Facilitation Skills & Techniques for Capital Project Workshops

VAL-223

The role of a facilitator is crucial for capital project teams to succeed in today’s complex project delivery environment. Effective facilitation generates buy-in, increases team alignment, and empowers team members.

This course introduces core facilitation skills and proven techniques for larger, complex workshops that require strong participant engagement and collaboration. These skills are essential for virtual environments and help project leaders facilitate critical meetings and workshops throughout the project lifecycle, including:

• Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI)
• Advanced Work Packaging (AWP)
• Design Reviews
• Value Engineering
• Class of Facility Quality
• Gate Reviews
• Risk Management
• Construction Readiness
• Commissioning & Operational Readiness
• Lessons Learned
An effective facilitator ensures meetings are focused, promotes engagement, and creates team alignment with a clear path forward.

Learning Objectives

Understand the role of a facilitator
Apply the key principles of facilitation
Effectively manage group dynamics
Master foundational facilitation techniques
Leverage available tools and technology

Duration	Three half-day sessions	Delivery	Virtual, Instructor Led
Credits	16 Professional Development Hours (PDH)	Group Size	15
Focus	Build facilitation skills and capacity to support capital project workshops.
Who Should Attend?	Program Managers, Project Managers, Design Managers, Designers, Project Engineers, Construction Managers, Technical Managers, Business Unit Leaders, Site Supervisors, Operations Leaders, Contract Administrators, Maintenance Managers, Risk specialists, Procurement Professionals, Quality Specialists, and others.
Related Courses and Certification	Certified PDRI Facilitator Program

Open Toggles

Introduction

Overview of course objectives and agenda
Understanding the dynamics of group decision-making
Capital project meetings and workshops that benefit from having Facilitator
Importance of establishing ground rules

Core Facilitation Skills

Core facilitation skills are introduced along with practical examples of how to put each into action. This includes:
- Organizing the flow of discussion
  - Stacking – helping people take turns
  - Balancing – broadening discussion to include other perspectives
  - Making space for a quiet person
- Helping individuals make their point
  - Paraphrasing – helping a person summarize their point
  - Drawing people out – clarify, develop and refine an idea shared
  - Intentional silence – allowing a person to organize thoughts or reflect
- Managing divergent perspectives
  - Tracking – keeping track of various lines of thought in a discussion
  - Linking – inviting a person to explain the relevance of a statement made
  - Calling for responses – maintaining focus to keep a discussion moving
  - Testing assumptions
- Summarizing
  - Graceful summarize key points and transitioning to the next topic
Interactive exercise: in this case study the project team is conducting a Project Definition Rating Index (PDRI) session. Participants will take turns role-playing the Facilitator and practicing core facilitation skills to apply in challenging scenarios.

Divergent Thinking - Facilitation Techniques and Tools

Proven facilitation techniques are tools are introduced for divergent thinking processes.
- Awareness of creative inhibitors
- Brainstorming techniques and tools
  - Listing ideas
  - Round-robin
  - Breaking into small groups
- Categorization of a long list of ideas
Introduce the types of meetings and workshops where each technique is applied.
Interactive exercise: in this case study the project team is conducting their first Risk Identification workshop. The objective is to help the team engage all stakeholders and ensure risks are broadly identified in an efficient manner. The instructor will lead the start the structured brainstorming session and demonstrate how to create a safe environment, promote equality in idea generation, and protect against creative inhibitors. Participants will take turns role-playing the Facilitator and leading the group through additional categories in the brainstorming session.

Convergent Thinking - Facilitation Techniques and Tools

Proven facilitation techniques and tools to organize and evaluate a a list of divergent ideas are introduced, including:
- Selecting high-potential ideas
- Comparison of features
- Advantages and disadvantages
- Evaluation criteria
- Paired comparison
Introduce the types of meetings and workshops where each technique is applied.
Interactive exercise: in this case study, the project team is transitioning to the Evaluation Phase of a Value Engineering workshop. Many ideas were generated during the Creative Phase, but now it’s time to generate a short list of ideas with the most potential to improve the project. The instructor will lead the group through a series of activities to demonstrate facilitation techniques including comparison, advantages and disadvantages, and using evaluation criteria.

Summary

Revisit the dynamics of group decision-making
Review core facilitation skills to practice and refine
Summarize the facilitation techniques and tools to apply to critical meetings and workshops throughout the capital project lifecycle.

Register for an Upcoming Course

Virtual Course

January 7, 8 & 9, 2025

1:00 PM – 5:00 PM EST

VAL-223 Course
$1,740 CAD

VAL-223 Course
$1,299 USD

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Testimonials

What Our Clients Say

“Content was beyond my expectations. I am positively surprised to see that it does not only focus on PDRI but also some additional facilitation exercises such as brainstorming, decision matrixes, etc.”

Director

International Pharmaceutical Company

“I’ve always considered facilitation of brainstorming meetings to be an “in-person” event, but this gave me the tools and vision of how to make this work virtually.”

Mechanical Engineer

Global Chemicals Manufacturer

“Excellently planned and delivered. Virtual facilitation is a challenge for facilitators but this is the new norm. The techniques and tools will really help us.”

Process Engineer, FEL Leader

Global Petrochemical Company