DSA Workshop Facilitation
RED has provided facilitation for the DSA in a number of workshops engaging customers and stakeholders on important changes and developments in the driver training industry and driving safety and standards.
The DSA has engaged RED to provide Facilitation at a number of workshops, including:
- Eco Driving. The DSA wished to engage stakeholders and gather feedback on a common set of topic areas for 'eco safe driving' and to consider the wider contributory issues.
- Professional Competency. With a recent European Directive requiring professional drivers of lorries, buses, coaches and minibuses to hold a Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC), the DSA wished to engage stakeholders to reach a consensus on the UK's preferred option for obtaining initial qualifications.
- Raising Instructor Standards. The Government's Road Safety Strategy identified raising instructor standards as a way of improving driving standards and driver safety. The DSA wished to engage expert stakeholders on the issues surrounding the current system of instructor training and the opportunities to develop new approaches to instructor standards and qualification.
- Road Safety Strategy Consultation. As part of preparing for the Government&8217;s next review of its Road Safety Strategy, the DSA wished to engage with stakeholders and other interested parties to identify initiatives to encourage safe driving for life.
About Facilitation
Workshops are an important tool for engaging with project teams and stakeholders. The role of a Facilitator is to make it easier for a group to do its work. RED's Facilitators achieve this by providing assistance and guidance to the process of information exchange, rather than control.
Facilitation empowers groups, organizations or individuals to take ownership of the problem and the resulting solutions. RED's skilled, impartial facilitators support the group in identifying the problem and finding solutions by improving the individual group member's ability to work together.
RED's Facilitators therefore encourage inclusion, full participation, shared understanding and shared responsibility at meetings or in-group discussions. By doing so, RED helps to produce more creative, authentic and workable solutions.
Synectics Creativity and Innovation
RED's foremost type of facilitation is Synectics®, which is focused on Creativity and Innovation.
Three main elements determine the value of output of any gathering to develop novel concepts or solutions:
- Control of the Psychological Climate
- Strictly Defined Roles
- Selection of Appropriate Resources
Control of the Psychological Climate
It is the responsibility of the facilitator to ensure that the right climate is maintained. It is essential to ensure that:
- Judgement is suspended
- All ideas or suggestions are recorded
- Time is allocated evenly and fairly
- Appropriate tools & techniques are used
Roles
It is only with clearly understood, agreed and empowered roles that the full potential of any meeting can be realised. The three key roles are:
- Problem Owner - Someone who ultimately has the responsibility for delivery. They control the content and subsequently the direction the meeting takes.
- Facilitator - The facilitator controls the process and must be trained to do so. They must control the meeting to ensure it is focused on the requirements of the problem owner.
- Resources - Everyone else at the meeting, who is there to help! It does not matter whether they agree or disagree with the problem owner - they do not have responsibility for delivery.
Selection of Resources or Participants
There can be nothing worse that a room full of experts - particularly in the same specialisation. Teams brought together for creativity must contain people with different technical backgrounds; equally there should be some members with no knowledge of the subject at all, to act as naive resources.
