Jackson Jackson & Wagner/www.jjwpr.

com
The purpose of this facilitation blueprint is to create a template for facilitation in any aspect. In

the following pages, they will represent the beginning process to creating a facilitation in any

area of professionalism. Whether the facilitation will be surrounded with self-improvement or

organizational improvement

2
. Table of Contents

Facilitation Styles ...................................................................................................................................... 4-5

Transformative Learning ........................................................................................................................... 6-7

Setting Up a Facilitation ............................................................................................................................... 8

Achieving Ground Rules .......................................................................................................................... 9-10

Setting Up the Agenda ............................................................................................................................... 11

Scheduling ............................................................................................................................................... 11

Agenda .................................................................................................................................................... 12

Building Contents of the Facilitation ............................................................................................ 13-20

Objective/Goals....................................................................................................................................... 14

Measuring the Objectives ......................................................................................................... 14-15

Sample Activity Building.......................................................................................................................... 16

Handling Difficult Situations .............................................................................................................. 17-18

Wrap-Up .................................................................................................................................................. 19

Follow-Up ................................................................................................................................................ 20

References ......................................................................................................................................................

Appendix

The Six Roles of Public Relation Practitioners .................................................................................................

Sample Activity Two ........................................................................................................................................

Pre-Facilitation Survey ....................................................................................................................................

3
 Facilitation Styles

There are many different types of facilitations and workshops. While many focus on professional

skills alone, I plan to use this facilitation plan as a way to incorporate three distinct types to bring

out the best of aspects of facilitation. These styles can be used to transform professional skills,

but their solo importance is often ignored. Below, I have listed the three facilitation styles, why

they are necessary, and how I plan to use them in facilitation. More detailed agendas and activity

descriptions can be found later in the facilitation plan manual. (Disclaimer: The three styles are

not in order of importance)

1. Strategic Planning: The idea behind strategic planning facilitation is to help the group

achieve a specific goal. Unlike in other forms of facilitation, this style is inexplicitly

allowing the facilitator to act as a mediator. The participants are not given instruction, but

yet pushed to reach their common goal through guidance. However, the facilitator can

help the group in developing new company goals and missions.

- For this facilitation style, my goal as a facilitator will be to act as a mediator to the

group. Planning activities that will stimulate growth is the main purpose of my role.

At the beginning out the facilitation, I will be engaging the participants in a

brainstorming activity that will allow them to put their main goal in the forefront,

before then continuing to proceed with the agenda.

2. Team Building: Team building on the other hand, allows an established group to meet

with a facilitator to advance their cooperation as a group. This is done through instructed

activities that are often even physical activities that the group performs. The goal of this

facilitation style, is to allow the group to grow closer and get rid of the uncertainties that

arise from a lack of togetherness.

4
 - Team building is often something that many of us struggle with in organizations. We

often either become too intimate with our co-workers/peers or distant. To begin this

facilitation, an icebreaker that gets everyone out of their comfort zones will be ideal

to perform at the beginning. My goal for this portion of facilitation is break down the

walls and cliques that people form within their teams.

3. Artist and Creative Skills: This allows individuals to express themselves in a creative

outlet. As mentioned on Lynda.com, allowing individuals to have a creative outlet, allows

each individual to have a unique experience during the facilitation. The ideal with using

this style, is that each individual will be able to adapt faster to the information presented

along with heightened remembrance of the crucial components.

- One of the styles I believe can create the most productive and engaging environment.

For this process, my goal is to allow the participant to be as creative and free in

exploring during the facilitation as possible.

5
 Transformative Learning

Transformative learning is an important step in the facilitation plan and facilitation cycle. There

are technically three types of transformative learning: psychological, convictional, and behavior.

While in essence they are separate things, I believe that they are better used in connection with

each other. Therefore, in this facilitation plan we will be looking at them in steps.

Step One: Psychological – This is step one because it is used to explain the why. Psychological

transformative learning is going deep into the person and finding out why there are even in need

of facilitation. This can be done in a group format also (see later activities). But, at this point, it

important to first get this person to even consider the why and understand themselves. Almost as

if you were a psychologist.

