The Impartial Facilitator

Facilitating (all rights reserved)

At it's purest, the facilitator should not have an opinion one way or the other about 'content'.  You are responsible for 'process' and 'recording', and nothing else.  Sometimes this will be the case.  In fact, you might be asked to facilitate a particular session for just this reason.

Do not use impartiality as an excuse not to do your homework.  You are expected to be neutral and unprejudiced, not ignorant.  Make sure you do your homework (see the post 'Do Your Homework').

In many situations you will have a larger interest than this.  For example, you may be facilitating a meeting of your industry colleagues on a topic of interest to you.

So what can you do?

• Hold off on making a contribution.  Save this until late/last.
• Ask a question rather than making a statement.  For example, rather than 'I think we need to pay more attention to our competitors'; you might ask 'do you think we know enough about our competitors?'
• Make your contribution verbally, and look for signs of confirmation or rejection from the group.  If you find confirmation, add it to the recorded input.  If not, be willing to give it up. 
• When you are recording input, use the words of the inputer, rather than your own words

At all times be aware of the need to demonstrate even-handedness.  If arguing your opinion could reduce your effectiveness as a facilitator, shut up or step aside.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Do Your Homework

Before a session, have a think about what you need to know.  There are some generic aspects, but mostly what you need to know will be driven by the situation in which you are facilitating.

Some of these questions should be asked during the session.  Others will need to be answered before the session.  Lots of these questions could be asked both before and during the session.

You may not be able to ask some of these questions outright - for example, in some circumstances you should not ask, "How tolerant are the key decision makers of dissenting views?"  This means you need to read between the lines to find out the answer.  The answer will generally be available, but you may need to be creative in your questioning, or simply listen hard to find the answer.

GENERIC ASPECTS

• Why is this session being held?
• How could 'success' be recognised?
• Who is going to attend?
• Why are these people attending?
• What do they want to get out of the session?
• Who are the key decision makers?
• How tolerant are the key decision makers of dissenting views?
• When is the session being held?  Why?
• Will the session start on time?
• Is finishing early or late OK?
• What is the venue?
• What equipment will be available/needed?
• What do I need to bring?
• Is butcher's paper OK?  (This may seem to be a strange question, but I've been caught out on this before.  Some people just seem to have something against butcher's paper.)

Example 1. STRATEGIC PLANNING
All the generic aspects, plus:

• Is this the right time to be doing strategic planning?
• Are the right people able to participate?
• How does the organisation see it's purpose?
• What is the organisation's history?
• Is there a past strategic plan?  Has performance been evaluated?
• Is there a documented Vision, Mission & Values?
• Do these need to be revisited?
• Who are the organisation's key partners and other stakeholders?
• What are the relationships like with key partners and key stakeholders?
• Who are the 'competitors'?
• What pressures are there on the organisation?
• What does the organisation want to achieve?
• How is the organisation funded?

Example 2. TRAINING
All the generic aspects, plus:

• Why training and not some other approach?
• What are the skill and knowledge gaps?
• What are the learning objectives?
• What organisational policies/procedures/practices/systems should be covered?
• What are people's preferred learning styles?
• What is this history of learning approaches?  (What will people expect or reject?)
• Is collated feedback from prior training events with this audience available?
• Is evaluation required?  How strict should it be?

These lists are not exhaustive, but I hope that they provide you some ideas to work with.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au