What is Facilitation?
I’ve gotten this question enough times that I thought it would be helpful to share what I see as the role of a facilitator.
At its core, the job is to guide respectful, inclusive, and effective collaboration. But what does that mean? What does a facilitator actually do? Here’s my take:
Refine goals and outcomes. So you know you want a meeting. But do you have a defined goal or set of needed outcomes? A facilitator can help you figure out what you need to get out of a collaborative session and then tailor a workshop to work toward those outcomes.
Cast a session. Sometimes facilitators get to play the role of a casting agent, figuring out the right mix of people, experience, roles, and skills to have in the room to get to the desired outcome. That means figuring out the stakeholders and the unusual suspects to help generate ideas.
Design a tailored agenda. A facilitator’s role is to put together the right set of exercises and prompts to elicit build toward a goal. An agenda should encourage collaboration and be sequenced in a way to work toward defined outcomes.
Run the meeting. Obvious, but worth saying: A facilitator actually leads a session, guiding participants through an agenda and keeping the meeting focused and on time. That doesn’t always mean leading every exercise but helping manage the overall flow of people, exercises, and breaks.
Engage and manage the team. Part of facilitation is performance. A facilitator finds ways to engage the room in exercises and find entry points for the mix of personalities so that everyone is encouraged to participate. It’s also critical to make space for everyone to have their voice heard and diffuse challenging group dynamics.
Adjust on the fly. Facilitation requires monitoring the energy in the room and making adjustments to serve the end goal. When is a break helpful? When is the conversation going in circles or off track? When is something going so well and it should continue? With an understanding of the end goal, a facilitator is equipped to make those calls on the fly.
Stay neutral. A facilitator’s role is to guide a workshop, not to put a thumb on the scale (as much as we might want to sometimes!) A facilitator’s job isn’t to tell you what the outcome should be — it’s to help guide the team to get there. Believe me, it’s better when the team has buy-in to the end results.
Build consensus — or name spots of tension. Often a facilitator’s job is to help move the group to an endpoint. That can look like convergence around a set of ideas. But it can also mean naming unresolved tension points to tackle in the room or at a later date.
Follow up. A facilitator helps set you up for success after a session. By sharing meeting notes, the top ideas that surfaced in a session, and areas of consensus, a facilitator can help you manage what comes after the session.
So, are you ready to bring on a facilitator for your next meeting? Get in touch!