Facilitation

What does a Facilitator do?

A Facilitator is an impartial party who manages discussion smoothly and productively within a larger group. Sometimes, the group is an amicable assembly of colleagues who want to brainstorm together; other times, the group consists of stakeholders with strong opinions, high emotions and negative assumptions about each other.

A Facilitator with strong skills is able to secure group buy-in for rules of engagement and gently enforce compliance when needed. S/he also needs to be able to keep the process moving forward, while simultaneously ensuring that all participants receive fair opportunity to express ideas: this requires active attention, as group dynamics can often play out in large meetings and disguise exclusion as an imperative for efficiency.

A Facilitator also needs to be skilled in translation and active listening, mirroring comments to guarantee that the intended meaning is clear to everyone and accurately documented. This ability can often be compromised when a Facilitator does not have adequate experience with diverse perspectives or a willingness to honor the value of all interests. In sum, the Facilitator isn’t just there to listen, nor to hyper-regiment the process, but to artfully balance the discussion, calling out the unspoken and encouraging ideas.

Approach

My experience in mediation, counseling, training/education and Agile project management predisposes me to support a collaborative process which entails even group discussion and agreement for the agenda. However, all situations have specific requirements and unique needs: the most effective process and outcome can only be determined on a case by case basis.

Successful meeting facilitation also requires knowledge about how to document and present the feedback generated. To this end, I find that types of mind-mapping have the widest appeal and usefulness for all learning styles, especially when paired with discussion, and can be done well either low-tech or high-tech. Depending on the context, more diverse approaches may be used: for example, in a focus group, it may be useful to have participants create a drawing which represents an impression or idea, or a movement exercise to embody another point of view.

Do I need a Mediator or Facilitator?

In most situations, the need for a Facilitator is clear: you’d like to get a group of people together to generate some ideas or have a discussion, and because you want everyone in your group to participate, you need someone not directly participating to run the meeting.

In other situations, such as the example of a contentious community meeting, it may be unclear which role you really need: someone to optimize a discussion and document it, or someone to bring resolution to disagreement? It may be that you need both – a Facilitator to first identify issues and interests, then progression with a Mediator to resolve the defined conflict. Please contact me to discuss your situation and we will map a clear plan of action appropriate to the specifics.