VALUE ADDED FACILITATION THE NEED OF THE HOUR
LET VALUE ADDED FACILITATION ADD VALUE TO YOUR BUSINESS AND SERVICES.
Value Added Facilitation is one among the services offered by me. However facilitation is a term that is widely and loosely applied. This article aims to clarify what is meant by facilitation as a professional service, when and how it can best help leaders realize the above benefits, and what to look for in seeking professional facilitation support.
Who is a Facilitator?
A Facilitator is a person or thing that makes an action or process easy or easier.
"A true educator acts as a facilitator of learning"
What is Facilitation?
The act of facilitating: the state of being facilitated
What are the two types of facilitation?
There are two types of facilitation: Commensalism and Mutualism.
Commensalism is a long-term biological interaction in which members of one species gain benefits while those of the other species neither benefit nor are harmed.
Mutualism describes the ecological interaction between two or more species where each species has a net benefit. Mutualism is a common type of ecological interaction.
When considering Facilitation in Business, Education or Commercial Terms it imbibes the core essence of both of the above types of facilitation but applies them in a way that is more of a process for mutual benefit of both concerned bodies.
What is facilitation?
Facilitation aims to broker professional services to help third sector leaders save time and money, reduce risk, make informed business decisions and get the best results for their organizations. Facilitation is among the services offered, however facilitation is a term that is widely and loosely applied. This article aims to clarify what is meant by facilitation as a professional service, when and how it can best help third sector leaders realize the above benefits, and what to look for in seeking professional facilitation support.
The word facilitation is derived from the Latin ‘facile’ which, simply translated, means ‘to make easy’. A facilitator is therefore someone who makes something easy for others. So how is facilitation different from other professional services that might also make something easier, such as consultancy, training or mediation? And how is facilitation different from other group leadership roles, such as chairing? Clarity of definition can help to manage expectations on the sides of the client, the group and the facilitator, and so achieve better outcomes.
This definition addresses three critical dimensions – the role or stance of the facilitator, what he or she does to make things easy; and to what purpose.
Firstly, the facilitator is neutral to the content and task of the group. That is not to say that the facilitator cannot or should not have any content expertise or any stake in the outcome of the task, but that the group must be able to have confidence that the facilitator will not allow these to influence the group’s work and decisions. In contrast, the consultant provides expert advice and the trainer imparts knowledge or skills, both contributing content expertise.
Secondly, what the facilitator does is to diagnose and intervene in how the group works. In other words, he or she contributes process rather than content expertise. The facilitator is not neutral to process, but indeed is granted responsibility for the group’s process, by the group. A leader cannot impose a facilitator on a group without its consent.
Finally, the purpose is to increase the group’s effectiveness – to achieve a better outcome than otherwise, but not any particular outcome. The outcome remains the responsibility of the group, thus helping to ensure the group’s ownership and commitment to it.
The facilitator will assume a diversity of perspectives, positions and needs within any group, and will help the group to relate and respond creatively to conflict, as appropriate to the task at hand. When the primary task of a group is to resolve conflict, then it may be that the particular conflict resolution expertise of a mediator is what is required.
Of course, in many cases multiple skills sets may be needed to help a group achieve a particular goal. Then a team, or a multi-skilled provider, may be required. Nevertheless, the client will be wise to be clear which role is required for which part of the process at which time.
Commonly facilitators are engaged to design and lead one-off workshops, events and meetings of various kinds. However, facilitation adds great value to broader and longer term processes of organizational change, development and capacity building as well.
These may involve multiple events or other interventions spread over time and geography, and often online as well as face to face participation.
When and how can facilitation help?
Most third sector leaders will not need convincing of the imperative to engage effectively with staff, service users and other stakeholders, to partner and collaborate with others, and to innovate to achieve more with less in the context of falling incomes and rising demand for services. Most leaders and their organizations will already be using facilitation to some extent to improve group effectiveness, with varying degrees of expertise, confidence and success.
However, many may not realize that there is a body of professional knowledge and expertise available for them to draw on, or just what value that professional facilitation expertise can add.
