A simple guide to facilitation: how to prepare for it and what to avoid

What is facilitation

“The word “facilitation” comes from the English facilitate, which very accurately reflects the essence of the process: the first task of the facilitator is to facilitate dialogue, discussion, and help make it constructive.”

Mark Rosin

psychologist and founder

A facilitator is a good negotiator and psychologist who knows how to set up a team to communicate and helps resolve all internal conflicts. But facilitation is effective not only in stressful situations. It helps the business understand what the company’s mission is, how employees see it, and what new directions can be developed.

Why is it cost effective to motivate employees?

Motivation, the company's ideology and recognition of the high professional qualities of each employee are a resource that helps to manage. By emphasizing how much you value an employee, you give him confidence and motivation. And these are intangible resources that are sometimes more important than high wages.

“People should feel important,” says Tatyana Shevchenko, head of the advertising and public relations department of VTB Bank of Kazakhstan. – Motivation in the form of wages is no longer enough. If people understand their value, they do their work more willingly, they put their creativity and their soul into it. They understand that their project is a team product, and they root for it.”

How to Prepare for Facilitation

Select a presenter . It's not only important that your candidate understands the topic and remains objective, but also how well received he is by the group.

Get to know yourself better . Answer the following questions:

• What are your personal beliefs, values, stereotypes in relation to the topic being discussed?
• Can you be objective in this discussion?
• What role should you take on as a facilitator?
• How can you establish trust and openness in a group?
• How can you show that you respect other people's opinions?
• What are some ways to tactfully resolve conflict?
• How to make the discussion go smoothly?
• How can you encourage participation in the discussion without dominating any group members?
• What will you do if one of the participants shows disrespect towards another?
• What to do if you don't know how to respond to a comment or question?

Determine the goals of the session.

Make a plan for the discussion: determine the size of the group, try to understand how familiar and close the participants are with each other, decide whether the conversation will be in a formal or informal tone. Plan when exactly you will address the key points of the discussion.

Pay attention to the place where you plan to hold the session: it should be comfortable enough for all participants to communicate with each other, not just with you. Tip: People sitting in a circle tend to talk more to each other rather than focus on facilitating.

Prepare some interesting questions to start the discussion, as well as the materials you might need for it (whiteboard, markers, paper).

Why is it important to forgive employees' mistakes?

Various trainings also advise to forgive mistakes of valuable employees in all cases where this is possible without much damage to the company.

This is important because the employee who has stumbled will appreciate the loyal attitude towards him and try to justify the trust. However, it is important not to overdo it with forgiveness; if an employee makes mistakes too often, then perhaps he is simply not competent enough.

Whether you spend money on expensive training on motivation, leadership, management and facilitation or be skeptical about it, considering it a waste of time, is your personal choice. It is important to check the qualifications of the trainer and contact certified specialized centers. You should be wary of freelancers or organizations that do not have their own specialists, inviting someone all the time.

Where to start the session

Familiarize participants with the purpose and structure of the discussion , making sure everyone is on the same page about what the session will be about, when it will end, and what will follow. For example: “Today we will discuss the conflict between department A and department B. We will talk in small groups for an hour, then spend another half hour in general discussion. We will close at 5:00 pm and anyone who wishes to continue the discussion is welcome to stay. If there are many interested, we will continue our discussion on Thursday at 15:00.”

Explain your role as a facilitator - someone who must remain neutral and objective, purposefully develop the discussion, and create a comfortable environment in which everyone can participate in the conversation. This does not mean that you yourself are neutral in relation to the subject of discussion, but, as a facilitator, you should remain so in the group.

Select the desired tone. It is important to create a safe and open environment where others feel they can share their views honestly.

For example: “I am here to help you discuss this topic. We gathered to learn something new from each other, to understand how and what each of us thinks and feels. To achieve this, we must try to connect with each other. My goal is to help you have a discussion where all opinions can be expressed in a safe and comfortable environment. This does not mean that we will not have contradictions and even some tension, but I hope that you will openly express your opinions. I understand that this is a challenge to ourselves - to share our painful, internal problems and show vulnerabilities, so each of the participants must follow certain rules of discussion so as not to offend opponents.”

Ask participants to introduce themselves and tell them a little about themselves.

Set ground rules and be sure to check with the group that everyone can adhere to them. Here are some options:

• Use I-statements: This will show your point of view and keep you from generalizing what others are thinking or feeling.
• Respect other people's points of view: our goal is not to convince others of your idea, but to bring it to the table.
• Maintain confidentiality: what is said in session stays in session.
• Avoid unnecessary conversations and focus on the main discussion.
• Express your disagreement without criticizing your opponent. Remember that people often take criticism personally, so avoid sarcastic or derogatory comments.
• Don't interrupt each other.
• Remember that all questions are good questions. Ask them, even if they seem stupid or too simple to you.
• Don't think for other people. Ask again, clarify.

The emergence of the method

Facilitation is a process and group of skills that facilitate effective discussion of a complex problem or situation. It helps the group facilitate internal communication to accomplish tasks, solve problems, or reach agreement.

The facilitation process increases the effectiveness of group work, the involvement and interest of participants, helps to unleash their creative potential and prepare to implement the decisions made. This process stimulates participants to more productive mental work than a training, seminar or other forms of training.

Facilitation can also be considered as a teaching method in which the trainer-facilitator takes an equal position with team members, helps them independently find answers to questions and master skills. Successful facilitation includes pre-preparation, planning and implementation.

The main goal is to respond to business requests: collect information, analyze problems, generate ideas, clarify tasks, find solutions, agree and make choices, plan actions.

