How to get to know who is in the group?

This blog is one of a series of Facilitation Thoughts which look at various aspects of facilitation.

There are different ways to get to know the people in the group you will be facilitating.

A perfect session would have enough time for introductions . There might be cases where the number would be too large and the time would run out soon after the introductions.

It is good to think about why you want to know the people in the group and what you want to know about them. 

Introductions help to :-

• get people to talk - and to animate a room. People also get to know each other a bit so that limits the fear of speaking in front of 'strangers'.
• allow the facilitator to learn who is in the room and get an idea of the experience and interest about a topic
• give the facilitator some idea of who might have interesting perspectives on a topic. A recent workshop on gender equality for example had two participants who worked in exclusively female oriented and male oriented  domains and who would have had practical experiences of dealing with gender. 

 There are some quirky ways to do introductions. These are my favourites :-

1. Pair up with someone who you do not know well. The pair interviews each other and each person will then introduce the other.
2. Introduce yourself and tell us something which you think the group does not know about you. (This is good when the people in the group already know each other) or what they expect from the session
3. Ask each person to introduce themselves  - with some interesting twist like an adjective behind the name which describes them. This helps to aid memory of the names.

(Please be clear about the instructions for the activity )

 
Remembering Names

•  Name tags are useful. Encourage persons to write the names they want to be called during the session.  

• A facilitator recently noted that she could not remember names but remembered other things about the persons based on their introductions.
• Repeat the names often, when speaking to people or referring to what they said.
• If you forget the name, ask for it again. 

If there is no time to do individual introductions, the facilitator can ask for questions such as :-
1) How many people are not sure why they are here?
2) How many people have had experience in the topic/issue/theme?
etc..

If the session you are doing is part of a more extended day, you could check the registration sheet to get a sense of organisations represented or any other information which is available.

It is good to go early to mingle with the participants.  

 

Remember to check on the pronouns people  use for themselves.

Facilitation in a virtual environment

Use the software to put the names to the persons if the names are not appearing. Some people use accounts from their families etc . I tend to make the edit on my interface rather than insist that people put their name up - especially if people are not familiar with the software. 

 

Make a note if there are more than one persons using one sign in account, so that you can check on their involvement as well through the session. 

 

I tend to call on the persons to introduce themselves since it is not so convenient for random interventions. You can encourage persons to switch on the video during the introductions and then switch off. Let the participants know they can use the chat window if they prefer.  Do not insist on the use of the video.

Let people know how to access additional support if they need it during or after the session. This includes phone numbers of helplines

 

What other ways do you think are good to get to know people in the group?

Rosemarie Choo-Shee-Nam agrees "Break the ice sessions-which Organisations are represented in a room full of people are good--Roster of Participants and Organisations gives a better idea of the audience you seeking to get your message across to. What is the expertise and experiences they can share?"

Have a look at the other Facilitation blogs

Author : Vidyaratha Kissoon  contact : vidyak1 (at) gmail (dot) com