Step Two: Convictional – We are now at the epiphanic stage. This is the “ah-ha” moment that

we are looking for. At this stage, the aim is to get the person to have a change in their belief

system. Not to be confused with a religious belief system, but for them to change the way in

which they are perceiving the issue. More or less to say, “putting themselves in the other

person’s shoes”.

Step Three: Behavior – Lastly, the most complicated step. This is the put it into action step.

While not the most difficult step in the three-step process, this step is much harder because it

requires practice. For this step let us take a look at the old saying “you can lead a horse to water,

but you can’t force him to drink”. Basically, this step is forcing the horse to drink the water. The

idea is to get the individual to apply the concepts that were discovered in the first two steps of

transformative learning. It is also important for them to observe the differences the changes they

6
implement have affected their communication and to be comfortable with experimenting with

different practices to find what is best for them.

As you may have noticed, I put them in steps instead of separate components. From the previous

statement above, I believe they are interconnected and thus, work in parts not as separates. The

idea of using them as parts is to provide insight into all parts of human learning to achieve the

best result possible. The challenge with this is that it can result in going over time or limiting the

agenda in other areas, but this will be discussed in another part of this facilitation plan.

7
 Setting up for Facilitation (Will be on own page for final report)
Similar to interviews, facilitations have their own set of group rules that must be followed. For

this portion of the facilitation, the nine ground rules discussed in The Skilled Facilitator

Fieldbook will be used as inspiration. At this point I will only be focusing on the following six,

they are:

1. Test assumptions and interference: Acknowledge that an assumption or interference is

being made, while asking for validation from the source

2. Share all relevant information: This is to include information and data that is both

directly and indirectly regarding the topic being discussed.

3. Use Specific Examples and Agree on What Important Words Mean: Do not be vague

or hypothetical with examples, but also understand the depth of words use. For instance,

how much is a lot?

4. Explain Your Reasoning and Intent: Explain your logical purpose.

5. Be Open Minded: The main problem with understanding is that we tend to only consider

our own opinions. During this facilitation being open minded (learning to see ideas from

other’s perceptions) is a necessary task.

6. Enjoy and Learn: Most importantly, it is important to enjoy the process. While we may

not agree with everything someone says, we retain more information when we learn to

enjoy the process.

The reason these ground rules were chosen as the basics is because thy provide a good base that

can be used and changed according to the facilitation group. They provide understanding and

clarity that is necessary at any workshop, but are vague to allow for flexibility of the facilitator’s

needs.

8
 Achieving the Ground Rules

1. Test assumptions and interference: During activities, acknowledge the speaker and

their opinions. Gain validation of an assumption from the speaker if their meaning is not

inheritably clear.

2. Share all relevant information: Technology will come in handy here. For this, I will be

using cellphone applications that allow the participants to anonymously submit their

responses to discussions. This way they will feel more open about participating in the

activities. Less likely to be detected due to handwriting.

3. Use specific examples and agree on what important words mean: Using the

application, individuals can put their responses to the interpretations of commonly cross

interpreted terms such as: respect, majority, etc. After looking at interpretations, chose

those that are most similar in explanation and go into depth to come up with an agreed

upon definition. Start with this as the pre-ice breaker so that if these terms come up

within the ice-breaker they will have already been discussed.

4. Explain your reasonings and intent: Similar to ground rule number 1, having them

explain what they are saying. However, this will just be mentioned at the beginning that it

would be best for them to explain in-depth what they will be discussing. Ground rule

number 1 will come into play if their idea is still not understood.

5. Be open minded: My goal is to get rid of the “I see your point, but..” and the “your idea

is wrong” phrases used by many. To achieve this, I will mention that this is a judgement

free zone and have around the room quotes and phrases they can say in replacement. If

needed, I will also intervene in the discussion between participants to lead them into

productive criticism instead of destructive.

9
6. Enjoy and learn: By marketing the facilitation as a judgement free and power free

environment, my hope is that the facilitation can run as an organized free-spirit workshop

to lead towards progression.

