Three pillars of facilitation learning - Mindset, People, Process

During the past three weeks, I discussed the importance of having a facilitative mindset, which involves making things easier, being sensitive, and having the courage to initiate changes that benefit the group. I shared a beginner's guide to ORID, which helps better understand people's intentions in conversation and trains listening skills. I provided an icebreaker activity to encourage collaboration using simple sketches and to get people to think creatively and flex their mental muscles.

If you haven’t noticed, they touch on three distinct areas – mindset, people, and process.

As facilitators, we have to learn the three simultaneously instead of just going deep in one area.?

• People refer to how well you understand your team or group. Without the quest to comprehend their goals, intentions, purpose, and values, you may encounter significant resistance when trying to get them to participate and collaborate. Moreover, you may feel overwhelmed by conflicts and power dynamics easily, and not sensitive enough to their emotions.
• Process refers to the knowledge of bringing in suitable processes and methodologies to assist in meetings or collaboration. Without an intentional process to structure the time, the group will find it more difficult to achieve the goal on their own, and you will also feel lost and anxious when trying to guide the group discussion.
• Mindset is the attitude of being reflective, neutral, and uplifting towards people. Without a strong mindset, you will feel less grounded and less able to learn from experience why things work or do not work. This can confuse the team members regarding your role and lead to impatience.

Here is a helpful learning roadmap from Sessions lab to understand the different phases of what a facilitator does.?

From my experience, moderating a meeting is the most straightforward starting point, followed by the report phase, especially the ordinary day-to-day meetings at work. They are a relatively safe space that gives you many opportunities to practice. Simply mastering summarization (requires active listening, neutrality) and timekeeping can make a significant difference. The planning and leading activities phases require a deeper understanding of facilitation knowledge and learning from workshops run by facilitators who have more experience.?

In more complicated situations, such as organizing large meetings with up to hundreds of participants with diverse cultures and seniority, or the need to solve a specific problem like conflicts or decision-making, extra help or professional services should be sought.?

As an in-house employee, learning facilitation can be daunting but becomes more manageable by breaking it into three distinct areas - Mindset, People, and Process. The pros of facilitating internally are that you know more about the company culture and people’s relationships, but you will struggle to facilitate well because you have a stake in the conversation. While every coin has two sides, let’s keep going on how to navigate this journey.?

???