Facilitation products are decisions that the group captures on paper, digitally, or in photographs. Facilitation should result in changes in the organization or team.

A facilitator is a specialist who is responsible for the quality of the process, is not interested in the outcome of the discussion, does not represent the interests of any of the parties present and does not participate in the debate. Its purpose is to support the group in completing its tasks and to lead it to a common understanding of issues, conclusions and solutions.

This is the leader of a series of meetings who organizes, directs, stimulates and optimizes the process of searching for information, processing it and making decisions based on it, according to the task assigned to the group. In this process, the facilitator filters his stereotypes of perception, does not express his view of the problem, does not offer his own solutions or methods of action. It provides the means by which the group independently accomplishes its tasks.

Independent search for information and solutions motivates, ensures more effective assimilation and analysis of information, and speeds up the decision-making process. And if this is a learning process, it contributes to more effective development and consolidation of acquired knowledge and skills. This is why the role of the facilitator is limited in its impact on the group's results.

During facilitation

Stay neutral. Typically, facilitators do not express their opinions, but help group members share theirs. Your role is to facilitate the group discussion, but if you have valuable ideas that could help, ask someone else to act as a facilitator and join the group for a while.

Learn to listen, not talk. Avoid offering “expert opinion.” Even if the participants in the discussion turn to you for advice, try not to give an answer right away, but first bring it up for general discussion. Try not to touch on your own triggers - issues or topics that cause a strong emotional response in you.

Control the process. Another of your jobs is to acknowledge group members' contributions to the discussion. Thank you for the ideas put forward, pay attention if it is difficult for a person to participate in a general conversation. Several effective techniques for controlling discussion:

• Suggest a brainstorming session so that the whole group, rather than individual members, identifies the pros and cons.
• Divide the participants into two subgroups, ask them to develop one of the arguments for or against.
• Ask everyone to express their opinion in a circle and indicate what exactly they agree with the previous speaker.
• Watch out for those who don't follow the rules and redirect their discussion in the right direction.
• Remember that people tend to speak abstractly when dealing with uncomfortable topics. Seize these moments and encourage participants to share real experiences rather than make assumptions.
• Be patient: there may well be a pause in communication, which is also important for thinking about the situation.
• Observe the participants and look for nonverbal clues: who talks too much, who, on the contrary, remains silent, who constantly interrupts others, and who is bored or angry?
• Protect people and their ideas from attacks by other members. If the conflict escalates, ask everyone involved to agree to disagree and move on to another topic.

Business background

Recently, in the context of leadership and management of an organization, the acronym VUCA has become increasingly common, which stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity. Business situations often contain all four aspects of this military term. Such an environment requires rapid response to events, decentralization of decision-making and maximum inclusion of people - both in developing the vision and in its implementation.

The live communication process rarely resembles glossy stock photos

Turning a company's challenges into its benefits requires completeness of information, group diversity, creative thinking, high involvement and the use of constructive conflict, which will inevitably arise in such conditions.

This is where facilitation comes to the rescue with a whole arsenal of approaches, tools and facilitator skills for conducting strategic sessions and operational meetings, brainstorming and process work.

Features and Examples

As a structured method, the facilitator creates the event along with the client before it even begins. Any interventions that will be used are also planned in advance.

Self-organizing dialogue is characterized by the creation of a workspace by the participants themselves, although the general scheme for launching the process and time periods is formed by the leader.

In the future, the implementation of the technique is characterized by spontaneity.

Social facilitation and inhibition

The opposite psychological phenomena of inhibition and facilitation are observed in several groups simultaneously, under the same conditions.

In this case, inhibition is characterized by a deterioration in the activity of the individual who came under the influence of the observer, when facilitation presupposes the presence of observation from the outside, which causes an increase in productivity in all members of the group.

The paradoxical effect was described by the American psychologist D. Myers, who identified several reasons why this happens:

• Mood. Poor health or various negative attitudes among participants, although they cause inhibition, at the same time significantly enhance the impact of facilitation.
• Fear of assessment . The presence of unfamiliar individuals, or those people whose opinions are authoritative for the participants, can increase productivity and excitement in one group, and increase inhibition of activity in others.
• The presence of a different gender in the group . Thus, men and women are capable of making mistakes in solving complex problems when there are observers of a different gender in the group, which is explained by the inhibition effect. Facilitation only enhances the quality of execution and increases productivity.

The effect of social inhibition and facilitation can manifest itself even when other individuals act as observers not in real life, but in the imagination.

Experimental research by R. B. Zayonets indicates the emergence of facilitation and inhibition based on biologically based premises.

Thus, using cockroaches to navigate the maze, a relationship was identified between the speed of passage between individuals of the opposite sex, based on the presence of insect observers.

Social facilitation and laziness

The effectiveness of facilitation in the activities of a specific group increases when the magnitude of the contribution of each individual in solving a common problem is assessed and recognized. Social loafing is a cognitive phenomenon that was first studied by the French professor M. Ringelmann.

The psychologist conducted a series of methodological experiments in which participants had to pull a rope and lift certain weights.

He concluded that the larger the group, the less effort required for each participant. This is why there is a psychological effect of decreased motivation and responsibility, otherwise called the laziness effect.

Facilitation in various activities

Facilitation in psychology is a technique that can be used in almost all types of group interaction. The classification of activities depends on the surrounding characteristics and the main purpose of use.

Facilitation as an educational activity is actively developed by the Western school of psychology. In the context of a methodological phenomenon, many psychologists propose its use in pedagogical systems.

Many studies point to increased interest, motivation, and decreased laziness when facilitation is introduced into classrooms.