facilitate

A facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them without taking a particular position in the discussion. Some facilitator tools will try to assist the group in achieving a consensus on any disagreements that preexist or emerge in the meeting so that it has a strong basis for future action.

Definitions

There are a variety of definitions for facilitator:

• "An individual who enables groups and organizations to work more effectively; to collaborate and achieve synergy. He or she is a 'content neutral' party who by not taking sides or expressing or advocating a point of view during the meeting, can advocate for fair, open, and inclusive procedures to accomplish the group's work" - Doyle^[1]

• "One who contributes structure and process to interactions so groups are able to function effectively and make high-quality decisions. A helper and enabler whose goal is to support others as they achieve exceptional performance" - Bens^[2]

• "The facilitator's job is to support everyone to do their best thinking and practice. To do this, the facilitator encourages full participation, promotes mutual understanding and cultivates shared responsibility. By supporting everyone to do their best thinking, a facilitator enables group members to search for inclusive solutions and build sustainable agreements" - Kaner^[3]

Authority

The concept of authority (of the facilitator) is one which can cause confusion. Heron espouses three alternates (initially in the educational context) as being:

• Tutelary Authority - based on the competences and skills of the Tutor/Facilitator
• Political Authority - involving the exercise of educational decision-making^[4] with respect to the objectives, programme, methods, resources and assessment of learning. (This manifests particularly in the planning dimension.)
• Charismatic Authority - influence by presence, style and manner. (It manifests particularly through the feeling, confronting and valuing dimensions.) However it is quite possible to draw from this the requirements for a facilitator to be clear how they are operating in any environment.

Facilitators necessarily require authority to chair a meeting, or serve mediator or moderator or arbitrator functions, for instance in managing a progressive stack in which some speakers are preferred over others because they are more affected by a decision or have generally less voice. A contentious issue for instance in the Occupy movement. Disputes regarding the exercise of contentious authority functions probably require reference to all available skills and invoke deference to several kinds of authority. For instance, in the progressive stack example, the facilitator must refer to the political need to represent victims or voiceless persons, but must do so with the most charismatic and convincing voice, to avoid backlash upon those victims or voiceless persons. They will also need skill to ensure efficiently hearing the maximum number of people, so that contention to airtime is minimized. In other consensus decision-making contexts, facilitators will need to distinguish between levels of urgency of a situation to establish consent threshold required, and again this may require reference to the political context, and the ability of the group to convince others (charismatically) that the decision was "fair".

Types

Business facilitators

Business facilitators work in business, and other formal organisations but facilitators may also work with a variety of other groups and communities. It is a tenet of facilitation that the facilitator will not lead the group towards the answer that he/she thinks is best even if they possess an opinion on the subject matter. The facilitator's role is to make it easier for the group to arrive at its own answer, decision, or deliverable.

This can and does give rise to organisational conflict between hierarchical management and theories and practice of empowerment. Facilitators often have to navigate between the two, especially where overt statements about empowerment are not being borne out by organisational behaviours.^[5] This is most noticeable during periods of organisational change when facilitators need the sponsorship of senior management.

Training facilitators

Training facilitators are used in adult education. These facilitators are not always subject experts, and attempt to draw on the existing knowledge of the participant(s), and to then facilitate access to training where gaps in knowledge are identified and agreed on. Training facilitators focus on the foundations of adult education: establish existing knowledge, build on it and keep it relevant. The role is different from a trainer with subject expertise. Such a person will take a more leading role and take a group through an agenda designed to transmit a body of knowledge or a set of skills to be acquired. (See tutelary authority above.)

Conflict resolution facilitators

Conflict resolution facilitators are used in peace and reconciliation processes both during and after the conflict. Their role is to support constructive and democratic dialogue between groups with diverse and usually diametrically opposite positions. Conflict resolution facilitators must be impartial to the conflicting groups (or societies) and must adhere to the rules of democratic dialogue. They may not take parts or express personal opinions. Their most usual role is to support groups develop shared vision for an ideal future, learn to listen to each other, and understand and appreciate the feelings, experiences and positions of the 'enemy'.

Skills

See Facilitation (business) for a view of specific skills and activities.

The basic skills of a facilitator are about following good meeting practices: timekeeping, following an agreed-upon agenda, and keeping a clear record. The higher-order skills involve watching the group and its individuals in light of group dynamics. In addition, facilitators also need a variety of listening skills including ability to paraphrase; stack a conversation; draw people out; balance participation; and make space for more reticent group members (Kaner, et al., 1996). It is critical to the facilitator's role to have the knowledge and skill to be able to intervene in a way that adds to the group's creativity rather than taking away from it.

A successful facilitator embodies respect for others and a watchful awareness of the many layers of reality in a human group.

In the event that a consensus cannot be reached then the facilitator would assist the group in understanding the differences that divide it.

The International Association of Facilitators ^[6] was founded in 1993 to promote facilitation as a profession.

Examples

Some time in 2007, Central and Western railways introduced automatic ticket vending machines (ATVM) in Mumbai and the Thane region of Maharashtra, State of India. The simple machine required the use of prepaid smartcards and was operated with a simple touch screen. With this facility, the time for acquiring a boarding ticket for local trains was reduced to 2 or 3 minutes, instead of 20 to 30 minutes in the conventional method of queue at the ticket window. However, because of some technical reasons, people were avoiding using this facility.

In 2011 these railways allowed their staff to work as facilitator during off-duty hours and on holidays. Within 1 month, the use of ATVM had increased by 20%.

See also

• Meeting Roles

Bibliography

• Bens, I. Facilitating With Ease!: A Step-by-Step Guidebook with Customizable Worksheets on CD-ROM, (2000) Jossey-Bass, ISBN 0-7879-5194-3
• Kaner, S. with Lind, L., Toldi, C., Fisk, S. and Berger, D. Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, (2007) Jossey-Bass; ISBN 0-7879-8266-0
• Schuman, S. (Ed) The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation: Best Practices from the Leading Organization in Facilitation, (2005) Jossey-Bass ISBN 0-7879-7160-X
• Schuman, S. (Ed) Creating a Culture of Collaboration: The IAF Handbook, (2006) Jossey-Bass ISBN 0-7879-8116-8
• Schwarz, R. The Skilled Facilitator, (New & Revised July 2002) Jossey-Bass ISBN 0-7879-4723-7
• Seifert, J.W. Visualization, Presentation, Moderation, (2002) WILEY ISBN 3-527-50034-0
• Wilkinson, M. The Effective Facilitator, (2004) Jossey-Bass ISBN 0-7879-7578-8

References