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FACILITATION: ENABLE, ASSIST, EXPEDITE, ACCELERATE

In life and in literature, there has been little effort to differentiate between leadership and facilitation. There are, of course, management functions that require little or no leading, such as organizing and presenting financial statements, or crafting and managing a work schedule for a crew. Design assumes that your impact as facilitator can influence the quality or quantity of the outcome. Thus, enabling people to solve a problem, assisting in the resolution of conflict, expediting the collaborative process, and accelerating movement toward meaningful action are all things facilitators do as they energize both the what and how of work. And these things support the process of getting things done and moving forward. For us, it assumes implementing designs that act as catalysts in the process of doing.

The 10 behavioral abilities in chapter 4 have the facilitator doing something to improve the outcome, the motivation or action of others, using a principle, behavioral skill, or method thought to be essential. While performance management is traditionally a leadership function, it involves the deepest kind of listening and empathy, the clearest feedback, goal setting, and visioning possible. It is the ultimate in facilitation. And conflict will most certainly rear its ugly head along the way. For your purposes, intentionality in each of these behaviors is essential while considering the consequences of your own actions—again, often in real time. All these facilitating actions demand your willingness to scrutinize your own impact in light of your intentions.

The 13 designs in chapters 5-7 provide keys to aid the facilitator in moving the individual or team forward, maximizing their efforts and helping ensure their success. Choosing the right design from the pool is one challenge, as is learning to assess the consequence of your choice. Ultimately, success will be determined by how well you are able to create unique designs that match the assessed needs of any group, meeting, or individual. Like an artist with a palette, you choose creative strategies of engagement that prompt those often silent to speak, bring new ideas to light, and reduce differences so these new ideas can breathe, offering the satisfaction that comes from a truly creative act. Here is portrayed the art of design.

Reading about the 13 designs helps draw you into this essential way of thinking and acting. If you follow these designs with discipline and rigor, we have no doubt they will strengthen you as both a facilitator and a member of the groups and meetings you attend. Practice, with a dash of risk and openness to what is possible, can turn a bland stew into a delightfully tasty meal. We hope you find delectable tastes among these well-crafted designs, with the result being an excited and emboldened facilitator.