I use these principles every day.

I am a facilitation nerd. I’ve presented nationwide, spent over $10,000 in facilitation training, and conducted strategy workshops for years.

I practice the principles in this article daily, and I’m delighted to share them all with you. (#4 is my fave)

These principles focus on engaging young Indigenous people (YIP) in collaborative sessions but apply to all age groups.

I think facilitators can make or break a session. It could be a mundane topic, but if the facilitator is engaged and enthusiastic, it gets me excited to be part of the session.

This is important because, honestly, youth reconciliation isn’t a very exciting topic for many young people. In fact, it may be triggering to some people.

So if the facilitator is hyped, we can make the youth hyped to be there, too!

To facilitate means to make (an action or process) easy or easier, which is a broad definition that can leave much to interpretation.

I’m here to make facilitation more approachable by introducing you to the Frayed Feathers’ Six Principles of youth facilitation!

As we go through these principles, I encourage readers to reflect on how they do this already, or how they may incorporate some of these sooner than later.

Let’s get started! 🙂 

Principle #1 - GET THE BEST OUT OF EVERYONE

Your goal is to bring the expertise out of the participants. We do this as guides, not heroes in the story.

Think of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings; he could do some amazing magic and solve challenges, but instead, he guides the group to their goals. We’re all Gandalf, here!

Be the team “Hype Person” by pointing out, celebrating, and connecting contributions. You don’t need to be overly enthusiastic; you just need to show that you’re listening and seeing the value in what the youth say.

• Avoid telling them what you want them to think; instead, ask them questions that help them make their own conclusions.

• If we feel the youth are going down an unhelpful stream of thought, ask everyone to reflect by saying: “What do you think would happen if we took this option?”

• If stuck, share your experiences to inform the youth how they may solve current challenges. “This is what I’ve seen on a previous project or workshop.”

• Summarize answers by saying, “I heard all these things (list things). How do we move forward with this in mind?”

• Don’t be afraid to move on and return to things later if people are stuck.

Principle #2 - MANAGE ENERGY LIKE A SACRED FIRE

A sacred fire is a special kind of fire. My teachings as an Ojibwa person are to include sage and tobacco in the kindling, and a prayer before lighting.

Sacred fires typically have a designated fire keeper, and they ensure that the fire is treated with respect by not including any food, garbage, dirt, spitting, etc in that fire.

My teaching is that we must allow the fire to go out naturally; we cannot spread the coals or add water to rush the process.

Think of the fire like a grandparent, don’t do anything to the fire you wouldn’t do to your grandparent. We feed the fire, nurture the fire, celebrate the fire, and then let the fire rest.

This is the level of care we must bring to managing the youth’s energy levels in sessions.

We’ve all been there when a presentation goes over time, and no one wants to be rude, but people want their coffee, bathroom breaks, and to make a call outside.

We must consider a system that avoids these feelings, because stress and frustration are the last things we want from our participants and audiences.

Here are some guidelines for managing energy levels:

Respect the three-hour rule - humans don’t have much past three hours of focussed energy, so don’t plan for more than three hours of hard work.

• Take a 15-minute break minimum every 90 minutes.

• Even if the workshop is 10 am - 3 pm, only three hours are focussed on creative and critical thinking; the rest must be less focused thinking tasks.

• More breaks and less information overload mean youth leave the engagement happier.

Let people ease into the day by not starting too early.

• Engagements that start too early and end too late don’t benefit anybody. A good time 10:30 am - 5:30 pm. This lets everyone get up to speed in the morning.

• Include a detailed schedule for the day, including all breaks. This reduces stress about not knowing, which can block critical thinking.

Some tips:

• Acknowledge when you’re about to go overtime because if we don’t, we are signalling that we’re okay with taking away people’s break time, which is uncool!

• In energy-dropping situations, go outside and walk the team. If it’s virtual, then ask the participants to go outside and walk for 15 minutes.

Principle #3 - START STRONG, END STRONGER

This is a bit nerdy, but this principle relies on the Serial Position Effect. This psychological principle identifies that people tend to remember the beginning and end of things, not the middle.

For this reason, I use the “peak end rule,” which is that people don’t remember an experience based on all individual moments; they’ll remember the peak and the end.

In other words, they remember their favourite part, and the end, so it’s important to end on a strong note that people enjoy.

Everyone will have their favourite part, don’t worry about that. I feel it’s best to focus on ending strong, and the rest will take care of itself.

Here are some tips and tactics for ending stronger:

End with a highlight session by asking people to summarize the part of the day they enjoyed most. (Sounds boring, works great).

• Put the agenda up and point to items to prompt discussions - Something positive that stuck out to them, what was different from usual?

• The hidden magic here is that whenever someone shares a highlight that someone else did not think of, it reinforces the value everyone got.

