The Magic Forces of Facilitation

When my middle son was 12 he was into magic. He would study various tricks and then perform them for the family. I don’t mean to brag, but he was very clever at it. Even though I knew there were methods he had learnt, it looked like magic to me. I couldn’t work out how he did it.

Great facilitation looks like magic – a group of people coming together, often with very different ideas and personalities, creating something new. It seems to come out of thin air. Yet the facilitator, like a good ringmaster, keeps things moving without being overly intrusive or controlling.

What makes some people great at facilitating groups of people to a clear and compelling outcome?

I want to suggest that there are four core skills that great facilitators have mastered.

1. Attending Skills

Attending skills are communication skills that form a foundation for group facilitation. Attending involves skills that help you build rapport and make contact with another person and hear how they understand the world.

At their heart attending skills are about being fully present to the group. This sounds very simple, yet the majority of people find staying fully present in the moment and to the group very difficult. Research reveals that the average time people will wait to interrupt someone else speaking is…17 seconds. If we are only waiting 17 seconds then some of that time is taken up with thinking about our response.

Attending behaviours allow participants to actually observe that the facilitator is paying attention to the process.  There are three observable skills that are associated with attending behaviours.  They are as follows:

1. Use of eye contact.  Looking at someone when they speak allows them to see that you are paying attention to them. However, beware of falling into the trap of staring at people.  This makes them uneasy and defeats the purpose.  On the other hand, looking away from a participant who is dominating a group or is rambling lets him/her know that time is up.
2. Use of body language.  Most people do not realize how powerful this skill can be.  Think of a social situation in which one person is sitting with crossed legs and arms and staring at the ceiling.  Standing next to that person is someone who is making eye contact with others in the room and smiling.  With which person would you rather speak?  In most cases, the person who seems open and inviting is the person with whom who we choose to socialise.  The same can be said about the group situation.  A facilitator who uses relaxed, open postures and natural gestures places participants at ease with the process and invites participation.  Part of the magic of great facilitation is to be comfortable in your own skin. If you are nervous (which we all are at times) it is critical to not let your body betray this state. If our nerves master us, instead of us mastering them, the group unconsciously picks up on this and there is a transference that occurs.

It is not necessary for a facilitator to smile falsely or sit rigidly, however one’s body should be used to communicate that one is involved in and relaxed with the process. 

Body language can also be used to let a participant know that s/he is dominating the dialogue or running overtime.  Looking directly at the speaker and crossing arms or legs sends a non-verbal cue that it is time to stop talking.  Conversely, looking at a quiet participant and gently smiling and nodding can send the message that it is not only OK, but desirable that s/he share with the group.

It is important to note that in a group larger than 20 people or seated in auditorium style seating, the body language of the facilitator must be more pronounced.  For example, when a participant speaks, making eye contact with him/her is not enough.  The facilitator should physically move in the direction of that person either by turning or walking toward him/her.
            
3. Use of discretion.  The dialogue will achieve its own natural pace.  Do not try to rush it or slow it down if participants seem content with it.  Do not cut off topics or introduce new topics prematurely.  Alert participants when ten minutes are left in a session and give them the option of wrapping up or extending the meeting.    

Attending behaviours allow a facilitator to show participants that s/he is paying attention to the process.  However, merely observing the process is not enough.  As facilitators, we must also demonstrate that we hear and understand the content of what is being communicated.

These skills are used to support all four types of group learning: engaging, informing, involving, and planning.

2. Observing the Group

One of the key skills of a seasoned facilitator is observing the group. Among group members behaviours, attitudes, opinions, and experiences of each member are collectively influenced by other group members. The dynamics of the group are dependent on the dynamics of the individual’s following the group norms/ground rules, contributions to formation, development and performance. As observers we are interested in observing the group dynamics, group process and group functions.

Group dynamics –  A great deal can be learned by observation. If one sits back quietly in a group ― any group ― one will begin to see certain behavioural patterns emerge.

There will be at least one person who tends to take the lead in conversation, offering his or her thoughts and opinions freely. There will be at least one person who remains quiet, sometimes not even appearing interested in the conversation. There may be someone who tends to interrupt other people, someone who wants the conversation to move along faster, or who wants to focus on a different subject. Another person may be concerned about peoples’ feelings and may try to make everyone feel equally welcome. These are only a few of the roles that people assume without even thinking about it when they are in a group setting.

Group functions – in each group different people play various roles. Belbin identified 9 roles that people play. Group roles are largely determined by a combination of a person’s personality and his or her experience with group settings. A person who is shy is more likely to sit back in a group. A person who is impatient is more likely to push the discussion ahead. A person who is very confident will offer more opinions

A team must consist of different roles to achieve maximum performance. The nine roles are essentially complementary. They complement and reinforce each other, but they can also contradict and compete with each other. A team role says a lot about the style of work of a team member and comes from the personality of the individual.

