Until I began working for Mars, Incorporated in the eighties as a computer programmer analyst, I had never even heard of the term Facilitator, let alone knew what it meant. Facilitator as a skill or competency was not mentioned in my job description and nor was it included in the corporate core competencies—at that time.

My manager and I were in charge of gathering requirements for a new data dictionary for the organization, which required having cross-functional meetings with various departmental analysts. My boss suggested that since we were to be neutral in our opinions regarding the requirements gathering, it would be best to get an external facilitator to conduct a workshop for us. What was a facilitator? What did a facilitator do? How did one locate a facilitator?

Having experienced a successful workshop facilitated by an external consultant, I was intrigued by that role and decided to explore learning this skill for myself.

I learned that Gary Rush in Chicago had a six-day highly rated “boot camp” on facilitation training and I signed up for it. On the first day of the class on a Sunday morning, Gary Rush greeted his eight students and stated, “I promise you that by Tuesday you will not know what day of the week it is.” And he was right. After an eight hour interactive class room session, he gave homework assignments that consumed three to four hours each evening.

When I flew back to New Jersey, certificate of graduation in hand from this intensive and comprehensive workshop, I couldn’t stop thinking about the possibilities I envisioned for myself if I became a facilitator and applied all the things I had learned and even went beyond the limits of my current role at that time. The workshop had opened a window where not only the fresh air of amazement started to flow in my mind, but also the possibilities of views I could imagine. This was a turning point in my facilitation skills journey, which led me to develop expertise in Business Process Management and later motivated me in my role of the formation of the Mars University managerial training programs in North America.

In that role there were many courses to be designed or refreshed for roll out. I learned of a course design concept based on Brain Based Learning or Brain Compatible Learning that helps maximize the effectiveness of course material design and its delivery. I signed up for Eric Jensen’s five-day course at the Eric Jenson Learning Institute in San Diego. The concepts of effective learning transfer and facilitation that I learned there elevated my thinking and skills to an even higher level of competence.

After a twenty-year successful career at Mars, I took an early retirement and founded my own consulting firm and partnered with others to facilitate and train in my specialty areas. In over ten years as a free agent, I have been committed to teaching facilitation and knowledge transfer to a variety of managers and executives around the world, including delivery of corporate workshops through Boston University Corporate Education Group and Duke University Business School.