What to wear? - Preparing for the session

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

"Vidya's appearance was a disgrace. He should comb his hair, shave , put his shirt in his pants. He is no representative for Hindus..,. and it distracted from what he had to say" Participant's evaluation comment

"Vidya was good but he should pay attention to his dress" Another evaluation comment at the same session

What to wear?
Sunday afternoon domestic violence training. The facilitator, an experienced social worker , in Church clothes. She then takes off her shoes and says.. Good Afternoon, I look forward to the session, I am taking off my shoes because I am more comfortable barefoot"

A lesson learned early on in facilitating work is that in Guyana and the Caribbean impressions are formed by dress. Dress too much and there is a barrier and dress too little there is another kind of barrier formed.

And so I go through in my head.. formal/informal.. and bearing in mind that my formal is still informal for many. Colours - no bright colours, dull colours and blue especially since I like blue . The intention of the dull colours is to avoid any additional attention.  Comfort is important, matching with the idea of respect for the participants' values who use dress as a way of valuing the seriousness of any event.

When I see male facilitators in suits, I feel as though I am being conned. Other persons might see the male facilitator in suit as learned and expert and trustworthy.

 
Packing everything
Pack everything early. Check on equipment and any other materials you will be using. Do not despair though if you forget anything, because there are always alternatives.

These days, I have electronic copies of all materials on a flash drive so that participants could get the materials if there has been some glitch with printing of handouts. 


 Get there early
Get to the venue early and walk around. Sit where the participants will sit if possible. If your session is part of a day of other sessions, participate in the earlier sessions. This is good especially if the introductions will be done early in the day.  I remember standing at a church door and greeting people as they came in like if I was the pastor.

Check on logistics and layout. You might want to change the seating arrangements or the layout. Find out the location of the washrooms and get a sense of the environs of the rooms.

If you have to clean the room, do so.  Put up any posters or any other materials which you need.  A facilitator I know said that is good to have relevant posters around the room so even if people are bored and they wander, there is content to keep people thinking of the issues under discussion.

Mingle with the people who are early as a way of grounding.  

Organise your equipment and materials.  Adjust your agenda if the time duration is going to be different.

Facilitation in a virtual environment

Get your tools ready. Make sure you are comfortable and that the lighting is good. Start the session 15 minutes or so earlier than the scheduled start time and test that everything is working. 

 

I tend to use a headset to improve the clarity of audio.

 

If your environment might have some distractions - eg people passing behind in the video, or loud noises, then let the participants know and be prepared to mute the audio or turn off video as you see fit.

 

There are enough funny experiences the people who wear formal shirts/tops and casual(or no !) pants/skirts/bottoms - you decide what you need to wear and what you don't mind people seeing in case you stand up in front of the video.

Nervousness
I think a little nervousness is a good thing. It helps me to pay attention to details and to be careful. I usually acknowledge nervousness when I need to , and that helps with dispelling it.

What strategies do you use for dealing with nervousness?

Have a look at the other Facilitation blogs