10
 Setting Up the Agenda (please note this is just a draft and will be changed)
Setting up the agenda also comes with scheduling the facilitation. The two go hand in hand. The
key points are understanding your audience, their needs, their careers, and their timetables.
While scheduling and agenda are not directly related, the schedule can affect the agenda. For
instance, having a facilitation in the late, one may try to have a facilitation start later in the day
because of the fact that the sun rises later in the fall than it does in the spring.
For this facilitation plan, for my agenda I will be using the ideal time and setting to plan. This
will be adapted depending on the scheduling at the time of actual facilitation.

Scheduling
In the ideal setting, I believe the best time of year to have a facilitation is during the spring. So,
ideally the month of March would be a perfect time of year to have a facilitation. Similar to New
Year’s, the spring allots people to think to change and start anew. But, unlike New Year’s people
tend to stick to these resolutions as they are more obtainable.
- Time of Year and Month: Spring during the month of March
Now as for location, a believe I conference room near the office (or central location if not just
one company) would be best. The conference room should have the amenities to have moving
furniture. The allows for easy flexibility in activity arrangements. It should also be tempered so
that it is neither too cold, nor too hot, and located near restrooms for those who may have to
leave during the facilitation.
- Location: conference room with moveable furniture
Next, I need to know what type of equipment I would need. Personally, I know I like to rely on
visuals to assist in getting a point across. Visuals help the audience visualize the process. So,
having AV and a projection screen in necessary. Therefore, the room must have AV and project
with a hookup near where I would want to be standing.
- Tech: AV with hookup near me, mic access if needed and projection capabilities.
The last five steps of scheduling will be discussed later, after I finish the facilitation plan and
understand better, the approach that I will be taking in an ideal situation.

11
 Agenda
As mention before, ideal settings will be used to plan. This agenda will be based on this, and is
tentative to completion of the plan and the actual facilitation. Based on a full day facilitation.
(Samples of the activities will be added next week)
9:00 am – Registration check-in begins (ideally morning refreshments will be served)
9:20 am – Announcement to inform the start of the facilitation in 10 minutes
9:30 am – Registration ends (There will be someone at the back for those that are late to check-in
with)
9:30 am – Begin facilitation
9:45 am – Ice-Breaker and introduction of participants
10:00 am – Ground rule put on table
10:15 am – Changes to ground rules announced
10:20 am – Component 1 begins
10:40 am – Activity One
11:00 am – Discussion of Activity One
11:10 am – Bathroom break
11:20 am – Component 2 begins
11:40 am – Activity Two
12:00 pm – Discussion of Activity Two
12:10 pm – Break down of the first half of the facilitation and open dialogue
12:45 pm – Lunch served (and or a lunch break)
2:00 pm – Physical activity to regain energy
2:10 pm – Component 3 begins
2:30 pm – Activity Three
2:50 pm – Discussion of Activity Three
3:00 pm – Objective revisited
3:15 pm – Discussing if objectives were reached
3:30 pm – Stating follow-up
3:45pm – Closing (Facilitation to end at 4:00 pm)
12
 Building the Contents of the Facilitation
There are three parts in building the contents of a facilitation, they are: PPC, GEM, and interest.
While all of these components have their own definitions and processes discussed in the
Facilitation Fieldbook, I will be taking them and crafting a facilitation approach that works best
for my style.
First, I will be starting with PPC. The purpose of PPC is to build the conversation. I will not be
changing much of this process, because I believe it is crucial to the flow of the facilitation, but I
will be simplifying it. This process however, should be done before the day of the facilitation.
This is the step that I would put before the scheduling because it could change all aspects of the
facilitation. Here are the steps I would take:
1. Agree on the purpose of the facilitation
2. Jointly design a process
3. Begin discussing the content once planned.
My goal is to build a facilitation with the participants in mind. Having the organizer (and the
participants) of the facilitation take part in the planning, they are more receptive as they feel that
they are a part of the process and had say in what they will be receiving.

