Our last post focused on the concept of the community leader as a facilitator. Get caught up here!
Facilitation is an art. It requires maintaining a good pace of interaction, gathering everyone into the discussion, asking probing questions, summarizing others’ input, highlighting agreements, encouraging differences of opinion, and assisting with consensus building. It moves a community from divergent thinking (creating many unique ideas) to convergent thinking (forming a group decision). This process prevents discussions from degenerating into critiques and self-interest defense.
A facilitator helps groups establish ground rules or norms for functioning together. Many people avoid this function of facilitation because they don’t want to be the “bad guy,” the “party pooper,” or the parent. However, good facilitators know that there are three elements in any interaction or meeting: the content (the what), the process (the how), and the relationship (the who). We’ve discussed before how important and often forgotten the relationship element is—this is what actually creates high-performance teams. But how do we foster good, healthy relationships within our community and team? This is where the process element (the how) comes in, including ground rules, norms, and processes for how we want to accomplish our goals.
These processes are usually established upfront during the initial meetings with the team. We do this early because the team, and the individuals comprising it, are new, polite, and unlikely to challenge. We do this because we know that the healthy processes we establish will come in handy when conflict erupts (and it will erupt) if you’re doing your job.
Conflict emerges with differing perspectives and opinions. Innovation only happens with differing perspectives and opinions. In essence, to not want conflict is to not want diversity and innovation. The two go hand-in-hand. Processes, established by the team and enforced by the facilitator, help us navigate team conflict; they help a team move from divergent thinking to convergent thinking.
Direct Application
I usually start a new team off with the creation of a help/hinder list at the first meeting to set ground rules. This focuses on what will help us be most effective in our interactions and what will hinder our effectiveness. Without these, problem behaviors can emerge, making it hard to maintain order. For example, if your board tends to interrupt, agree on a system where people signal the facilitator to create a speaking order.
The key to this, and any other process, is that you facilitate the discussion but the team/group must sign off on it. Without consensus on these processes—a sign-off from all participants—the process will hold little to no power. The power is in the stakeholder buy-in, which you as a facilitator can reference later when you politely, quietly, yet sternly call members out for their misbehavior.
Here is an example of a Help/Hinder list:
Help:
Listen to others’ ideas politely, even when you don’t agree.
Paraphrase the main points made by another person before you respond, especially if you’re about to contradict the person’s idea.
Praise others’ ideas.
Build on others’ ideas.
Ask others to critique your ideas, and accept the feedback.
Be open to accepting alternative courses of action.
Deal with facts (not opinions).
Stay calm and friendly towards colleagues.
No cell phones or computers (email checking) at the meeting unless to do collective research.
Hinder:
Interrupting people mid-sentence.
Not acknowledging the ideas that others have put on the table.
Criticizing others’ ideas, as opposed to giving them useful feedback.
Pushing your own ideas while ignoring others’ inputs.
Getting defensive when your ideas are assessed.
Sticking only to your ideas and blocking suggestions for alternatives.
Basing arguments on feelings not substantiated by evidence.
Getting overly emotional; showing hostility in the face of any disagreement.
Effective facilitation is about creating a space where diverse perspectives can be voiced and heard, leading to innovative solutions and cohesive team dynamics. By establishing and enforcing processes early on, facilitators help guide teams through conflict and towards consensus, ensuring that all voices are respected and valued. When facilitators skillfully balance content, process, and relationships, they lay the groundwork for high-performance teams capable of achieving collective goals - they create art.