The Art of Facilitation

This document, adapted to meet our purposes, was originally written by Dean Leon Spencer as part of a resource, Reflections on Faith... Actions for Justice ,for Greater Birmingham Ministries in Alabama.

Doubtless we all have things people in discussion groups say that hit us like fingernails on a chalkboard. Here are my favorite "no-nos":

"What Maude is trying to say..."

Maude isn't trying to say anything. She's said what she intended to say! Sometimes if s good for facilitators to repeat a point someone has made, sometimes to rephrase it, to clarify it, or emphasize it. But when we choose to repeat a point, let's not leave Maude thinking that she has been unable to speak clearly for herself.

"What you've got to understand..."

We don't have to understand anything! It may well be that certain facts and certain aspects of an issue are key to our ability to understand clearly the issue itself. But usually I find that people who use this phrase are insisting that we understand an issue the way they understand that issue. We don't have to see things their way, and they shouldn't be telling us we have to. Facilitators need to be alert to members of the group who fail to distinguish between contributions that point us toward what someone believes is important and those that tell us how we have to think!

These two examples, I believe, underscore the challenge of facilitation, for on the one hand a facilitator cannot control what participants say, and on the other, the facilitator has a responsibility to guide the group into mutually-supportive ways of encountering one another. Some of us have the gift to do these things naturally. Others of us have to work at it. But either way, we welcome you into a role that can be both empowering to the group you serve and satisfying to you.

This is not a comprehensive guide to the art of facilitation. There are many resources that have covered this ground, and we encourage you to locate guides that are helpful to you. We are hosting workshops for facilitators from time to time, where together we may discuss the important role you have chosen to undertake. All that we wish to do here is to define what we mean by facilitation and say a few things that may help you on your way.

For those of us keen about any particular faith theme or issue, it is easy for us to put our energies on the subject itself, on the substance of the discussion. The issue is the thing, we might say to ourselves. But what we are stressing in the resources the School of Ministry develops is process as of equal importance to content. How do we listen, really listen, to others? How can we discern what we are called to do as people of faith together if we do not engage in reflection and study in a manner that respects others in our group? The answer, of course, involves responsibilities by all members ofthe group, but the facilitator will have a profound influence upon how the group works together and is in fellowship together.

The word facilitate is linked linguistically to the Latin facilis, "easy to do," and it is not a great leap to suggest that a facilitator "makes things easy" for people in the group - easy to share and speak and hear and discern. That is your task. There are many creative things a facilitator can do to make things easy, but at the same time, facilitators should not be preoccupied with "tricks" to create an effective group. We're not going to suggest that good facilitation is easy, but we will say that there is no

secret to good facilitation. Instead, simply put, good groups display sensitivity and openness and respectfulness, modeled by the facilitator, and encouraged by the group itself.

We close this brief comment on facilitators, then, with a list of what we consider to be the basics. If you can make these your guide, you will have taken major strides toward good facilitation and toward good groups.

• Make sure the group understands what it is doing and where it is headed You build confidence when you take the time to place activities and sessions in context.discourage dominant members of the group,and you respectfully acknowledge comments that are not well-focused while at the same time getting the group back on track.
• Work to get your antenna out, attuned to the feelings of all members of the group. Look at the speakers and the group, not at the newsprint. Does anyone seem restless or bored? Is someone becoming angry? Are there large blocks of silence? Remember that the purpose of theological study is not for everyone to be superficially nice. For there to be disagreements, and for those disagreements to be expressed sometimes in anger, are not signs of a "bad" group. Nor is a group going poorly when several members are anxious to move on to a new stage and others are thoroughly enjoying the present one. No group activity will be equally satisfying to all. The point here is simply for you to be conscious of what is happening and to appreciate that you have alternatives when you sense difficulties. You can, for example, simply call for a break! You can test out your own impressions, saying to the group, “I sense that some of you are frustrated about ... Is this true? What shall we do about it?" A good facilitator does not plow on through the study guide because that is what the guide says to do next. A good facilitator demonstrates sensitivity to the needs of the group by showing flexibility and ultimately by taking steps - whatever your good common sense dictates - to engage the group in decision-making about its well-being.
• Show participants that you, and the group, have heard them. When using newsprint, write what they say rather than your paraphrase of what they say. When sensing the need to clarify a statement, repeat what you heard in a manner that gives participants the sense that you are not correcting or improving on their comment but instead are emphasizing it for the group's further reflection.
• Discourage language that separates the group. This applies especially to jargon and to acronyms that everyone may not know. Work to get everyone on board with terms that will be needed in the discussion.
• Remember your role. You are a facilitator. As long as you have this role, your own thinking about the issue at hand needs to take a back seat to your responsibility to encourage the group to share their thinking.
• Be flexible. And be time-conscious. These two characteristics are in conflict; we know that. The challenge is not to be so committed to the one or the other that you deny the group the chance to deal with that which energizes them or the chance to make progress. What this means in practice is that you should pay attention to the timetable you have planned in accord with the agenda set in  these resources, but when the group obviously is excited by the discussion, you should adjust the timetable to allow them to say more. Trust your own judgment. There are no hard-and-fast rules.
• Be quiet. The facilitator does not need to comment on everything that is said. Nor should the facilitator be the focus of the discussion. Often members of a group will look at the "leader" when they are speaking. Try gently to break such a habit at the outset, suggesting that we are all talking to one another.
• Forgive yourself for your mistakes. We all make them! Facilitators just make them in a way that may be a bit more visible, and as a result some of us are too hard on ourselves. Whether you apologize or laugh and say "woops!", you are saying to the group that you care about the group and about how, for this time together, you are working at being community. So relax. When you are accepting of all members of the group-- the mark of a good facilitator--groups respond in kind... kindly.

Leon Spencer
June, 2005