GEM on the other hand is spelled out as: The group effectiveness model. It is a model that
focusing on producing the most productive and effective group function as possible. Now this
part I think can take place at all parts of the facilitation plan, before the facilitation, during the
facilitation, and with the follow-up. The steps I plan to take will be categorized in this way to
build efficiency.
1. Before the Facilitation
- Explain the problem
2. During the Facilitation
- Describe a time of effectiveness
- Describe a time of ineffectiveness
- Share observations and reach consensus
3. After Facilitation
- Check on the consensus

Lastly, it is time to focus on the interest of the group rather than the positions that members of
the participation party hold. This is probably the hardest part of building content. People are
often reluctant to let go of their title, but this is the most crucial component. Everyone must feel
comfortable in order to truly express their concerns. I plan to do this by generating a common
interest list as mentioned in the fieldbook. By doing this, I will be sure to focus on these
throughout the facilitation and make sure as a facilitator to mediate if someone tries to use their
position as a thrush hold against the members who are speaking/participating.

13
 The Objectives (Goals)

I. Explicitly define the purpose of the facilitation

II. Break down barriers within the group

III. Establish a productive learning environment

IV. Provide feasible ground rules

V. Pinpoint the unproductive habits of the group

VI. Come up with a working solution to item I (if need)

Measuring Objectives Achievements

i. While I think this should be done sixty percent pre-facilitation, the remainder of

understanding the purpose of the facilitation will happen on the day. This

achievement will be measured by a survey, done anonymously, at the beginning and

the end of the facilitation to see if the facilitation pointed out the problems they

thought would be discussed.

ii. This will be measured by observing group interaction. If what I believe is seventy

percent or more active interactions of participants within the facilitation, I will count

that as a success.

iii. Group engagement in activities will help measure this goal achievement. Nonverbal

behavior of the participants will also be observed and recorded, along with the

number of participants that stayed the entirety of the facilitation will be used.

(attendance can only be used if the attendance is not mandatory)

iv. Reaching an agreed upon ground rule list that is respected1 by the participants.

14
v. The goal is to get a list of these unproductive behaviors by the group before the

facilitation, however observation through activities will be made and brought up

during facilitation. Achievement for this objective is getting the group to recognize

those mannerism.

vi. After coming up with a solution, having a follow-up meeting with the organization

who arranged for the facilitation will be in order to measure this objective. Success

will be measured by the progression of the company with the implementations that

were suggested.

1. Respect in this plan refers to: the idea that an individual or group of individuals act with high
moral behavior towards another individual’s thoughts, concerns, and opinions

15
 Sample Activity Building

Attached are some activities that I feel will help in building connection within the individuals in

the facilitation. The first activity that I will be pasting is a survey created by Jackson and

Wagner. The survey allows individuals to find out where they lie in the roles of a practitioner.

The survey is not beneficial for all types of facilitation, but it may come in use as a first activity

for role structing facilitation workshops. The idea of the first activity, is to allow individuals to

understand the importance of all roles within an organization. I would emphasize that there

cannot be many chiefs in an organization and that without it’s “followers” a leader will not be

able to lead. Basically, from that activity, I want them to be able to find their spot in an

organization and begin to become comfortable with the idea.

The second activity I will be posting, is a conflict resolution road map. This activity I have used

in the past in planning organizational group activities and I believe it will tie into the first activity

as an activity two process. Take note that the second activity is one that was used for a conflict of

interest activity and will not be used as a concrete activity in facilitations. The activity is only

placed here as a template for organizing and formulating a similar process that can be used in

any facilitation is arranged to fit the needs or the group/organization.

Please see the Appendix for the activity samples.

16
 Handling Difficult Situations

There will always be instances when someone does not follow the rules/policies of an

organization or group. To better assist in making sure the facilitation remains a safe place for all

participants, I would like to establish a color card approach to handling situations. By doing this,

I want to create a system that is easy to understand and to keep track of. The system is supposed

to resemble that of a sports event. The card system will be explained at the beginning of the

facilitation. How the system will work is as follows:

- Yellow Card: this is the first warning. When someone says or does something that is

not necessarily endangering the flow of the facilitation, but could be offensive to

others, I will call out “yellow card violation”. I will then example why it was a yellow

card violation and ways in which to avoid it.

