Here is a quick and somewhat humorous listing of fourteen different facilitator typologies or “personalities” you might seek to avoid. Our favorite is “The Pretender.”

The “I Can’t Hear You” Guy—

The facilitator refuses to listen, probably because they are too busy analyzing, judging, and processing information.

The Blabber—

The facilitator who loves the sound of his or her own voice, and actually believes they are adding value when speaking about content rather than context.

The Centerpiece—

The facilitator makes him or her the real content of the workshop because, of course, it’s all about them.

The Drill Sergeant—

The facilitator is rigidly stuck on the agenda and puts the clock above quality content.

The Guardian—

The facilitator makes certain that all conversation goes through him or her and not from participant to participant, so as not to lose control.

The Ice Cube—

The distant and aloof facilitator is unwilling to personalize the experience, sometimes becoming accusatory.

The Know-it-all—

The facilitator always has the answer. The know-it-all who can’t say “I don’t know.”

The Marathon Man—

The facilitator piles activities on top of one another, doesn’t allow for breaks, and ignores the need for groups to pause, reflect, and absorb topics and ideas.

The Molasses Man—

The facilitator is painfully slow and doesn’t have an innate feel for pacing, variety, or style.

The Parrot—

The facilitator relentlessly recaps information, restates ideas, and summarizes the obvious (although sometimes justifiable for groups that are challenged to focus and “be here now.”)

The Passenger—

The facilitator lets people talk too long and gives up the reins of facilitation to whoever is speaking at the time.

The Pretender—

The facilitator doesn’t ask real questions but only “pretense questions” that are really designed to give the facilitator an excuse to pontificate.

The Storyteller—

The facilitator tells far too many cutesy stories or “war stories” and never gets deep into the content.

The Tunnel Driver—

The facilitator who keeps doing the same thing or uses the same method hour after hour.

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities every day during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

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