Community Leaders Up Their Facilitation Skills at a Summertime SVEP Training

What needs to be true of a facilitator to ensure a good meeting experience? 

Consultant and facilitator Felicity Ratté, a former Marlboro graduate school professor, who helped develop local nonprofit boards through Marlboro’s capacity building programs, says: 

• Planning & preparation
• Promoting interaction
• Flexibility within a clear framework
• Being perceptive and responsive
• Keeping things positive
• A shared responsibility for outcomes (buy-in)
• Confidence (built on preparation, experience, self-awareness)
• Clarity

In June, Ratté led eight community leaders and BDCC staff in a 2-part training to help participants advance their skills in leading meetings and guiding conversations. The organizations represented ranged from small business to nonprofit operations to consultants and solopreneurs.

We all have experienced meetings where the conversation goes astray from the agenda. Ratté shared a tip for keeping things on track: summarize where the meeting is in the agenda, including what’s left to do, then ask, Can we get all this done in the next XX minutes, or do we need to set another meeting? “People will get efficient if there’s the threat of another meeting!” Ratté says.

Participants also shared from their own experience. A small business manager finds that using “we/us/our” language can help create a more cooperative atmosphere. He suggests using phrases like, We’re here together to talk about … Our goal is ….. Our time is valuable … I want us to feel good about the process … 

This training was part of the Southern Vermont Economy Project’s ongoing work to increase the capacity of local leaders. Other upcoming programs will include a nonprofit board development miniseries and our always-popular grant writing workshop.

About the Southern Vermont Economy Project (SVEP)

The Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation’s Southern Vermont Economy Project provides training and technical assistance to increase local capacity, skills, and resources in the Southern VT Economic Development Zone (encompassing Bennington and Windham counties, and the town of Weston) in order to advance local projects critical to Southern Vermont achieving critical community, economic, and workforce development goals. SVEP is funded in part through the USDA Rural Community Development Initiative. For more information please visit: https://brattleborodevelopment.com/svep/