Facilitation

Good facilitators see and hear not only the obvious, but are tuned in to what else might be going on that isn't quite so apparent. They are skilled in interpreting the difficulties, resolving conflict, cutting through time wasting and diversionary tactics and, most importantly, enabling people to reach agreements and develop new practises that will work.

We have also found that some people think facilitation of large groups and small groups is the same. It is our experience that both activities require different and yet complementary skills.

Large Group Facilitation

Small Group Facilitation

Facilitating large scale is a different skill to managing small group work. In our experience this work requires you to:

Understand the whole process and keep focused on managing the whole of the event.
Be participant focused not process focused.
Be confident in real time design skills to tackle any immerging issues that can arise with large groups.
Managing the challenge of coaching self managed working means traditional questions such as "do you understand" are no longer appropriate; neither is instructive language; handouts support the work and facilitators manage the whole room.
Recognise that LGI's create uncertainty and tension, ignore the natural tendency to reduce the tension by bringing closure. The facilitator needs to do just the opposite by holding and supporting the tension so that new learning can emerge. This is uncomfortable but necessary. The facilitator becomes the container for the anxiety.
Seek to minimise power and authority dynamics by shifting the focus from yourself to the task. No one should be doing anything because 'the facilitator' asked them but because it makes sense right now to do this work and it will support achievement of the purpose

Small group facilitation allows you to:

Stay focussed on each of the participants even in groups of up to 30 people
Change the programme or stop instantly if someone asks a question.
Listen or take feedback from every participant.
Leap into the middle of participant discussions and add your ideas
Steer groups to one outcome - often the one you prefer
Intervene between two people not getting on very well together or who have very opposing points of view that stop the whole group working together.
Manage people's uncertainty
Retain power over the group

Facilitating Large Groups
As we have previously said, we are mainly known for our work with large groups. This highly specialised area of work throws up some specific facilitation issues and is worth considering as a separate core competence of the VISTA team.

Faced by the complexity of the work of supporting interactive conferences, and the need to track so many things at once, it is easy to react by trying to deal with the manageable bits. This work is not manageable by design, you can guide and give process leadership but managing or controlling it is a fantasy. The work is emergent right until the end...

From the first planning meeting - when you discover someone critical has not been invited
Through the action planning session - which you realise no one understands the process for
To the groups of people coming together - and planning more ambitious meetings
And after the conferences anything could happen.

So:
Plan as much as you can
Build a project plan with the key players as soon as you can start and stress the need for it to be flexible and responsive to the emerging information about the system throughout planning and delivery. Aim to stay two steps ahead of what is happening all the time so that these steps are thoroughly planned and you can be thinking about how what is happening now affects the later stages of the plan. React opportunistically to things that emerge and look for patterns that will give you clues about what will and will not work with this system. (The time to find out that a word you are using has a different meaning for them is not when you are standing up in front of 2/300 people!!)

Work as a Team
Continually gather information and cross check your information and experiences with the others who are facilitating and supporting the work and with the planning team. Keep tracking delivery and giving feedback so that the team can analyse, theorise and explore options keeping the purpose in mind. Build relationships with key players and coach and support each other. Share your own anxieties and be careful not to transfer them to the participants (particularly if you are running late!!)

Stay Whole System
Act as a mirror to the system and be ready to authentically state what you see happening and how it might impact the work. Share your theories and predictions, listen to the data and make connections. Bring in new information and push on the leverage points when you see them. Share responsibility for the whole and be careful not to carve it up into parts. Accept that the people and the system 'are what they are' and push them to 'become what they could become'. Stay neutral and do not judge.

Hold the Vision
Believe in the possibility of a positive outcome in the midst of chaos, confusion, and conflict. This is not cheerleading, but maintaining the belief that people can deal positively with complexity. Like any good mentor, the facilitator sees the possibilities in people that they might not see themselves.

Manage the Boundary
Watch the overall boundaries of the work and support the community in the accomplishment of its task. Keep the purpose and task front and centre of all the work. Balance all the needs of the community.

Create a Safe Atmosphere
This is important. Actions that support safety include valuing everyone's input and protecting minority opinions. Do not judge peoples actions or statements. Provide enough structure and information to contain anxiety.

Encourage Self-management and Responsibility
Do not do for conference participants what they can do for themselves. Let them facilitate the table discussions themselves, do not track or monitor their work, trust that they are doing what they need to and that your design was appropriate for the purpose. Stay out of the tables unless invited in.

Stay with Uncertainty
Large group processes create uncertainty and tension. Our natural tendency is to reduce the tension by bringing closure. We need to do just the opposite by holding and supporting the tension so that new learnings can emerge. This is uncomfortable but necessary. The facilitator becomes the container for the anxiety. Be ready to:

tolerate silences (without joking)
listen un-anxiously to questions, criticisms, or comments without being filled with a sense of responsibility to reply
acknowledge and elicit awareness of differences
allow people to retain their individual identity
take straw polls to elicit initial responses in ways that do not lock people into these positions as final
enable people to think actively by guessing thoughts and feelings
speak about your experiences in ways that people can connect with them
tolerate the attacks on differentiated thinking

Support Contrarians
Opposite points of view are welcomed and supported. Bring them forward so they can be understood - we do not want them to stay under the surface and unspoken. There is not necessarily a need to seek resolution of these contrary points just to ensure they are heard and understood.

Authority Dynamics
Seek to minimise power and authority dynamics by shifting the focus from ourselves to the task. No one should be doing anything because 'we' asked them but because it makes sense right now to do this work and it will support achievement of the purpose. Watch language here - never say, "What I want you to do for me next". Seek to avoid power struggles with the participants. Understand the dynamics of what it means to be front and centre and do not use this power to work our own agendas with the group.

Keep an Open Mind
Be careful you do not find yourselves making character flaw assumptions and judgements especially if you know much of the history of the system. This is never helpful. The things we have already formed opinions about frequently stop us from stepping back and trying to get a multi-perspective system view. Stay curious about what people think and why, ask curious questions even when you think you know the answer!!