Process/Group Facilitation

"The greatest distance between two people is a misunderstanding"
(Luiza Fletcher)

The facilitation of groups and teams can be seen as a "group" coaching process. It also starts with listening to the client (the team, the organisation, the parties) in order to understand their focus - where they want to go - and help them to chart - what is the path (process) to get there. The difference is that here the focus is collective, there is a group, or sometimes multiple groups that want - or need - to reach a common goal together.

Facilitators exist to help groups (teams, teams, organisations) be more effective. In acting, a facilitator seeks to design and conduct a process to balance the participation of group members in the collective work and desired outcomes.

As a facilitator, I am a person who is not part of the organisation or team, and therefore impartial. I come to help host difficult conversations, to organise ideas (integrating multiple and diverse opinions), the form of interaction (with more mutual respect) and bring out all the creative and wisdom potential that already exists individually and in the group.

Thus, common positive results, an aligned shared vision, and clear next steps in action are achieved more easily, with more lightness and less stress on those involved, even in groups where emotions are high. In the process, we also aim to strengthen the bonds of trust between participants and their ability to continue working together thereafter.

In general, organisations, groups, and teams hire me as a facilitator to support and steward various types of processes that involve dialogue between people and diverging views and opinions: joint decisions, strategic planning, building alliances between different organisations, developing new concepts and projects in teams, evaluating and recording of lessons learned in a program, building consensus around projects or public policies, among others.

Where to start

A facilitated process begins by setting a common group goal / agenda / work plan - what do we want to achieve together?, followed by designing the best process - a meeting? several meetings? preparatory work online and offline? Data collection processes accompanied by the establishment of working groups?

The process is in service of the desired outcome, the strengthening of relationships, and the empowerment of those who will need to exercise their responsibilities and roles.

The advantages

Sharing ideas and building decisions in a participatory way allow participants to see their contributions reflected in the results achieved. The presence of an external facilitator helps participants to confront ideas that may be barriers to group growth; to openly name assumptions and limiting beliefs that make it difficult for the group/project to reach their goals, and also to become aware of dysfunctional dynamics in the group. All this without generating so much defensiveness, as the facilitator does not have a stake in the process.

Results

Teams that learn to work together under a new dynamic; meetings that deliver the desired results in less time and with more clarity; strategic plans / projects / decisions built and seen as legitimate by those involved, generating full engagement in their implementation.