The Power of Facilitation for Organizational Change

This year I have been deeply involved with organization development and change within a few very different client environments. As we have worked month on month on progressing the organizational agenda, I have been completely surprised by the power of “good facilitation”.

Now there are many things facilitation cannot do—it cannot for instance help move along agendas being held hostage by political rivalries. Nor can facilitation (under ordinary circumstances) lead to deep personal transformation.

But when done well, facilitation can allow a team to build a shared understanding of a topic. This shared understanding can then allow for collective a-ha moments.

Just as coaching conversations work to create individual change through fresh insights, facilitated conversations work to create collective change through a shared consciousness, fresh insights and shared commitment.

Done well, facilitation can move an organization from a vague sense of unease to a clear understanding of the many perspectives on the issue and a commitment to action. For many organizations—it is exactly this shift that is needed to unlock the door for change.

 If an understanding of organizational design, culture or leadership and talent provides the intellectual heft behind OD work—it is the humble “facilitated discussion” that provides a remarkably effective tool for creating organizational commitment to change.

 Let me share an example of how facilitation can through very humble beginnings open the door for very impactful change.

 This story is that of a global organization that works on issues of social justice. At the senior-most level decisions need to be agreed by the board which has representatives from many countries, each of whom brings a very different country perspective. Despite a positive intent to move their agenda forward, they hadn’t found a good process for building consensus or resolving differences.

As so often happens, the more articulate members would take the most discussion time, boldly stating their views. Others who were more reticent or simply uncomfortable with English would speak very little. Yet when it came time to support the agenda collectively developed—their lack of enthusiasm and commitment would result in the agreements themselves unravelling.

As a result, those who wanted to move forward felt “let down” by those who did not support them when the time came, and those who were “dragging their feet”, felt that the agenda itself was flawed because their concerns did not find space for discussion. And they did not wish to support an agreement that felt “forced” or even “premature”. This situation of course helped no-one, not the organization, nor the individuals concerned. Moreover, it reflected poorly on the board and the organizations leadership. And this was a cause of great worry and concern.

Now this is a situation tailor-made for breakthroughs with facilitation. Among the board members, there was a desire to move ahead, IF the process was experienced as fair. A fair process meant that there needed to be space for everyone to voice their views, and yet there needed to be a process for building consensus or even managing disagreement.  And that is exactly what happened.  

We began with icebreakers that created the space needed for people to loosen up and see each other as people, not positions. With discussions within the team, we agreed on rules that would be used to build agreement and work with disagreement.

BTW--there exists a compendium of meeting rules from a hundred years ago called Robert's rules--to aid discussion in large meetings

Read more about Robert's rules at their web page above. Keep in mind their style is rather formal. It is after all from a long time ago--still there are some useful meeting rules here.

One by one, rather painstakingly, we went through each point for discussion—opening out the collective space for ideas and thoughts and then building convergence through a search for common ground—and negotiation on differences.

 Visually recording these ideas and thoughts allowed us to build a shared understanding within the team and it allowed the team to develop agreement around the content and its articulation. These agreements themselves were re-visited and the level of consensus tested. All agreements were recorded and sent to all participants by the end of the day over mail.

 To my surprise, agreement on a few critical points, acted like a key that unlocked a secret passage that till now had been firmly closed. This then started the process of building an organizational agenda for change.  I have been working with the organization for the better part of a year, and the conversations have moved far ahead, with work on organizational design, culture and talent.

 Yet as I look back on all that has happened since—I know that the key to unlocking the organizations change—was that round of facilitated discussions when a shared intent developed. As this year comes to a close, one of my biggest insights has been around the sheer power of a single tool to bring change in an organization. 

Could facilitation hold the key to change in yours?

And if you want to find out more about facilitation-- check out this really good resource--

(Dr. Shalini Lal works with clients in Organizational Development and Innovation. She is a Wharton Fellow 2018, and has a PhD from UCLA, and an MBA from IIM-A. Through several executive roles she has worked in this field for over twenty years. Write to her at [email protected])