- Red Card: this is the second warning. This is when someone does or says something

that can ultimately, but has not yet, affect the flow of the facilitation. At this point, I

will call out for a “red card violation” and take a pause from the facilitation agenda to

review the ground rules with the group once more. I will ask the participants to vote

using the application mentioned before that they agree and understand the facilitation

ground rules before proceeding to the rest of the agenda.

- Black Card: this is the highest violation. Black card violation is when someone says

or does something that has threatened the safety of the participants of the facilitation.

At this point, it will be crucial to take a recess from the facilitation to speak with that

individual personally. I believe in order to maintain a safe environment, it will be best

to meet with this person with a small committee of pre-determined conflict resolvers

to discuss the underlying issues that caused them to act upon their decisions.
17
Depending on the severity of their offense, if they can agree to follow the ground

rules on the condition that if violated once more, they will be escorted from the

facilitation they may stay. Otherwise, they will be asked to leave the facilitation and

escorted off of the property to protect the remaining individuals. At this point, it will

be crucial to explain the ground rules and re-establish safety will the remaining

individuals once the violator(s) are dealt with.

18
 Wrap-Up

Wrapping of the facilitation, I want it to be on open discussion. I would like for the participants

(who, if I facilitated correctly, will be comfortable in communicating amongst the group) to

communicate the ideas they enjoyed, learned, and feel could be changed in the facilitation. The

idea of having an open discussion, is so that not only can I learn from them, but that they can

learn from each other and learn how to understand things from another person’s perspective. It

sounds like a simple way to end a facilitation and may even seem like the easy way out, but from

observation and experience, I have learned that if not mediated correctly it can lead to a serious

situation.

19
 Follow-Up

While many may assume that the facilitation is the key to a successful facilitation, I believe that

the follow-up is the most important part. Take for instance a lecture. During lecture the

instructor goes over the material that corresponds to the objective of that week, but it is what we

do when we go home that makes the learning done during lecture concrete.

Because this is a template for facilitation regarding multiple facets, to provide sample literature

would result in a list that is not effective. Ultimately, for the sake of the template, my main focus

will be to encourage the group to practice the facilitation techniques in their daily practices.

Follow-up for the organization will be conducting a meeting with the preparers of the facilitation

to address whether their concerns have been meet and whether or not they can see the changes

that the facilitation objectives stated they would provide.

From here, I will take the follow-up feedback and incorporate it into the facilitation template and

my notes to address the concerns of the persons who sent critiques they feel would provide an

outcome that is more efficient.

20
Reference Page

Gates, Lisa. "Best Practices in Workshop Facilitation." Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Web.

Gates, Lisa. "Building the Learning Plan and Agenda” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Gates, Lisa. "Creative Closure” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Gates, Lisa. "Creating Safety for Groups” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Gates, Lisa. "Conclusion: Next Steps” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Gates, Lisa. "Dealing with Challenges Dynamics” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Gates, Lisa. "Designing the Right Activities” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Gates, Lisa. "Different Types of Facilitation Styles” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Gates, Lisa. "Extending the Learning” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Gates, Lisa. "Facilitating Adult Learners” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Gates, Lisa. "Keeping Things on Track” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Gates, Lisa. "Preparing the Logistics” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Gates, Lisa. "The Power of Practice” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Gates, Lisa. "Solving Unexpected Problems” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Gates, Lisa. "Tips for Increasing Participation” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Gates, Lisa. "Wrapping Things Up” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

21
Gates, Lisa. "Understanding Your Participants” Lynda.com. LinkedIn, 19 Dec. 2012.

Jackson, J., & Wagner. (n.d.). THE SIX ROLES OF PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONERS

[PDF]. JJWPR

Schwarz. 2005. The Skilled Facilitator Fieldbook. Jossey-Bass. San Fransisco, CA.