In practice, we all have two or three team roles that fit us naturally and some that we really do not like.

3. The Art of Listening

How often in our daily conversations do we really listen beyond our own thoughts to understand what another person means? And how rarely do we listen deeply enough to sense the motive and emotion behind the words? Yet getting beyond an introspective position is the first step in working with others in a collaborative way. Understanding and being able to employ three levels of listening is an essential skill for facilitators:

• Listening to self (own thoughts)
• Listening for meaning (content)
• Listening for depth (intent, emotion, intuition)

What behaviours and techniques can help us listen at a deeper level?

• Presence – Concentrate on the conversation. Consciously centre yourself, being aware of bodily sensations such as breathing and stance. Listen at a slight distance, using “soft eyes and soft ears” – this means listening without judgment, visibly conveying warmth and compassion. If you are kinaesthetic, hold an object to help you concentrate.

• Comfort with Silence – Slow down, allowing more space between thoughts, especially when much emotion is present. Be intentional about pauses or even saying, “Let’s take a moment to think about this…”

• Working with That Inner Voice – Begin to notice the “chatter” playing in the background of your mind during meetings and conversations. Recognize when your inner voice is helpful and based on intuition, versus when it is sabotaging your efforts to understand the other person. Bring personal thoughts forward by asking permission or forming an inquiry, rather than stating them as fact.

• Active Listening – We too frequently leap VERY quickly from unformed, abstract ideas to conclusions. Using the active listening techniques listed in table below can be helpful in checking assumptions, clarifying our own thoughts, and understanding others.

Below are some key active listening techniques that I review regularly to ensure I am improving my active listening skills.

4. Questioning Techniques

Questions are a powerful way of:

• Learning: Ask open and closed questions, and use probing questioning.
• Relationship building: People generally respond positively if you ask about what they do or enquire about their opinions. If you do this in an affirmative way “Tell me what you like best about working here”, you will help to build and maintain an open dialogue.
• Avoiding misunderstandings: Use probing questions to seek clarification, particularly when the consequences are significant. And to make sure you avoid jumping to conclusions, the Ladder of Inference can help too.
• Defusing a heated situation: You can calm an angry customer or colleague by using funnel questions to get them to go into more detail about their grievance. This will not only distract them from their emotions, but will often help you to identify a small practical thing that you can do, which is often enough to make them feel that they have “won” something, and no longer need to be angry.
• Persuading people: No one likes to be lectured, but asking a series of open questions will help others to embrace the reasons behind your point of view. “What do you think about bringing the sales force in for half a day to have their laptops upgraded?”

5. Appreciative Inquiry (Bonus)

Appreciative Inquiry (Hammond, 1996) is a process designed by organizational development specialists as a tool to help create and support sustainable change by identifying organizational assets to use as models of best practice for others. Rather than studying and addressing existing problems and focusing on solutions – an inherently negative experience –

Appreciative Inquiry begins by helping groups in shared work settings systematically explore past successes to create models for future success.

The table below compares Appreciative Inquiry with a typical problem-solving approach (Hammond, 1996).

Central to the Appreciative Inquiry method is a belief that pride in one’s organization is a largely untapped resource. As individuals, and then groups, review success, they can subsequently create the future to mirror past, best standards of achievement. In such shared planning, people will more readily commit to an energetic process of working toward highest standards. The atmosphere must shift noticeably from problem solving to creating positive, new plans. The resulting set of propositions is the basis for change. The power of Appreciative Inquiry is that it is an engaged, excited process. It can be used spontaneously (for example, when a discussion becomes stuck on “war stories”) and can become an integrated communications process informed by values of respect and affirmation. The process is continuous and generative by nature which means, simply, that successful ideas will produce further success, particularly when all are invited to participate.

Steps in the Appreciative Inquiry Process

1. Facilitator assists group in choosing a topic that is important to the organization. (Example: successful meetings)

2. The group creates a specific focus within the topic. (e.g., agenda planning)

3. In pairs or small groups, people recall past successes in this area and discuss the “conditions” of the success: What was it, how did it

happen, how could we do more of this in the future?

4. Examples of small group discussions are shared with all, and the facilitator helps the group move from anticipated “politically correct” examples to those that are based in a genuine, heartfelt pride.

5. Group writes “provocative propositions” related to success. It is important for the entire group to participate and for the facilitator to move the group from individual will to group energy in this step. The provocative propositions are affirmative statements of future expectations of success based on past success that challenge the status quo. These statements should:

• Challenge or interrupt the current day-to-day reality
• Be grounded in past examples
• Be what everyone really wants
• Be bold, and stated in the present tense as if the future success were occurring right now.