This is a bit wishy washy, but the end of a session is the end of something good, and the start of something new, so it’s important to nurture that transition.

• If you’re working with paper and sticky notes, you can take a picture of the room before and after the session to show the amount of work done.

• End with a “feel good” exercise that celebrates the participants as individuals or as a team.

• Whatever you decide to end with, people will likely remember, so make it something worth remembering. 🙂 

Principle #4: SET AND GET EXPECTATIONS

I say it all the time: “Expectations cannot be wrong if YOU set them.”

Wrong or false expectations can make a session fall apart. The last thing we want is for participants to feel they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

First thing to do is onboard the participants by asking them, “what are you expecting from this workshop?”

Clarify which expectations you cannot acknowledge in that session so that folks don’t feel they are in the wrong place.

• For example, perhaps a youth interpreted a poster incorrectly, or they were told about it through a friend who translated it incorrectly. (telephone game)

Next, tell them what the event is about, the goal, and the agenda. In real time, ask them what they want from this and/or the ideal endpoint of the session.

• Have them write it on the sticky note and present it to the group 1-by-1.

• Stick them up on the wall and refer to them when we must refocus the conversation or confirm alignment.

• If someone is unaligned, we can set this straight in the beginning.

• Can check in after lunch: “hey, do we still have the same expectations as earlier?” Read them out again if needed.

For emotional expectation setting, I like to use the emotional graph. I draw the graph in real time to show what emotions they may feel today.

• Y Axis: Happy face on top, and sad face on bottom (can be any emotion, though)

• X Axis: Time of the workshop (can be day or multiple)

• Identify the peaks and valleys based on the types of exercises/work done for the day.

• Helps visually identify why folks are feeling this way and brings comfort.

To be clear, emotions are unpredictable, and it’s okay if some or all your participants did not feel emotions as outlined in the graph.

It’s just about setting the expectation that one will likely feel this level of emotion today, and it’s comforting to know that at the start.

From a strength-based perspective, I always start happier than average, so if the Y axis is a 0 - 10 scale, I start at 7 or 8 and work from there.

Continuing with the 0 - 10 emotional scale, it’s okay to go below five, but I would avoid going below three unless you’re in a support group or have trauma-informed staff present.

It’s okay if people feel uncomfortable, but we don’t want people to feel sad. Be sure to plan how to bring the energy back up if you have valleys in your session’s emotional graph.

Principle #5: BEWARE THE CURSE OF KNOWLEDGE

The curse of knowledge is a bias we all have that unknowingly assumes that others have the background information to understand us.

For example, if you tap a song on your desk, you can hear that song, but other people have no idea.

With young people, we must approach facilitation with a beginner’s mindset that assumes we’re running workshops for people who have never been exposed to our work before.

Bring the participants into “the big picture” and tell them why the event is planned this way, and why your agenda is the way it is.

• Always be able to explain the context for anything you’re doing; it will help the participants feel part of the process.

• It’s our job to explain why the presentations, exercises, and activities fit together.

Avoid jargon, use simple words that everyone can understand.

Avoid local colloquialisms like metaphors. - This one takes some practice. I make this mistake all the time. Here are some examples:

• Piece of cake

• Spilling the beans

• Bite the bullet

• Hold your horses

• Take a rain check

• Get your ducks in a row

Total side note here, but it’s good practice to avoid violent language, too. For example, I avoid “bite the bullet” or “take a swing at that” or “let’s aim for this…” etc. Some folks are allergic to this type of language; it makes them sad. So best to avoid it.

Principle #6: IMPROVISATION IS KEY

Youth work is a bit unpredictable, so we must stay ready to improvise (I just wrote “stay light on your feet” and had to delete it cause I just said don’t use local metaphors).

Facilitators control the space, they have the participants' attention, and it’s their job to improvise calmly.

We may have planned to do a workshop for six people, but there were 12 upon arrival. I’ve gone into sessions where I planned for 30 people but only got two. (It didn’t go great, but I adjusted and did my best.)

A great way to stay calm is to plan in case things are not working, have a plan B! This helps us to keep our cool.

• Don’t get flustered in front of the participants.

• We want them to feel like you’re always in control of the situation.

• If the electricity goes out, use phone lights, offer to meet again online, etc.

I feel it’s best to plan for the worst and expect the best. Sometimes, we have to show up with poor sleep or are emotionally burdened, but such is life.

The location might not be what we expected, maybe the lights don’t work, the projector broke down, the food was bad, there’s no microphone, or there’s noisy youth in the background.

Improvisation under pressure is a bit of an art, but you can always call for a timeout and take precautions like scheduling banked time to make up for any time management mistakes.

That’s all, folks! The Six Principles of Youth Facilitation. ✌️🤓

I recognize it’s Wednesday, and this newsletter comes out on Monday, but better late than never! 🥳🪶

Best,
Bailey