Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
Aristotle (384–322 BC)
Greek philosopher and polymath
For improving as a facilitator or moderator you need to know what and how to improve at. To have specifically pointed out the part and to way you should change is crucial information, which is often not available – even if you are desperate for it.
Need for self-assessement
Sometimes, depending on the type of participants you are working with, there is no one who is capable of giving you the right kind of feedback. On other occasions you may simply not have enough time left to gather feedback — although of course in these situations you could call some of the participants later and ask for it.
Furthermore, it is often the case that participants are really willing to fill evaluation sheets. They skip or avoid and you are left with blank papers. Of course, you can create incentives or even obligations, e.g. without evaluation sheet no certificate.
Much better than participants’ feednback is to have a mentor or colleague. He has the expertise, knows what to look at, and give you competent suggestions for improvement. These occasions, however, are seldom.
If you can’t get neither participants’ nor experts’ feedback, an alternative (not ideal, but better than nothing) is self-assessment.
Filming for Self-Assessment as Facilitator
Nowadays, it is very easy and cheap yourself while performing. Later you can watch the recordings and observe yourself in action. Place a camera or phone on a tripod in corner, where it doesn’t disturb and can cover you in the range of your movements.
In digital workshops you normally have the recordings in-built. This makes it easy to rate your efforts and even observe the audience’s reactions once more.
But what should you pay attention to? Your smile? You “uh” sounds while talking? Your body posture? And how can you measure that you have improved? For this reason TheWorkshopLeader.com has developed the Wheel of Competence.
TWL Wheel of Competence
You can utilize the Wheel of Competence and review from time to time in order to track your progress. It covers all relevant areas for facilitators, moderators, trainers, and presenters. It comes with a scale so that you can compare results.
For receiving the TWL Wheel of Competence as pdf you can contact us. We are about to develop an automated version to get immediate results. Bare with us a little more time.