The facilitator’s role is to guide participants through CO.STARTERS programs by asking the right questions, drawing on the knowledge in the room, and using available resources and connections in the community to point participants in the right direction. The facilitator works closely with the hosting organization’s staff to ensure a quality program that meets [...]
The number of facilitators needed to deliver an awesome cohort experience depends on a few things: 1) the experience of the facilitator(s), 2) the size and demand of the cohort and 3) the cohort schedule. An ideal cohort size will range from 8-15 participants. A skilled and experienced CO.STARTERS facilitator can handle this size [...]
It's natural to feel this way the first time you are asked a question you can’t answer. It will happen and that’s OK. A facilitator is not expected to know everything. During Session 1, when the cohort sets guidelines, set your own guidelines as a facilitator. Let the cohort know, “I won't have all the [...]
Good questions are those that do more than just ask about the content being discussed. Good questions focus on drawing out the experiences and knowledge of the group and how the material relates to them. For example, instead of asking “Did you complete your canvas?” ask instead, “What did you learn in completing your canvas?” [...]
This is the only time that is helpful to really teach the bolded concepts. You don’t need to read every word of every section but make sure you explain the concepts of each section and follow the activities. It is important to use the case studies. If you follow the case studies verbatim and [...]
Here’s one of the best tips we learned from another facilitator. Simply state “Excuse me, I see you two are passionate about this topic but as facilitator I have a responsibility to the group to make sure we get through the material. Can you both take the conversation to the chat or put it on [...]
That depends. If you are having really positive discussion on a topic that gets to exploring something that is important to the cohort, then that's time well spent. If conversations get commandeered by a couple of participants who are the only ones benefiting from the conversation, ask them to move the discussion to break time [...]
The best way to work with participants that are excited to share is to find them a way to have an active role. Perhaps ask them to help manage the chat during a virtual delivery. Or if in person, make them responsible for the customer count chart. When opening up topics for discussion, address the [...]
One of the best things about each cohort is the diversity of participants in backgrounds, experience, skill sets and even personalities. We believe everyone brings value to the cohort experience. A facilitator’s responsibility is to consciously work to invite engagement from all participants even those who shy away from group participation. One of the most [...]
This is a great question. From the very start during Session 1, offer some suggestions as to how to frame comments and suggestions to make them helpful to others. Here are some suggested ways to do that: From my experience, __________. I have found that ___________. One Idea I will share is __________________. I tried [...]