Principles of Facilitation
Facilitation of participatory decision-making during workshops and group processes.
The promise of participatory decision-making is widely recognised: Better understanding, creative and fitting solutions, and decisions that are supported by the largest possible number of stakeholders. Facilitation is the art of managing the diversity and variety that exists within groups, to produce well thought-out answers to the issues the group faces. In a well-facilitated meeting or workshop, participants focus on common issues, mutual understanding, and consensus on workable solutions. Owing to professional facilitation the participants achieve results that would have been very difficult, time-consuming or stressful to arrive at on their own. MDF sees facilitation as a key competency to enable individuals to contribute their best and become committed to a common goal. In our perception a key challenge of facilitation is to keep all ownership with the participants, yet to know the topic well enough to ensure that realistic discussions focus on the right issues.
Groundwork
Prior to a workshop, interviews with the key stakeholders are essential. The facilitator assists in making a detailed analysis of the gap between the desired situation after the workshop and the present situation. What blocks the participants to achieve the desired situation all by themselves? What is in the way? On the basis of this gap analysis the facilitator and client formulate the desired results and objectives, and design a workshop or a series thereof. Sometimes other interventions like coaching or mediation are vital as well. The facilitator(s) often warrant and direct the compilation of a comprehensive report of the workshops in the language used during the workshop.
How does facilitation work?
The facilitation job starts in collaboration with the contract client. They handle the gap analysis, establish a focus question, elaborate and agree on the workshop design, and decide which stakeholders to invite. A first activity with the workshop participants is to confirm or refine the focus question, as stakeholder agreement on this focus question is the foundation of all further efforts. The subsequent workshop usually comprises of group-work and plenary sessions, in which sub-group results are reported back and integrated into a comprehensive analysis and agreement. A workshop takes from half a day to 10 days, depending on the gap that needs to be bridged during the workshop, the number of participants and the budget available.