22
Appendix

23
 THE SIX ROLES OF
PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONERS
In the revitalization of the court of public opinion underway since the 60s, a broader scope has been
opened to public relations professionals. The innumerable case problems shared with us each year
mandate six roles for the contemporary practitioner:

1. Researcher. All sound public relations begins with research, and ends with it, in the form
of evaluation. More than half the steps in the public relations process involve research.
(Additional training needed: informal research techniques, data analysis.)

2. Counselor. A basic skill, whatever your job. It does no good to be a great tactician or
strategist if you can’t persuade colleagues to adopt your ideas. (Additional training
needed: O.D., organizational behavior, systems theory, persuasion theory, policy sciences,
diplomacy.)

3. Strategic Planner. This enables organizations to move from a reactive mode to a

proactive mode. The strategic planner aligns activities with specific goals and understands
how to measure successes. (Additional training needed: trend analysis, futures
research, behavior change theory.)

4. Educator. Public relationships are not created or “handled” by us but by everyone in the
organization, at every level. Must be made aware of this responsibility and trained to carry
it out. Our job is to do the teaching & coordinate their efforts. (Additional training
needed: learning theory, group psychology, motivation.)

5. Communicator. Our original assignment, now immensely complicated by emerging

technology. Internal, external, print, film, broadcast, mass, personal – practitioners must
master all. (Additional training needed: diffusion process, the six methods of
persuasion, graphic psychology, advertising, information mapping.)

6. Cheerleading. Every group needs cheering on or up. Basic human psychology. Who is
better able, or situated, to do it than the public relations department? (Additional
training needed: cultural anthropology, listening & empathy skills, recognition & reward
programming, feedback systems.)

The Scale will be 1 through 5 for all questions. 1 will represent strongly disagree while 5 will
represent strongly agree.

Jackson Jackson & Wagner/www.jjwpr.com

24
Section 1: Researcher
1. When an assignment is given, I more often than not gather data first – primary or
secondary – before beginning the work.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

2. I usually confirm my feelings about what specific stakeholders are thinking or feeling
about most of my organization’s activities with some type of data gathering.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

3. I’d rather do some quick, overnight research to verify our direction than go with gut
instinct.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

4. I build research in to my organization’s budget and advocate for it as a priority.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

5. I conduct baseline research so I can measure progress against goals over time.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

6. I often use research as proof of success when debriefing with my boss or my team on
a specific project.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

Researcher: Total # of Points: _______

25
Section 2: Counselor
7. When persuading my boss/colleagues to consider their options for a decision, I build
my case by thinking through the pros and cons of each option and identifying
potential outcomes of those options.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecide

8. I know I’ve done a good job when my fellow managers/clients think that my ideas are
their ideas.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

9. Though it is easier to do the work myself, I chose to support others in geting it done.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

10. More often than not, my ideas are listened to and integrated into the final products

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

11. I am usually successful in getting the CEO/boss/client to listen to and follow my

advice.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

12. I’m skilled at finding third party advocates outside the organization to help me build
my case inside.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

Counselor: Total # of Points: _______

26
Section 3: Strategic Planner

13. I enjoy developing a roadmap of our department’s activities and checking on our
progress toward identified goals on a regular basis.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

14. I understand how our department goals fit into the big picture of our organizational
goals.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

15. I am good at identifying long-term goals and I understand how the tactics we employ
are contributing to those goals.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

16. Prioritizing audiences and identifying desired outcomes is usually easy for me to do.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

17. I enjoy spending time with colleagues planning things out, dividing tasks and
looking at the end goal.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

18. I will recommend abandoning a strategy or tactic when it looks like it is not
furthering our organizational goals.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

Strategic Planner: Total # of Points: _______

27
Section 4: Educator

19. I spend a great deal of time educating and training colleagues/clients about
communications and public relations.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

20. Though I work in the area of public relations, I feel everyone in the organization is
responsible for our organization’s good reputation.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

