Tuesday, May 19, 2015

The Top 20 Ways to Know You're a Group Facilitator - Humorous

For the “serious” list, see The Top 15 Ways to Know You're a Group Facilitator - Serious
For the original list, see You know you're a group facilitator if.

You know you’re a group facilitator if …
  1. no one understands what you do for a living.
  2. you want to write it on the wall.
  3. group members admire your wide selection of different sized, shaped and colored post-its.
  4. your phone's photo gallery of family snaps and selfies is interspersed with flip charts, white boards, lists, and mind maps.
  5. your 3-year old says “no no no daddy/mommy, stop facilitating me!”
  6. you can argue the merits of blu-tack over white-tack.
  7. you choose the boring supportive flats rather than the heels or boots that really match your outfit.
  8. you know how to remove permanent marker mistakenly used on a client’s whiteboard.
  9. you amaze the room by taking session notes on what look like white garbage bags that stick to the wall by static electricity.
  10. you maintain an inventory of different colored sticky dots so you won’t run out of any colors.
  11. you ask people, like at the grocery store, if they want feedback.
  12. you have a flipchart stand in your living room.
  13. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is your favorite book. (Don’t Panic!)
  14. you arrive early so you have sufficient time to move around the tables and chairs.
  15. someone comes up to you and asks, “Have you considered using small groups and an ice-breaker,” and politely you say, “Thank you; I’ll consider that.”
  16. you are in a really awful meeting and have to sit on your hands to avoid taking over.
  17. you walk into a room that has been set up for you and the chairs and tables are classroom style – and you don’t groan because you anticipated this.
  18. you know how to set up just about every type of flip chart known to man.
  19. tears fill your eyes and you feel so understood when a new client says, “I know it is just a one-day session, but this is so important we expect we will need you for at least three days of preparation.”
  20. you're thinking that there should be a better process for collaboratively arriving at a “top ten” list.

3 comments:

  1. Omg, you nailed my lifr...AND, since you know me, you knew that. I think of you every time I hand out the IAS statement of values and ethics. Miss seeing you in person! Big hug.

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  2. darn, I can't seem to write unless its with a marker. Sorry about the typos. ^life. ^IAFI

    ReplyDelete
  3. Typos excused. And it's nice to see that the the top scoring results in the "serious" list all came from the Statement of Values and Ethics. I hope we'll reconnect before long.

    ReplyDelete

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