You Don’t Have to Be the Facilitator to Be Facilitative

The essence of facilitation is in the word itself: facile and action … actions that make it easier.

Among many outcomes, facilitation makes it easier for better discussions, decisions, and results.

We too often think of facilitation as the sole domain of the department head, the board or committee chair, or the consultant leading a planning process.

But having a designated facilitator doesn’t mean individuals can (or should) abdicate responsibility for the group to function well: “This meeting is really unproductive, but Dwayne is the facilitator, so I guess I can’t do anything about it.” 

list of 9 Ground Rules for Groups

9 Ground Rules for Groups. ©Jeffrey Cufaude, Facilitate Better. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Anyone can—and everyone should—make facilitative contributions, regardless or role or responsibility. 

Being facilitative when you’re not the facilitator

When a session has a designated facilitator, that individual’s primary responsibility is designing and managing the discussions and decisions.  But the facilitator is only one person with one perspective.  Anyone in the group may have ideas at any point for what might improve the group’s efforts.  How can they express those ideas—make facilitative contributions—when they are not the “person in charge?”

Tap into core values, ground rules, or shared agreements

Leveraging group norms is an easy way to make a facilitative contribution peer-to-peer. Many organizations have statements of core values or principles; many groups create ground rules or shared agreements to guide discussions.  Linking your suggestion to either helps neutralize any potential perception that you are usurping the facilitator’s role.  “At the start of our strategy session, we agreed to focus on the big picture and stay out of the weeds.  I wonder if we’ve started to stray from that commitment.”

Use respectful, non-judgmental language

Parents trying to get their kids to do something know they can only use “because I said so” a limited number of times.  Similarly, facilitators rarely use declarative or directive statements that force a group’s acquiescence.  

Group participants looking to make facilitative contributions should do the same.  To help make it easier for participants to do so, when I am facilitating I invite people to try on any of the following facilitative phrasings:

I wonder if … 

“I wonder if” is a more open and facilitative version of “We really need to.”  The latter is more closed and may spark disagreement; the former is open and invites individual responses and reactions.

Example: “I wonder if we want to briefly review the committee’s report before we begin our discussions.”  People usually react by agreeing or disagreeing with the suggestion.

I would find it helpful if … 

This statement of personal need is a catalyst to surface what others may find helpful. Example: “I would find it helpful to briefly review the committee’s report before we begin our discussions.”

Note that an unspoken ”I wonder if others would also” almost automatically follows the end of this personal expression, inviting others in the group to share what they would find helpful instead. The group and/or the designated facilitator can then determine what to do next based on the mix of responses.

I’d love to hear from …

list of 3 examples to be used in helping others make facilitative contributions

©Jeffrey Cufaude, Facilitate Better. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Good discussions are a prerequisite for good decisions. Ensuring a desirable mix of perspectives and participation is key. Inviting others to contribute is a facilitative gesture that can help draw out unheard voices or perspectives.

These invitations can extend to certain types of contributions “I’d love to hear from some folks we haven’t heard from yet on this topic” or to specific individuals “I’d love to hear from Helena and Matías on this topic.”

Note that individuals singled out sometimes feel pressured to contribute. In extending the invitation, make it easier for them to decline without feeling awkward: “I’d love to hear from Helena and Matías on this topic if they would like to share.”

The bottom line?

As Roger Schwarz says in his book, The Skilled Facilitator, “Being a facilitative leader means changing how you think in order to change the consequences you help create.”  So think about the groups and teams that you are a part of:

  1. What consequences do you want to help create?
  2. What is required for that to occur in each group?
  3. What shifts in your thinking might help you contribute to the group doing so?

Remember, anyone can—and everyone should—make facilitative contributions.

 

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Author bio

After a long career in higher education, association management, and organizational development consulting, Jeffrey Cufaude has one purpose and passion as he begins his final career chapter: helping people facilitate better.

Jeffrey’s well-known in the association community having designed and facilitated ASAE’s Future Leaders Conference for ten years; holding regional and national leadership positions with a variety of professional organizations; doing more than 100 conference keynotes and presentations; and having more than 20 feature articles in association publications, as well as being a columnist for PCMA’s Convene Magazine for almost a decade.

Web: facilitatebetter.com
Twitter: @JeffreyCufaude
Newsletter: facilitatebetter.substack.com
YouTube: https://bit.ly/35cYL9G

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