20 Tips

Tip 5: Be Prepared

The familiar real estate axiom is that the three most important things in a property are location, location and location. In small group leadership--and in teaching generally--one could piggyback on this axiom and say the three most important things are preparation, preparation and preparation. There’s simply no substitute for it (as some of us have seen from witnessing an unprepared group leader or teacher.)
If you’re going to facilitate effectively, you need to have mapped out how you’ll begin the group meeting, what questions you’ll cover, approximately how much time you’ll be devoting to each of them, some proposed answers for each question, and a way to bring the meeting to effective closure. In your planning, though, don’t worry about becoming an expert on the subject matter. Great facilitation can easily happen even though you might lack expertise (remember, you’re a “guide on the side.”) But it’s unlikely to happen without planning and thorough preparation.