What is Facilitation?

What does to facilitate mean?

The verb "facilitate" means to make a process or action easier or more efficient. Facilitate in Latin facilis, for "easy." It means to make something easier or more likely to happen. When you facilitate something, you help to remove obstacles or barriers that might hinder progress, and you provide support or assistance that enables the process to move forward smoothly.

What is the need for facilitation?

Facilitation is an important process because it can help individuals and groups to work more effectively together and achieve their goals more efficiently. Here are a few reasons why we need facilitation:

1. Encourages Collaboration: Facilitation promotes collaboration by creating a supportive environment in which people can work together to achieve a common goal. It helps to build trust, encourage open communication, and create a sense of shared responsibility and accountability.
2. Increases Efficiency: Facilitation can help groups to work more efficiently by streamlining the decision-making process, reducing confusion, and ensuring that everyone's contributions are heard and considered. This can lead to quicker and more effective results.
3. Improves Creativity and Innovation: Facilitation can help groups to generate new ideas and solutions by encouraging open-mindedness, brainstorming, and creative thinking. It can also help to identify and overcome barriers to innovation.
4. Manages Conflict: Facilitation can help to manage conflict by creating a safe and respectful environment for people to share their perspectives and work through disagreements. It can also help to identify the underlying causes of conflict and develop strategies for resolution.

Overall, facilitation can help to create a more collaborative, efficient, and productive working environment, leading to better outcomes for individuals and groups.

What is a facilitator for?

A facilitated session needs a facilitator to guide the group through the process and help them achieve their objectives. A facilitator brings a set of skills and tools to the table that can help the group to work more effectively together and accomplish their goals.

Here are some reasons why a facilitated session needs a facilitator:

1. Neutrality: A facilitator can provide an neutral perspective on the issues being discussed, as they are not directly involved in the situation. This can help to create a more balanced and fair discussion, and drive the group to the best outcome.
2. Process Management: A facilitator can manage the process of the discussion, keeping the group on track, and ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to contribute. They can use a variety of techniques and tools to help the group generate ideas, make decisions, and reach consensus.
3. Conflict Resolution: Facilitators can help to manage conflicts that arise within the group. They can identify the root causes of the conflict, help the group to work through their differences, and develop strategies to prevent future conflicts.
4. Inclusivity: A skilled facilitator can create a safe and inclusive environment where all participants feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. They can use techniques to encourage active participation from all members, including those who are typically less vocal.
5. Focus: A facilitator can keep the discussion focused on the objectives and prevent the group from getting sidetracked by unrelated issues. They can ensure that the discussion is productive and that the group is moving towards their goals.? The facilitator can capture conversations that are going wayward from the objective, and bring the groups focus back on the main objective.? Any captured conversations should be fed into future workshops.

Who should be a facilitator?

The facilitator’s role is crucial to the success of any event/workshop. The role of a facilitator can vary depending on the context and the needs of the group, but they must possess some necessary characteristics including?

1. Strong communication skills: A facilitator should be able to communicate effectively with all members of the group, both verbally and in writing.
2. Active listening skills: A facilitator should be able to listen actively to what members of the group are saying and be able to ask clarifying questions.
3. Emotional intelligence: being able to sense the mood of individuals and being able to adjust one’s own approach accordingly.
4. Objectivity: A facilitator should remain neutral and not take sides or show bias towards any member of the group.
5. Flexibility: A facilitator should be able to adapt to changing situations and be comfortable with ambiguity.
6. Patience: A facilitator should be patient and able to handle difficult situations or conflicts that may arise during group discussions.
7. Knowledge and expertise: A facilitator should have a good understanding of the subject matter being discussed and the ability to guide the group towards a common goal.
8. Ego strength: be able to manage the participants gently but firmly, to keep the more vocal ones under control and draw out the ones who are less confident and vocal.?
9. Strong organisational skills: A facilitator should be able to manage the group's time effectively and keep discussions on track.

Should the facilitator be a subject matter expert??

There are many debates if the facilitator needs to have an in-depth knowledge of the subject that is being discussed. Some say that the purpose of the facilitator is to be neutral, and that is problematic for a person who has knowledge of, and as such may have opinions on, the issues that are being discussed. As such, they may not be able to be neutral and may steer the discussion in a certain way, which represents their own opinions. On the other hand, for technical discussions for example, a facilitator without any knowledge may not be able to gauge the significance and relevance of participants’ contributions. Whatever your thoughts, the facilitator needs to help the participants to reach a conclusion.??

What steps are there for great facilitation?

