Being present to the group and getting to the core need

I am a reasonably experienced facilitator and trainer and am acutely aware of how important it is to be well briefed on what the participants are expecting from the session. Occasionally the workshop requested isn't what is actually needed and there is a juggle between the planned content, fulfilling the client agreement and meeting the participant needs. Every facilitator or trainer gets caught in this from time to time. Skilled facilitators generally manage it well, pleasing some and appeasing others. There are other times when no matter how good the briefing is, you cant really tell what will be needed until you get there. You've just got to handle it the best way you can with grace and integrity. Here is one such experience I had a while back.


A friend once asked me if I would run an assertiveness session for her client group... some blind people (she said)... of course I was happy to (I said).... well actually they are quite elderly too (she said).... Ok that's no problem (I said) ..... that's great but some of them are deaf as well (she said)..... O h k a y then I guess I can do that (I said).... don't worry we have someone to sign for you(she said)....(Now how you sign to a blind person I wasn’t quite sure but ....I am sure we can work something out(I said).....Great, now one last thing, quite a few of them have Alzheimer’s(she said)......Right, well it will be interesting then. (I said)

Well as it happened it was one of the more delightful sessions I have run and the group renamed the session, 'Querulous Training.' They had wanted the Assertiveness Training primarily because when they went to the Doctor, they felt that the Doctors generally treated them as stupid, didn’t bother to explain things and prescribed medication without providing information. So as a group they ended up coaching each other on shaking or stamping their white cane at the ‘Quack’....if they were going to be treated as stupid, then they decided they may as well ham it up and get fractious and querulous and insist that the young whippersnapper give them their due. The session was a great success and a fabulous learning experience for yours truly.