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Measuring up to the greats: how good a facilitator are you?

By Larry Reynolds (August 2004 Issue)
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Facilitation is about working with a group of people to get some kind of result, whether the result is a decision, learning or personal growth. It’s useful to think of three ‘modes’ of facilitation (see Figure 1).

Mode one is decision making. As a facilitator you are called in to help a group reach some kind of decision. It may be which colour to paint the staff canteen, or it may be the vision and strategy of the organisation for the next five years. In essence, the group has to make a decision and you help them to reach that decision. As the facilitator you are not there to influence the decision (in many cases you know so little about the topic that you don’t have an opinion), but to help the group make a decision.

Mode two is learning. As a facilitator you are helping the group to develop skills, knowledge or attitudes. You are not the ‘sage on the stage’, the expert sharing pearls of wisdom with grateful acolytes; rather, you are someone who is able to have group members share their existing skills, knowledge and attitudes with each other, thereby enriching everybody’s learning.

Mode three is personal growth. As a facilitator you are observing the group interactions with a view to intervening in a way that promotes the personal growth of individuals. Someone else may be chairing the meeting and ensuring the group attends to ...

 

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