HR Series: Facilitation Skills for Organizational Development

Organizational development (OD) is a strategic and systematic approach to improving an organization’s effectiveness and performance through planned interventions.  It involves proactive efforts to enhance various aspects of an organization, including its structure, processes, culture, and people.  OD aims to create positive change, foster growth, and align the organization with its strategic objectives.  In today’s dynamic and competitive business landscape, organizations must continuously adapt and evolve to thrive. HR and training professionals hold immense values and play a crucial role in driving organizational success by drawing employees together to agree on developing and implementing strategies that support the growth and well-being of employees, teams, and the overall organization.

The Participant will be able to do after the workshop:

• Plan and lead workshops that encourage active participation, foster collaboration, and create a safe space for open dialogue among participants.
• Acquire the skills to implement a variety of workshop activities, such as managing diverse perspectives, resolving conflicts, and promoting inclusive decision-making.
• Foster bonding and cultivate new values by designing workshop activities and exercises that promote bonding, strengthen trust or cultivate new values among participants.
• Lead the OD processes that align participants with strategic goals, ensuring a shared understanding of business challenges and actions required to embrace organizational changes.
• Manage large group dynamics, ensuring productive discussions, handling time constraints, and encouraging active engagement from all participants.

Learning Methodologies:

A variety of methodologies will be used and blended in the sessions to maximize engagement and enhance the learning experience.

• Icebreakers and Energizers
• Interactive Lectures
• Case Studies
• Experience Sharing
• Team Presentation
• Games and exercises
• Role Playing

Features:

This training program offers a highly interactive and practical learning experience, centered around creating a collaborative environment where participants work together to design a facilitation plan that guides activities aligned with the objectives.  The program incorporates a rich variety of real-life case studies, which serve as invaluable learning tools to enable participants to analyze and reimagine the facilitation process, finding innovative ways to achieve the same objectives in diverse contexts.

Learning Reinforcement:

A pre-workshop survey will be carried out to solicit input from a sample of participants for the design and development of relevant learning content.  Depending on the needs, pre-reading materials may be sent before the workshop.

The Speaker: 

The speaker, Mr. Jim John is a highly experienced facilitation practitioner, consultant, and seasoned trainer with over two decades of expertise in facilitating organizational changes, leadership, and organizational development for international and publicly listed companies. He had a diverse career, working in various industries including engineering, real estate, airlines, retail, trading and manufacturing in both Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China.

Serving as the head of two training centers, the speaker was recognized for his exceptional application of psychological practices and technology in designing and delivering training for professional and managerial staff. The training sessions covered a range of topics, such as team leadership, coaching, mentoring, counselling, decision making, empowerment, critical thinking, innovation, communication, and more. As a change consultant, he gained a reputation for applying creative approaches to align team goals, promote health and safety, enhance staff engagement, and embrace change for employees.

Drawing upon his wealth of experience as a senior sales engineer, the speaker has dedicated a significant portion of his time to partnering with tech startups in integrating cutting-edge technologies such as generative AI, VR and the metaverse into various digital learning, social, and commercial applications.  He is a co-founder of the ‘Asia Metaverse Interconnected Learning Space’ network society and has delivered a speech titled ‘Facilitated Learning and Competency Assessment in the Virtual World.’ Additionally, he is the author of two reference guides: ‘Deploying e-Learning by 7 Steps’ and ‘Facilitation Skills for Virtual Trainers.’

The speaker embarked on his professional journey in the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, HKSAR, while pursuing her tertiary education in Hong Kong and later in the United Kingdom. He holds dual Bachelor’s Degrees, one in Environmental Science and the other in Psychology. Additionally, he possesses a Master of Business Administration (MBA), a Master of Social Sciences in Counselling, and Postgraduate Diplomas in Change Consulting and Educational Technology.