Expert facilitation can be particularly helpful where issues are complex or contentious, where perspectives and interests are many and diverse, and where a high degree of creativity, consensus and collaboration are required.
An external facilitator may be particularly helpful when the leader needs to contribute fully to content of the task, rather than its process, or when the group may find it difficult to trust that the leader’s facilitation will be content neutral.
In the short term, it is not quicker or cheaper to engage a professional facilitator, or even to design and facilitate a participatory process in-house – at least not compared to the traditional top-down approach of developing and cascading decisions, policies and plans from the top. However, if you’re wondering why your decisions, policies and plans sit gathering dust on a shelf, or why they are not delivering the outcomes that were hoped for, then it may be because stakeholders essential to their success were not involved adequately in the process. While taking a longer view, upfront investment in a more inclusive and effective process can save a great deal of time; and money in more effective implementation down the line.
If you are going to seek professional facilitation support, however, do not delay! The greater value to be gained from professional facilitation is not in the room with the group on the day, although even that alone can be considerable. The greater value is to be gained from the diagnosis and contracting with the client in advance, and the process design for the intervention. If you wait to seek support until too close to your deadline, even if you have designed a process yourself, you will be missing a major opportunity to benefit from the expertise of the facilitator.
What are the Benefits of Facilitation?
During any Value Added Facilitation, an initial discussion is generated with the Head of the Organization or Manager designated for the same. They may discuss the facilitation personally or in a Group consistent of their designated Associates. For all practical purposes let us call this a Group even if it may be only one person. A group of associates is recommended as it spreads the message throughout the operating team.
There are a number of common benefits to using facilitation skills in group settings:
• Group members are often more motivated to support the decisions made because of their investment in the process.
• The best efforts of groups usually produce better results than individual efforts.
• Increased participation within the group increases productivity.
• It is possible for managers and leaders to draw more on their staffs as resources, which contributes to overall organizational success.
• Everyone involved has a chance to contribute and feels they are an integral part of the team.
• People realize and respect that responsibility for implementing decisions lies with everyone.
• Innovation and problem-solving skills are built.
• People are encouraged to think and act for the overall benefit of the group.
• Higher-quality decisions normally result.
• A forum for constructively resolving conflicts and clarifying misunderstandings is created.
• Negative attitudes, low morale, low involvement, and withholding of information are less likely because everyone is involved in a joint process.
Why is Facilitation Important?
Facilitation is important because meetings of large groups of people can be very hard to organize as well as to control when they are in progress. First of all, a facilitator can help members of a group get to know each other and learn to cooperate.
Having a skilled facilitator run or lead a meeting should also help focus the energy and thoughts of the various members on the task at hand. Ideally, the group facilitator is someone who is not interested in the outcome of the meeting (decision-making). Therefore he or she can fully concentrate on how members of the group are working together and help the group work toward their goals, without bias. As a result, facilitation can be extremely useful in helping groups develop consensus on issues.
Facilitation has become a more and more important communication skill in recent times. Many businesses and organizations have restructured, giving more power to a wider range of employees. Companies and organizations are relying more heavily on the input of individual employees in a broad variety of decisions. In addition, professionals in many areas are also increasingly being asked to work as members of groups. Facilitation is therefore becoming a critical skill for coordinating the ideas and contributions of diverse sets of people within organizations. In today's organizations, facilitators play an essential role in discussions, meetings, teamwork, and overall organizational effectiveness.
Through this special service of Value Added Facilitation I pursue to offer the most important features that a Facilitator offers. These are covered in the Attributes of a Facilitator.
Attributes of a Facilitator
• Think logically.
• Exercise patience.
• Listen actively.
• Summarize accurately and quickly.
• Lead.
• Observe.
• Have a positive attitude.
Let us hence go ahead on this very positive service offered. Connect with me through the Contact us section and take advantage of this facility.
LET VALUE ADDED FACILITATION ADD VALUE TO YOUR BUSINESS AND SERVICES.
