7 Habits of Highly Effective People - A Personal View On Facilitation

I have been involved in the facilitation and consulting of the 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People either as an in-house facilitator/consultant or by way of my engagement with Leadership Resources. The purpose of this article is to share my experience as a facilitator/consultant and also as someone who is trying to live the habits. It all started on the year 1996, when the Human Resource and Training department of my previous employment discovered that I had what it takes to be a trainer, and was offered to be an in-house facilitator for the material. In preparing myself for the Train The Trainer (T3) program, there I went looking for the 7 Habits text book. The moment I started reading, it pricked my conscience, I found that the story of my life is written in the textbook. Therefore my life as a facilitator took off. Facilitator Mind Set Let me begin with the types of mind set and attitude that many of us facilitators may have :1. I dont know everything about the material, I am a dead duck if a question is asked concerning that I dont know, 2. I have to answer all the questions asked, 3. There is nothing that I dont know and I have all the answers to all the questions the participants may ask, 4. They must accept everything I say as the only answer and the gospel truth, 5. They dont know about the Habits so they must listen to me, 6. They dont know about the Habits, so the occasional bull will not hurt, 7. These people (participants) are here because of me, 8. I didnt ask to be a facilitator, I was forced into it. I dont know everything about the material, I am a dead duck if a question is asked concerning that I dont know and I have to answer all the questions asked attitudes, will put the facilitators onto undue pressure by setting certain expectation that they must know everything and answer everything. While it is the facilitators responsibility to master the content of the subject they are facilitating, it is not the death

penalty for not being able to answer everything that are thrown at us. Yes, the occasional red faces may happen, that is suppose to make us realise we must master our subject but then again, who are we to have all the answers to all those questions. Therefore have the humility to understand that we do not have all the answers to all those questions, own up to the participants. There is nothing that I dont know and I have all the answers to all the questions the participants may ask and they must accept everything I say as the only answer and the gospel truth are the sort of attitudes, I think, are where facilitators begin to dig a hole that may eventually see themselves in. Why do I say so? By assuming this ATTITUDE, we are sending a certain message to the participant that we have a know-itall attitude. Please bear in mind that while we know the answers to those questions, what we know and understand is based on our own paradigms. Have the humility that paradigms can be different, they can be incorrect and they can be incomplete. Be honest to ourselves of this fact. These types of mind set and attitude, as far as I concern is a big no-no for a facilitator. While one can be proud to be a 7 Habits facilitator and see this as an important responsibility but those attitudes do not reflect the 7 Habits behaviour in the facilitator. They dont know about the Habits so they must listen to me and they dont know about the Habits, so the occasional bull will not hurt attitudes can be viewed in several parts. Firstly the notion that people do not know about the Habits. Now lets try to analyse this, first of all what the participants may not know is the way the habits are being defined and presented in the 7 Habits context, however please bear in mind that in the Introduction - Part A segment of the Foundational Principles video, Dr. Covey did mention that the habits are nothing more than common sense and common sense organised. Therefore if that statement is taken into consideration, people are already aware of them. The second bit would be the notion that the participants must listen to us facilitators, as to the answers about how the Habits can be implemented and practised. Is it not this is the case of Seek First To Be Understood...... whereby the answer that we have to those many questions posed are based on our paradigms. And the imposition of our paradigms onto them is it not the case of prescribing prior to diagnosis? The occasional bull will not hurt, yes will not hurt we say. However, that occasional bull

will be the one that may break the facilitator and the workshop. They (the participants) are here because of me mindset; I would say is another type of one that would distance the facilitators from the participants. We, the high and mighty facilitators, please bear in mind that the participant always have a choice of not being in the workshop if they dont want to. With this in mind there should be a degree of humbleness in us to understand that we are actually there because of the participants. Finally, I guess only a handful of us had the luxury of volunteering to be 7 Habits facilitators, whilst many of us were asked to be one. Whilst it is not wrong to be asked to be one, the attitude that we carry in discharging our responsibilities is very crucial to be an effective facilitator. There are facilitators I had seen still carrying the asked to be attitude in their facilitation. No desire to improve the workshop, merely reading from the Facilitator Manual over and over again and facilitating with the desire to get it done and over with, these are some of the symptoms we can see. Hey, no one asked you to do something you dont want to do. Mohammad Radzi Zainal Senior Consultant & Executive Coach Leadership Resources