of two reasonably comfortable rooms for the initial demonstrations.

SUGGESTION: Everything else being equal, choose the option that lets your workshop participants practice the techniques they arc most likely to be able to use in their work. If most participants work with community members with limited education, have everyone practice Problem Dramas. If most will be involved with high school graduates at professional meetings, have them work on Critical Incidents. If you want everyone to practice both techniques, consider adding a session (or removing one of the later sessions that seems less useful to you).

Activity 3: Evaluation

Activity Time 10 minutes

Purpose To have participants evaluate the session.

Step - by - Step

Ask participants who signed up to evaluate the session to carry it out. Suggest that they include the HCNs in the evaluation if they were part of the audience. Be sure to explain that they are not evaluating the Volunteers' performance, but the usefulness of the session as a teaching and learning opportunity for the participants.

For Next Time

Suggest that participants look over Chapter 8 of the Peace Corps NFE Manual.

Also, give each participant the handouts Learning Cross-Cultural Group Facilitation and Hints for Facilitating a Group Discussion to read on their own time.

· End of Session 5.

Tune Saver

It is strongly suggested that you do not cut short Sessions 4 or 5, as they form the core of the skill building activities that Volunteers need to practice NFE in the field.

Demonstration Problem Dramas about Peace Corps Experience

Choose one of the examples below that is common to Peace Corps experience in your area or write your own problem situation. There should be one main character who is confronted with a dilemma, and usually two minor characters who give the Volunteer contradictory advice about what to do.

Examples:

1. Main character is a Volunteer who is supposed to teach community people about nutritious foods using prepared charts. Although the foods illustrated are available in country they are much too expensive for most of the local people. Her supervisor is uninterested in her objections, and does not want her to deviate from the planned lessons and activities.

One of the Volunteer's HCN friends says to just go along with the program. The point in this culture is to not make waves.

But a Peace Corps friend challenges her to start practicing "real NFE" - regardless of what her supervisor wants.

2. The day after a Volunteer arrives at post, a beggar woman comes to the door with a dying baby in her arms. The Volunteer wants to take the woman and baby to the hospital, but the woman refuses to go, saying she is afraid the child will die there.

A friend of the Volunteer tells her she is obliged to do what is best for the baby, whatever it takes.

Another says that it's not her place as a Volunteer to intervene in this way.

To the Trainer:

Ask three Volunteers from the NFE workshop to practice the problem drama the night before you do Session 5. Their presentation should take about 5 minutes. They should not memorize lines, but ad lib, adding details to make the dilemma as realistic as possible. Just as the drama ends, the main character should step toward the audience and ask them, WHAT?, do you think I should do?. S/he should then facilitate a discussion of about 10 minutes with the audience, encouraging as many of the group as possible to reflect on the situation and give their opinions. Ideally, the processing should take the audience through the Experiential Learning Cycle with questions like these:

What should I do? Why do you think so?

(Minor characters can fake up the processing here) Why does this situation arise in the first place? What can we do about it?

Problem Dramas - Suggestions for a PST

The problem dramas presented by the workshop participants should focus on problems affecting the local people they will be working with.

Examples:

HEALTH

A woman with 9 children doesn't want to get pregnant again. Her husband is angry and refuses to let her see the health worker for birth control advice. Her friend tells her she has dealt with the same problem at home by getting birth control injections without her husband's knowledge.

AGRICULTURE

A farmer's plot of land is becoming less and less fertile. He is worried that next year the yield will not be enough to feed his family. An extension worker urges him to try a new fertilizer. But a neighbor says the chemicals are too expensive, and what if they don't work?

SMALL BUSINESS

A woman member of a cooperative wants to try get a loan to start producing and selling soap. Her family objects that starting a business will take too much time and energy, and getting the loan in the city will mean leaving her responsibilities at home for several days. Her friends in the cooperative tell her that she has the right to help her family in the way she chooses.

Write other problem situations according to the experience of Volunteers in the sectors your PST participants will be involved in.

Demonstration Critical Incident about Peace Corps Experience

Use the example below if it is common to Peace Corps experience in your area - or write your own Critical Incident from the Volunteers' point of view.

Example:

John had only been at his site three days before a beggar woman knocked at his door, she was in terrible shape, very thin, with tom, dirty clothes. She was leading a boy by the hand-he must have been around nine - he was totally blind and his body was covered with scars from some terrible disease. But the worst was the baby - he had a dirty bandage on his arm, and you could see the gangrene spreading out from under it. The woman only wanted food, but John could see that the baby was dying. Since the hospital was only a half mile away, he urged her to go there; he even offered to go with her. But the woman shook her head and said firmly that she would never do that. The child would die there, she said. She knew many people who had.