Here are some general steps a facilitator should follow to create a great facilitated session:

1. Prepare and Plan: Before the facilitation session, it is essential to prepare and plan thoroughly (when you consider a facilitation session, the split of effort for a facilitator may look like this: preparation is 80% of the facilitators time, 10% running the facilitation session and 10% follow-up after the session) . This includes meeting with the person(s) who need the outcome of a workshop, setting clear objectives, creating an agenda, and preparing any necessary materials, such as handouts or presentations. Make sure you know who is attending and what their roles are.
2. Is this a virtual or face to face session? The tools and techniques for each of these modes of communication will mean you have to be selective how you manage and run the sessions.?
3. The attendees, do they know why they have been invited and what is expected from them(?). They should come prepared for the session (bringing with them information that may be relevant for the event). Planning is essential to generate the outcomes expected.?
4. If it is a face to face event visit, the location/room where the session will take place needs consideration. Is the room big enough for your needs, can you move the table/chairs, is there room for break out activities, is it airy enough for the people attending, is it conducive for collaboration?
5. Create a Safe and Inclusive Environment: As a facilitator, it is important to create a safe and inclusive environment where participants feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. This can be achieved by setting ground rules and guidelines, using inclusive language, and encouraging respectful communication. One way of doing this could be to create a working agreement for the workshop.
6. Encourage participation: The facilitator should encourage participation from all participants by asking open-ended questions, inviting feedback, and ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to contribute to the discussion.
7. Listen actively: As a facilitator, active listening is crucial to understanding participants' perspectives and needs. It involves paying attention to what is being said, asking clarifying questions, and summarising key points.
8. Manage time effectively: Time management is essential for great facilitation. The facilitator should keep the session on track by adhering to the agenda, monitoring time, and ensuring that all objectives are met within the allotted time.
9. Build consensus: In group settings, it is important to build consensus by encouraging discussion, identifying areas of agreement and disagreement, and working towards a common goal.
10. Follow-up and evaluate: After the facilitation session, it is important to follow-up.? Some participants may have asked follow-up questions or promised to provide some information to support their perspective/point of view, so make sure you act soon.? Evaluate the outcomes of the workshop with the owner of the event as ultimately they have to take ownership of the outcomes and actions of the session, not you as a facilitator. Provide feedback to participants, reviewing the objectives, and identifying areas for improvement in future sessions.

By following these steps, a facilitator can create a positive and productive environment that promotes participation, collaboration, and achievement of the session's objectives.

What are the key steps to a Facilitated session?

A facilitated session can go through several stages, depending on the nature and purpose of the session. One common framework for a facilitated session is the following:

1. Pre-work: Before the session, the facilitator should communicate with the participants and ensure that they understand the purpose of the session, any preparation they need to do, and any expectations for their participation.
2. Introduction: The facilitator should begin the session by introducing themselves, welcoming the participants, and setting the tone for the session. They should also outline the goals and objectives of the session and any ground rules or guidelines for participation.
3. Divergent Thinking: This stage involves generating a wide range of ideas or options without evaluating them. The facilitator should encourage participants to share their ideas, regardless of how unconventional or unorthodox they may seem. This stage can be accomplished through brainstorming, mind mapping, or other creative techniques.
4. Groan Zone: This stage is often the most difficult part of a facilitated session.? We’ve generated a lot of ideas, the group now needs to understand them, absorb them, categorize them, group similar items, and start to gain alignment on all the possibilities.
5. Convergent Thinking: This stage involves evaluating and selecting the most promising ideas or options generated during the divergent thinking stage. The facilitator should encourage participants to analyze and evaluate the ideas based on agreed-upon criteria or decision-making frameworks.
6. Action Planning: This stage involves developing a plan of action for implementing the selected ideas or options. The facilitator should encourage participants to identify specific tasks, assign responsibilities, and establish timelines for completing the action plan.
7. Closing: The facilitator should close the session by summarising the key points discussed, reviewing the action plan, and soliciting feedback from the participants. They should also thank the participants for their participation and emphasise the importance of follow-up and implementation.

It's important to note that not all facilitated sessions will follow this exact framework, and the facilitator may need to adapt the stages based on the goals, needs, and dynamics of the group.

What further reading & tools can help me?

Some books I often refer back to for helping me design facilitated sessions are:?

Agile Retrospectives - Dianne Larsen and Esther Derby

Facilitator's Guide? to Participatory Decision Making - Sam Kaner

The complete facilitators handbook - John Heron

Game Storming - Dave Gray

Innovation Games - Luke Hohman

Also if you are delivering a workshop in a virtual environment make use of modern tooling to help you keep the workshop interactive.? Use of a great online meeting tool, such as Zoom, to enable small and large group activities. Also make use of online collaboration tools to allow individuals to create ideas visually, example tools are Miro, Mural, Google sheets and many others. ? There are many tools out there that will allow you to have an engaging facilitated session while remaining in a virtual world.? Extended Reality is next on the horizon!