(Every Facilitator Needs A Toolkit)
You’ve planned and prepared the content, information, and activities that you are going to facilitate. You have post-it notes, markers, flipcharts, nametags, and your wireless clicker.
You unpack everything. Set up the room and turn on your computer. That’s when you discover that you forgot to turn off the wireless clicker the last time you used it, and the battery is drained. To make matters worse, you didn’t pack an extra battery because you knew there was a new battery in the device.
While not having a clicker seems like a little thing, it actually can become a huge issue in the success of the session. Facilitators like having a wireless clicker because it allows them to stay engaged with their participants without moving to change a slide.
Without the clicker, every time a facilitator wants to move to another slide, he has to turn his back on the participants to get to the computer. Doing that over and over again breaks the atmosphere that the facilitator must create to ensure that participants trust him and feel engaged.
That’s why most facilitators have a ToolBox that they haul with them to each session. Having the right stuff eliminates distractions and allows participants to focus on the subject matter that they were hired to facilitate.
Most Facilitator Toolkits have these basics plus items they personally like to have. Here’s our essential list. What’s in your Facilitator’s Toolbox? Here’s a list of items we carry. Please add yours to the list!
1. Extra batteries – of all sizes!
2. Flip charts
3. Post-it notes
4. Timer
5. Pens
6. Markers – dry erase and regular
7. Nametags
8. Blue Painter’s Tape
9. Duct Tape
10. Memory Stick with presentation and all documents
11. Table toys like thumb balls, pipe cleaners and rubric cubes
12. Candy