Beyond the butcher paper: The power of table facilitators

Beyond the butchers’ paper: The power of table facilitators

When planning a community engagement workshop, it’s easy to focus on the big picture: the keynote speakers, the activities you will run, and even the catering (because we all know that if you don’t have good snacks, you’ll hear about it on the feedback form). However, there is another detail which you may want to consider in your planning – the table facilitator. Often overlooked, the table facilitator can act not only as glue to hold the workshop together, but also a vessel that captures and preserves every golden nugget of community wisdom.

Picture this: You’ve precisely designed your workshop activity so that the questions are clear, and the instructions are straightforward, and you have a room full of passionate community members ready to tackle the activity. Each table is chatting away, jotting down their valuable ideas on butchers’ paper, and really getting into the swing of things. But when the workshop ends and you want to turn their scribbles into actionable insights, you hit a blockade. What exactly does “Cheryl’s bike riding from pit to pond” even mean?

Enter the table facilitator – the silent scribe, sitting inconspicuously in the thick of things, using their voice only to make sure the group stays on track. They listen intently to the conversations at hand, understand the context, and, most importantly, translate the table’s thought bubbles into something that will make sense later on. Without them, that awesome idea from Cheryl about her plan for a new cycleway in a park might get lost in translation, or that inside joke that was formed at the table could be completely misunderstood.

So, when you’re getting ready for your next community engagement workshop, remember that the role of the table facilitator can be crucial – they capture the nuance, the context, and the richness of the discussion, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks. And while the lead facilitator is still a vital role – they are the face of the event after all – the table facilitators are the events’ arms, ever at the ready to do the heavy lifting. They ensure that every voice is captured, every idea is understood, and every piece of butchers’ paper makes sense long after the workshop has ended.