Understanding Facilitation
by Family Councils Ontario
Leadership, communication, and productivity. What do these words have in common? They all sum up what it means to be a facilitator. Facilitation is a form of leadership that involves effective communication to gather a group and productively achieve a desired goal. It can be difficult and even daunting to facilitate a meeting and work with a group. But, that's what Family Councils are all about. A group of individuals coming together to form a collective. Family Councils need a facilitator to organize and lead the group process. Facilitators help the group yield better results, motivate members to problem solve, and implement higher quality decisions. A facilitator is a member of the team. It is important to understand that the facilitator does not solely determine the group's vision or purpose; rather, they help navigate the group process in communication, teamwork, and conflict resolution to help everyone achieve the best possible results.
You may think that a facilitator has a specific set of skills, and you’d be right. However, everyone has these skills and anyone can be a facilitator. The first step, is recognizing that you have the skills needed and learning how to use them. The role of a facilitator is to manage the group process. The process is how the group members work together, interact with one another and how decisions are made. The facilitator must guide and manage the process so that the group can focus its energy and creativity on its mission/goals.
The skills needed to do this include verbal skills to facilitate group discussions, bring groups to consensus and help groups manage confusion and conflict. Some common verbal skills include using open and close ended questions. An open ended question is a question that begins with “what,” “how," “who,” or “why.” These questions serve to get a discussion going and engage participants. Close ended questions on the other hand are fact finding or directive. They usually evoke a yes or no response and are used to move the group along or wrap up a discussion. Another great skill that facilitators use is giving positive reinforcement. Positively responding to efforts made by group members should never be negated or underestimated. Positive reinforcement encourages people to speak up, take risks in group work, come up with new ideas, participate and above all it creates a culture of respect. A little positive reinforcement goes a long way!
It’s common for groups to want meetings, discussions, and activities to go smoothly. There is an effort to stick together, harmonize, and come up with the same views. But, it is the job of the facilitator to encourage divergent views. This will help the group synthesize new ideas and fortify that it is okay to think differently or have a new idea. Divergent views are very different from conflict and it is important to distinguish the two, and as a facilitator to understand how to deal with conflict. Conflict is inevitable when working with diverse and multifaceted individuals. Conflict can arise from disagreement over facts, methods, goals, basic values experience and incompatible personalities etc. A facilitator plays a key role in helping groups resolve conflict. First, as a facilitator recognize potential points of conflict, create an atmosphere of openness and trust and encourage members to air out their grievances within the group as opposed to after a meeting. Make your group aware of how harbouring or hiding conflict can keep the group from achieving its goals. Create and reinforce ground rules so that group members understand how they should behave while in a meeting. Assert that Family Councils are build on a culture of openness, respect and diversity. Finally, insert skills that are unique to you. There is no single way to be a facilitator or run a meeting. Be creative and do what works for your group.
Strong, effective facilitation skills are essential to Family Council success. You already have many of these skills and can develop the ones you need. Consider learning more about facilitation to be an investment in your group's success!
For more information on facilitation and our new Family Council Facilitation Skills Workshop contact FCO.
- Olivia Saric, BSW Placement Student