Facilitation Basics for Coastal Managers

This two-day instructor-led course from the NOAA Office of Coastal Management is designed to increase participants’ ability to plan and facilitate a meeting (or a series of meetings) that minimize conflict and enhance problem solving.

A group of people seated around a table listen to a person standing at a whiteboard.

Collaboration is often cited as a good way to address coastal resource management issues, but the collaborative process is complicated, requiring a systematic approach.

This course provides the skills and tools to design and implement collaborative approaches. The skills will be useful even when attending, but not running, a collaborative meeting.

After completing this course, participants will be able to:

Determine if a collaborative process is appropriate
Select people with the skill sets needed to fill each meeting role
Learn and practice facilitation skills
Use appropriate process tools and techniques to address the meeting objectives
Manage conflict in meetings by understanding group dynamics
Identify disruptive behaviors in group processes and practice strategies to deal with them.