A workshop facilitator plans and runs sessions where a group works something out together: a strategy, a decision, a product idea or a way through a disagreement. The same skills are used in meeting facilitation, strategic planning sessions, design sprints and methods such as LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®. This page explains the work and the routes into it. It does not list jobs.
What does a workshop facilitator actually do?
The International Association of Facilitators (IAF) puts it briefly in its Code of Ethics: facilitators “are called upon to fill an impartial role in helping groups become more effective” and act “as process guides to create a balance between participation and results.”
Two ideas from that code define the job:
- Process, not content. Participants bring knowledge of their own situation, and the facilitator brings expertise in how groups work together. The IAF asks facilitators to keep their influence on outcomes as small as possible. If they need to share content knowledge, they first explain that they are changing role.
- The group decides. IAF members “set aside our personal opinions and support the group’s right to make its own choices.”
In practice the work has three phases. Before the session, you agree the goal with the client and design the agenda and methods. During it, you run the activities, make sure every voice is heard and keep the group on time. Afterwards, you write up what the group decided. The IAF’s six core competency areas follow the same arc, from “Creating Collaborative Client Relationships” and “Planning Appropriate Group Processes” to “Guiding the Group to Appropriate and Useful Outcomes”.
Strategic planning, board retreats and team-building sessions
Meeting, strategic planning, retreat and team-building facilitation are the same craft applied to different goals. A strategic planning facilitator helps a leadership team or board agree on priorities. A retreat facilitator runs a longer session for a board or team, sometimes away from the usual workplace. A team-building facilitator designs activities meant to help people work together. Because the facilitator stays neutral on content, an outside facilitator can help when the people who would usually chair have a stake in the outcome.
The IAF Code of Ethics contains three points that matter for these sessions:
- Conflicts of interest. Before agreeing to work with a client, facilitators should openly discuss any conflict of interest, personal bias or prior knowledge of the organization.
- Confidentiality. Facilitators do not report on group content, or on the opinions or behavior of individual members, without consent. This matters when a board or leadership team discusses sensitive issues.
- Consent to the process. Facilitators “seek the group’s conscious agreement to the process” and “do not impose anything that risks the welfare and dignity of the participants”. Keep this in mind when choosing team-building activities.
There is no official certification specific to strategic planning, retreat or team-building facilitation that we know of. The general facilitator credentials on how to become a facilitator apply.
Design sprint facilitators
GV’s guide to the method describes the design sprint as “a five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers.” In GV’s outline, the team maps the problem and picks a target (Monday), sketches competing solutions (Tuesday), decides which to pursue and storyboards them (Wednesday), builds a prototype (Thursday) and tests it with customers (Friday). Someone facilitating a sprint keeps the team to that structure and timetable.
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitators
The LEGO Group says LEGO SERIOUS PLAY “began as an experiential process designed for use in guided workshops with adults”. Facts worth knowing before you pay for training:
- The LEGO Group says that after 2010 it does not offer certification programs in the methodology.
- It “strongly recommends the use of trained facilitators”. It describes two training directions: training in the original methodology, or in an expanded version developed by a group of community members.
- It asks people who want to become facilitators to read community sites’ materials carefully and search for references.
- LEGO, SERIOUS PLAY and related marks are trademarks of the LEGO Group and may only be used as its trademark guidelines allow.
Any “LEGO SERIOUS PLAY certificate” is therefore not issued by the LEGO Group.
In-house or freelance?
In-house roles can sit in learning and development, organizational development, strategy or project teams. Some carry “facilitator” in the title, while others are trainer, coach or consultant roles where facilitation is one part of the work. For training-led roles, see training facilitator jobs.
Freelance facilitators contract with organizations session by session or project by project. Two points matter if you go this way:
- There is no official pay benchmark. The BLS wage survey (OEWS) “does not include the self-employed”, and BLS has no “facilitator” occupation. Be careful with any site quoting a precise national day rate.
- Clients cannot easily check your skills before they hire you. Professional credentials are one way to show them. The IAF’s Endorsed Facilitator (EF) asks you to summarize five workshops that show how you apply the IAF Core Competencies. Its Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF) adds a live assessment. Details are in how to become a facilitator.
Workshop facilitator careers: where to start
- Run sessions where you already work: team retrospectives, planning days, project kick-offs.
- Learn a few structured methods well, rather than many superficially. Design sprints and LEGO SERIOUS PLAY are examples, as are standard techniques for generating ideas and reaching decisions.
- Read the IAF Core Competencies and Code of Ethics. Both are free to read on the IAF website, and the IAF uses the Core Competencies as the basis for its assessments.
- Keep a record of each session: the goal, the design, what happened and what you would change. Credentials such as the IAF’s ask for written accounts of past workshops.
Hiring for this role?
If you are hiring a workshop, meeting or strategy facilitator in the U.S., whether employed or freelance, get in touch about listing the role on facilitatorjobs.com.