John was sure that no infant could survive such a case of gangrene. He pounded on his neighbor's door and told him the situation, but the neighbor said not to worry about such a woman; if it was God's will the child would live, and anyway, poor people in this country are stronger than people from the West who have grown soft with easy living.

Questions for large group discussion (15 minutes):

1. Why do you think the mother felt the way she did?

2. What beliefs or values are reflected in the neighbor's response? How do you feel about them?

3. If you were in John's place, what would you do? Why?

Critical Incident Situations: Suggestions for Critical Situations by Sector

Participants should write the incidents from the point of view of their audience to help them reflect on why a situation happens and what they can do about it. For example, they should write the HEALTH situation from the point of view of health workers who have experienced similar problems, the AGRICULTURE incident from the point of view of young people who try to change established traditions, etc.

HEALTH

Health workers are told they must attend a series of workshops to upgrade their skills, but no transportation or per diem is provided. They must pay out of their own pockets so they arrive at the training resentful and in no mood for learning.

AGRICULTURE

A student who has successfully completed a training program at an agricultural college returns home to the village, but finds that no one is interested in the new techniques he has learned. They say he is too young and inexperienced to be telling people to change their ways.

SMALL BUSINESS

A cooperative has been formed to buy a milling machine to make flour, a job traditionally done by women. However, it is the men who get the training and access to the machine, and who now pocket the money the women used to get. The women are upset, but don't know what to do about it.

LITERACY

Unemployed youth have been recruited to teach literacy skills in the evening. They teach the way they were used to learning in formal school, but participants quickly lose interest and begin to drop out of the program. The young teachers say the reason is that the participants are lazy and unintelligent.

Learning Cross-Cultural Group Facilitation

Facilitating a group in a culture different from your own is tricky, as how people behave may have entirely different meanings than you expect. In the U.S., if some group members are silent, people may assume they are shy, or that they don't have any ideas on the subject, or that they feel intimidated by other group members (including the facilitator). But in some cultures, the highest status individuals may be the quietest, showing their wisdom and respect for others by their ability to reflect and hold back the first ideas that come to mind.

Setting an agenda, giving feedback, dealing with disruptions, keeping the group on task and gaining consensus all are culturally-based behaviors. Expecting groups in your host country to act like Americans can be frustrating and counterproductive. Use your cross-cultural skills and your ability to observe and ask discrete questions to understand group behavior in your host country before trying to facilitate groups in your work as a Volunteer. Look for some of the following:

· What formalities are observed? Who opens and closes the meeting, and how?
· Where do people of different status sit?
· How are topics introduced? By going straight to the point? By careful indirection?

Which topics are introduced first? (In some cultures, the most important ones are saved for last.)

· What irrelevant topics are introduced? Are they really irrelevant?
· How do people get permission-or find an opening-to speak?
· How long does it typically take the group to decide on something? What is the process for coming to a decision? (Look for differences here between the "All in favor say aye" approach and a lengthy discussion process where everyone has a chance to air their views but is expected to come to complete consensus in the end.)

· How do people express their dissatisfaction with another group member? (By quiet ostracism? By pointing out the behavior directly?)

· What kinds of decisions are made outside the meeting? Where and how are they made?

By whom?

Hints for Facilitating a Group Discussion

Being sensitive to cultural norms does not mean you need to give up being American. These typically (but far from exclusively) American techniques will often charm a cross-cultural audience.

· Be positive. Smile.

· Communicate your enthusiasm for the meeting, the topic and the people involved.

· Get to the point and stick to it.

· Write legibly and quickly.

· Speak loud enough for everyone to hear easily and articulate your words, especially if you-or the participants-are struggling with a second language.

· Encourage discussion between group members instead of between members and yourself. You can do this by redirecting questions (-What do you think about that, Mr. Gomez?) or by nodding and expressing interest rather than giving your own opinion.

· Let participants know when you have learned something new from them.

· Come prepared. Bring paper and markers or roll-up blackboards and chalk.

· Practice the techniques you will use beforehand so you don't get too nervous or lose your train of thought.

· Keep the meeting from degenerating into lengthy argument or discussion that is off the topic. It takes some practice to balance facilitator control with group participation. Use your tone of voice, your energy or "presence" and your interested silence to keep the group focused.

TRAINER'S NOTES