You may feel anxiety about being in front of people. It is good to talk yourself through why you are doing this [facilitation] and what is causing you anxiety. When you understand this, you can lay it aside and not let it rule you when you are in front of a group of people.

I learned this during a trial when I was a sort of key expert witness. I was sitting in the library for a long time waiting. I became aware that I was very nervous. I was having an anxiety attack. I began to understand that I was concerned because I had not been into a courtroom. I worked through that anxiety and realized that I was going in to talk to the attorneys and one of them was going to try to tear me apart.

Part of the preparation is erasing out what will happen if this does not work. If you are worrying about losing your job, you cannot do your job. We have facilitated events with the knowledge that if we failed it would make us bankrupt. You cannot facilitate from fear; you have to lay that aside.

000706.Matt Taylor