My Favourite Tipples from a Group Facilitator
Jinfo Blog

By Helene Jewell

Abstract

My Favourite Tipples are shared by Helene Jewell, a workshop and group facilitator who specialises in effective communication. She shares her favourite online resources in areas from project planning to leadership and management training.

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My job as a workshop and group facilitator is all about engaging people in a group context and managing the communication flow between them to meet a particular goal. Whether this is facilitating a meeting or a workshop, I provide the structure and process necessary to make sure that things stay on track and that there is a productive outcome.

Online resources that I find especially useful are:

• PicMonkey.com: This is a really great site for editing photos or creating images (and it's easy to get to grips with!). I like to create good quality images for my blog and LinkedIn Pulse when I write articles. I quite often use it for creating images with top tips that I put out on Twitter or my Facebook business page.

• Getpocket.com: There are so many articles out there that it's easy to get content shock. I often come across something of interest and put it in my "Pocket" (saved under themes) until I have a spare moment to read and digest them properly. Often these are tools that other facilitators or trainers have written about that I think "oh I'd like to try that in a workshop sometime", and I'll come back to it when I need it.

• Trello.com: I love this online project planning tool to plan my workshops. My default setting is probably to do things on paper and I do enjoy brainstorming ideas and drawing all over sheets of flipchart paper. But paper does take up space, so it's great to have somewhere to digitally record, plan and save for later - and I can upload photos of my brainstorming sessions too.

• MindTools.com: This is a great website for ideas, articles, tools and ideas relating to leadership and management training. Sometimes I come across a theory or name and I look it up on MindTools for a good solid explanation, other times I am looking for tools or ideas I can use for a particular workshop.

For fun:

• GardenersWorld.com: I am a huge fan of growing my own vegetables and we have a slightly unkempt but well loved allotment. This website is a great resource and has so much information as well as a brilliant calendar to help you know what to do when.

An article in Jinfo I found particularly interesting:

• A Jinfo article I recently enjoyed was "Working with People Who Think Fundamentally Differently to You" by Scott Vine. The discussion about how people communicate differently, have different perspectives, and the difficulties that can occur, resonated a lot with me as much of my focus is on helping people to communicate more effectively.

Contribute Your "My Favourite Tipples"

Would you like to share your "My Favourite Tipples" with the Jinfo audience? For contributor guidelines email catherine.dhanjal@jinfo.com or visit the Publish with Jinfo page.

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