21. I have helped the average employee in my organization understand their role as a pr
ambassador for the organization.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

22. My CEO/boss understands what good public relations is and what it isn’t.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

23. I’d like to teach or lecture about the profession of public relations to others.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

24. I enjoy working on a cross-disciplinary team and educating my colleagues about how
pr
principles apply to what we’re doing

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

Educator: Total # of Points: _______

28
Section 5: Communicator

25. I am comfortable as the media spokesperson for the organization and can deal with
reporters appropriately.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

26. I feel my points are heard and understood most the time by colleagues/clients.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

27. I like public speaking and giving presentations.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

28. My networking skills are strong.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

29. I am skilled in social media techniques and I am comfortable using Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, writing blogs, etc.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

30. I am skilled in most of the standard communication vehicles (newsletters, brochures,

annual reports, internet and intranet communication, etc.)

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

Communicator: Total # of Points: _______

29
Section 6: Cheerleader

31. I enjoy “management by walking around” and getting to understand the various
functions that make up our organization

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

32. Most of my colleagues would consider me an optimist.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

33. I am usually the one in the room telling everyone how we can get things done when
the tasks seem overwhelming

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

34. I consider myself a positive ambassador and often tell friends about the great
things my organization does.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

35. I know who the other internal opinion leaders in the organization are and I go to
them first to sell an idea or help others get enthused about it.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

36. I am an advocate of internal recognition and reward programs.

1 2 3 4 5 Undecided

Cheerleader: Total # of Points: _______

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CHARTING YOUR ROLE SCORES: Plot your total score in each category by making a mark or
shading the corresponding number.

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Researcher

Counselor

Strategic
Planner

Educator

Communicator

Cheerleader

If you agree with the premise that each of these roles is important to being a successful public relations practitioner, then you may want to
strengthen those areas that fall below “17” (through further training or education) or find other ways to compensate for that missing piece by
seeking out colleagues to work with who are strong in those skills.
For those ratings between “18” and “24”, pay closer attention to the need to exercise those skills for your own benefit and the benefit of your
employer.
For those ratings “25” and over, be sure that you don’t rely exclusively on the skills you are most comfortable with or enjoy the most.
They may not always be the best answer to a problem or opportunity.

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 Sample Activity Two
During this section we will focus on how to properly solve conflict of interest that could happen
while working in the entertainment industry. While:
- Acknowledging the need for an opportunity to release and express emotions at a time of
crisis
- Learning to acknowledge the positive aspects of change arising from conflict
- Learning to adapt to different conflict styles while learning their own
- Beginning to identify the ways to handle conflict
Given a scenario:
You have been invited to a major sporting event by an event sponsor. The sponsor is a supplier
to your company. You know that counterparts in peer companies will be attending and are
excited at the prospect of fostering potentially lucrative business relationships. While your
company has a strict policy against accepting gifts from suppliers, you are not involved in
purchasing decisions so believe that there is no chance of a conflict. However, you can't help but
remember that you recently asked a subordinate to return a $50 gift certificate received from a
trade association thanking her for speaking at a recent event (because gift certificates violate
your gifts and entertainment policy). What should you do?

The Process:
Identify the Issue
As a group, decide what is the true issue at hand, general purpose for action, and the specific
purpose for action.

Build Trust
Allow each member to express how they would feel in the situation, while providing supporting
feedback to their concerns.

Ask Diagnostic Questions

Discuss the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” of the crisis.

Re-frame
Change the mindset you have on solving the crisis.

Brainstorm
As a group, come up with a list of ways to solve the general purpose for action.

Come to an Agreement
Decide on the one (1) solution that would solve the specific purpose for action. Go into detail as
to how that problem will be solved, when it will be solved, the financial aspects (if any), and

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who will solve the problem.

Evaluation
- Identify how the other options brainstormed would have changed the outcome
- Discuss as a group how the flow of the activity was effective and how it could improve.
- Express the desired portions of the activity you feel could be implemented in the workplace.

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Sample of a facilitation survey that can be used during actual facilitation. Can be completes
anymously.

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