Facilitation is an energy-based way of facilitating where people address difficult issues creatively and collaboratively, achieving breakthrough results. It creates a process of talking and thinking that builds mutual respect, trust and the sense of community.
The facilitator seeks to establish a “zone” of thinking and talking known as “choice-creating.” Choice-creating is similar to dialogue in that it is transformational, and similar to deliberation because groups reach thoughtful conclusions. It is engaging to people, like when people face a collective crisis and pull together to creatively overcome it.
The facilitator plays an active role, helping people to follow their heart more than a preexisting agenda. He or she helps them determine an issue they really care about, whether it seems solvable or not. Then she helps them to say what is on their minds, what they really mean, in a way that all can hear and are respectful. The dynamic facilitator helps foster shifts of heart and mind by following the natural flow of conversation and supporting group spontaneity. Sometimes these shifts take the form of new ideas, other times they bring a new sense of what the “real problem” is, and other times yet, there is a change of heart.
The best way to reach consensus, even when people disagree passionately, is to have a breakthrough. Then, groups reach a joint decision quickly, solve difficult issues, everyone is committed to the results, and the process builds trust, empowers individuals, and transforms the organization. It's exciting to be in meetings with breakthroughs because each person's giftedness is necessary and appreciated. Normal meetings mute the possibility for breakthroughs. Some Benefits of Facilitation• Meetings arrive at better solutions to problems, faster, with more consensus.
• Groups achieve breakthroughs on impossible-to-solve issues.
• People determine and resolve what's really on their minds.
• The process builds trust, respect, and the spirit of community.
• Everyone is engaged, enthused and committed to the results.
• People grow in personal creativity and capability.
How is it different?Rather than seeking to manage change, the facilitator elicits, sustains, and enhances the decision process. He or she helps people to figure out what they want and to get it themselves. The Facilitator works more completely with self-organizing change than the traditional facilitator. The traditional facilitator elicits self-organizing change in the realm of what people think, talk and decide about, but uses the methods of control to manage how they think, talk and decide. For instance, they are oriented to breaking big problems into smaller ones, following an agenda or logical steps, and tracking progress toward predetermined goals. It is an approach that minimizes what might go wrong. The Facilitator assures a self-organizing dynamic both in what people talk about and how they talk. He or she follows group energy as being more important than any preset agenda, expecting progress to happen in "shifts" of insight, feeling and awareness. It leads to a creative thinking process known as "choice-creating" instead of "decision-making." This approach maximizes what might go right instead of minimizing what might go wrong. |