The wheel of facilitation: how it helps to develop teams and individuals in the organisational design
Teams and individuals, in this complex time, struggle with coordinations, clarity of tasks and how to reduce systemic pressures. The one thing I learnt from 7 years of facilitating is that good facilitation helps teams and employees, in the organisation life cycle, with tackling challenges and creates strong engagement and connections.
I have been facilitating workshops for startups, incubator programs, corporate, and entrepreneurs. Each of these projects have influenced my approach. However, looking back, I realise now that my education in facilitation began during my 15 years as a pro basketball player. Discipline, adaptability, collaborative leadership: these aspects are crucial, in facilitation as well as in top sport.
As I managed group dynamics, I identified 10 learnings and principles that help me achieve quality in the facilitation process, regardless of whether we’re using design thinking, lean start-up, ecosystem thinking or any other innovation tool.
For me, these are the ten spokes that spin the wheel of facilitation:
1. Know a little about the topic — But not too much:. Be familiar with the knowledge area that you will facilitate. When some areas are blurry, have your own questions ready. You do not have to be an expert, you need to have good questions and input. Send your brief to the participants or client and make it as accessible as possible.
2. Use interactive technologies. They play an important touch to facilitation as participants need to feel easy and familiar with your workshop’s tools. In a physical workshop, arrange your tools with post-its and pre-designed canvases. In remote settings, using the likes of Miro, Lucidchart, Mural or Loom give you similar interaction superpowers. . Make sure you select or introduce the easiest tool for your participants, if necessary send them instructions beforehand.
3. Be clear about your impact. Ask yourself: what are you facilitating for? Clarify if you are facilitating the process or the outcomes of the session, e.g. a culture related matter or an innovation method. Discuss it beforehand with your stakeholders. To set the tone, this will need to be shared with the participants in the room as well.
4. Create and rehearse your script: time it!. Jot down a list of actions and content, from check-in to check-out. If you are facilitating in real life and it is the first time you use a physical space, go for a little inspection. Imagine how you will move and arrange the room.
5. Embrace cultural awareness and nuances. Understanding cultural nuances is a valuable compass. Be alert to power dynamics and personality traits. The participants’ mindsets can vary from dominant to lazy presence, from high proactive energy to silent energy. And finally, prepare for reluctant participants.
6. Think of your leadership style. Consider how you feel comfortable guiding, how to lead with calmness, intervene to bring it back on track with open hearth and stewardship. Remember to make people feel important by engaging their cognitive space. Pro tip: during dialogues, a silence of 10 seconds might also help.
7. Be prepared for the unexpected: Preparation entails also to balance planning and be aware of the unknown. A last minute twist in your plan, or a technical, organisational, emotional obstacle might take place during the session. There is no recipe, but a willingness to welcome mistakes will allow you to adapt and take ownership.
8. Endorse knowledge sharing. Your own organisation is likely to use Slack, Confluence and the likes. However, share upfront how you will be documenting and reporting the results and any content. This will express your sense of commitment to create a record of a learning journey.
9. Measure your performance index with feedback. Create a simple survey asking to rate how they perceive your facilitation, clarity of communication, how helpful the approach supported the alignment of expectations. Use this practice to improve your next session.
10. Reflect and keep practising. Take the time to do a retrospective with the participants,between one to five days after the session. More importantly, take the time and reward your effort, to celebrate with yourself in your own authentic way.
I have no doubt that the facilitation tools will evolve. Just think of the rise of AI, Virtual and Augmented Reality. We’ll see more micro-learning with short modules, gamification, social learning platforms, adaptive learning path, personalised learning journeys, neuroscience in learning design. But at the core of the facilitation process is the concept of triggering human capabilities such as empathy and creativity to generate collaboration beyond the technology.
Why we need more facilitators
I believe facilitation is the engine that supports the behavioral layer of an organization to face the challenges to assess technological innovation. It is the net to bounce back from internal conflict, miscommunication and lack of alignment and learn from failure and collective efforts.
I believe facilitation is like the bass guitar sound in your favourite song. It seems like it is not there but, when it is not, the difference is vital. (disclaimer: yes, I am a bass player 😁)
Good facilitation can enable teams to deal with a very wide variety of challenges.
- At OpenQ facilitation assisted alignment to bring together founders, developers and an external advisor to believe and focus on an ecosystem and community-centric approach
- At Cobiom, facilitation supported the shift from building products and services to building communities, the swarm of sustainability experts.
- At DeepWork Studio, the added value was to advise, during the incubator program, a product team by signalling opportunities and outlining solutions with a co-created clear tasks’ management.
- At Aragon, the facilitation impact guided a team action research to deliver an onboarding digital handbook.
- At ClimateBase the added value was to steward a half-formed idea into a structured discovery phase.
Interestingly, I’ve found that different companies fit facilitators into different boxes and times. I’ve been part of People and Team Development, been called a People and Culture Manager, Learning & Development Coordinator, Community Coordinator and a Strategic People Partner. 🤷
I believe this proves my point that good facilitation benefits a company across siloes, teams and business units. In the end, it’s simple. What makes me happy as a facilitator is to bring the individuals, communities and teams, in a place of confidence, where people can participate, while taking ownership of decisions and feeling empowered. This will develop career development frameworks, propel feedback culture and create team satisfaction. Applying facilitation skills enhances work relationships, builds morale, and increases productivity, performance and retention.
You can connect with me on Linkedin. Read more about my journey and experience on my website ChangeTheRiver and YouTube Channel.
