Session 10 – Using the NSW Health Facilitation Standards in Practice

Date:  Wednesday 14 October 2020                      Time:   1pm                           Length:      3 hours 

Presenter/s
Gene Johnson and Nicky Baker

This session is designed for:         
Emerging facilitators                      Still developing                   Wisdom Keeper                  Everyone

Will this session be recorded?                                       Yes          

Session Outline

NSW Health introduced a set of eight Facilitation Standards in 2018, based upon Professor Kim Manley’s work with the nursing profession. The Standards aim to bring consistency to and enhance the quality of facilitation across the entire public health system. They are differentiated for three facilitation contexts: content-focus (‘Yellow Band’), process-focus for teams and groups (‘Blue Band’), and process-focus in complex contexts at the organisational and system levels (‘Black Band’). An accreditation process for each context is in development. As the Standards are rolled out and applied, their meaning, interpretation and application are helping to shape the practice of facilitation within the public health sector. They are also helping to produce a more defined community of practice for facilitators, enhancing a sense of identity, connection and purpose. The workshop takes a look at the Standards and how they are being applied and understood in practice. Participants will also be encouraged to help add meaning to the Standards and how they can be operationalised and observed in action.

Key Learning Objectives

  1. To get familiar with the NSW Health Facilitation Standards
  2. To appreciate how the Standards take on different, subtle meanings in three different facilitation contexts
  3. To understand how the Standards are interpreted and behaviouralised in practice
  4. To be able to explain through critical reflection how one’s facilitation practice meets the Standards

How this session contributes to the AFN Community of Practice

The health-sector facilitation community is a disparate group operating in different areas. These include clinical staff, Essentials of Care educators, OD and HR practitioners, external contractors, and others. The Standards create a common language and something to aim for, around which facilitators as a whole can meet and converse. Health facilitators will want to share their experiences with the Standards. They may also want to seek accreditation. They will likely want to comment on and help the Standards evolve as more experience is gained with them. Facilitators not in health may also be interested in the Standards as a benchmark and/ or may wish to contribute to their evolving development.

Toolkit takeaways

Participants will receive:

  • The NSW Health Standards for Yellow, Blue and Black Bands
  • An interpretive guide to the Standards and KPDs – this is our attempt to-date in understanding and behaviouralising them
  • Gibbs’ (1988) Framework for Reflection
  • Guide to Critical Reflection

Speaker Biographies

Gene Johnson
Gene Johnson is a Senior Program Manager at HETI. He is an organisational psychologist who has worked in academia, government, consultancy, and corporate settings, including the health, IT, automotive, and international NGO sectors. Gene leads the Facilitation Capability Accreditation Program (FCAP), overseeing the development of NSW Health’s Facilitation Standards, facilitator accreditation, facilitation curriculum development and delivery, and the emergence of a facilitator community of practice. He co-facilitates facilitation skills courses and a range of leadership programs. Gene’s newest project is creating virtual facilitation tools for NSW Health.

Nicky Baker
Nicky Baker is a Senior Program Manager in Leadership at HETI, NSW Health. Nicky has responsibility for the design and delivery of the NSW Health Leadership Program. She has over 15 years’ experience tin the fields of Talent Development, Learning and Development and Internal Communication within the Public, Private and not-for-profit sectors. Nicky is also an experienced facilitator, facilitating the HETI Leadership Programs and always enjoys the challenge of connecting people with each other and ideas/ concepts that are either planned or emerge. Nicky has recently completed the Advanced Facilitation Program with the University of Wollongong.