Fearless Facilitation The Ultimate Field Guide to Engaging (and Involving!) Your Audience

Cyndi Maxey, CSP, owns Maxey Creative Inc., a communication consulting firm. She is a professional speaker, facilitator and coach and holds the Certified Speaking Professional designation with National Speakers Association.

Kevin E. O'Connor, CSP, is a speaker, consultant, and teaches graduate and undergraduate classes at Chicago's Loyola University and Columbia College of Chicago. Kevin is also a Certified Speaking Professional.

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Introduction

One Heard on the Street: The Audience Does Know!

The Audience Doesn’t Lie

It’s About Time!

It All Begins with Courage

Three Keys to Facilitate Fearlessly

And on a Final and Very Important Note . . .

Coach’s Comments

Two Organic Facilitation

Organic Facilitation Is Less Known

Organic Facilitation Is Healthier in the Long Run

Organic Facilitation Takes Time to Perfect (or, Actually, Make Appear Imperfect)

Intimacy Is Key

Coach’s Comments

Three The Fourth Wall

The Wall It’s OK to Break

Food, Fun, and Safety

Five Tools for Your Fearless Tool Bag

Three Rules for Breaking the Wall

Dance Naked! The Wisdom Is in the Room

How to Work (and Not Work) the Room

How Fred Friedman Broke the Fourth Wall

Coach’s Comments

Four Have Fun with One or with One Hundred

Take It Professionally, Not Personally

As You Begin, Notice Who Is “with” You Through Their Reactions, Eye Contact, or What Seems to Be Working, Even in a Small Way

Be Ready to Adapt

Know That You Can’t Win Them All

Yes, Facilitation Works with Very Large Audiences!

Adapting to an Unexpectedly Small Audience

Coach’s Comments

Five Dialogue Not Monologue (Worse, Duologue)

Conversation Is Not Easy for Most

Can You Converse Without a Cocktail?

Conversation: Begin at the Beginning

The Break Is Never Really a Break

Dialogue During Your Meeting

Dialogue Post-Meeting

Coach’s Comments

Six The Set-Up: Making It Happen

The Learning Environment

You Can Always Facilitate, No Matter the Circumstances

Lessons from One Executive’s Transformation

Coach’s Comments

Seven Listen Live, Then Disappear!

What Oprah and Larry Know

What the Best Do Not Do

What the Journalist Uncovers

What the Orchestra Conductor Knows

What the Sales Professional Knows

Really Good Facilitators Use These Questions

Really Good Facilitators Avoid These Questions

What Listening Live Is Not

Timing Is Everything

Your Natural Resources

Coach’s Comments

Eight Go with It!

Take What They Give You

Trust!

When You Know More and They Came to Hear It

When You Need to (and Should) Keep Emotion at Bay

When You Can’t Think and Hit at the Same Time

Home Run!

Coach’s Comments

Nine  It’s About the Audience, First and Always, in All Ways!

What a Ninety-One-Year-Old Knows

What a Professional Magician Knows

What an Eighth-Grade Teacher Knows

What Engineers Know

Connection Is Never Perfection

What the Professional Comedian Knows

Audiences Will React Differently to the Same Story

Avoid Death by Committee

Ten Yikes! A Whole Room Full of . . .

When Times Go Less Well Than Planned

People and Groups Who Exhibit Predictable Challenges

People Who Are Disconnected

Only One Person to Facilitate

In Your Writing, Especially When You Need to Persuade

Gaining Traction

Keeping Momentum

When All Else Fails . . . People Who Won’t Change, No Matter What

Coach’s Comments

Eleven Conclusion: Now Is the Beginning of Your New Skill

Appendix A: Sure Things: Eight Discussion Topics That Never Fail

Appendix B: Four Keys to Making It Easier

Appendix C: Momentum Magic

Appendix D: Oops! When Meetings Don’t Go So Well

Appendix E: Techniques for Teleconference and Virtual Meeting Facilitation

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