For Better Results, Center Participant Contributions as Invaluable Resources (Facilitation Friday #39)
Be more resourceful centering and leveraging the resource-full participant communities in workshops and meetings.
I don’t think it was intentional. At least I hope it wasn’t. But I once participated in a meeting in which the facilitator treated us almost like props or characters in a play or movie. We were present less to accomplish what was on our minds and more to fulfill his directorial vision. It wasn’t a good feeling.
I was reminded of this experience while rereading Advanced Facilitation, a slim but valuable primer by Trevor Bentley and Howard Boorman. The book closes with this powerful observation from Bentley:
“From a facilitation perspective the resources most valuable to us in their order of importance are:
The group we are working with
Ourselves
Our co-facilitator/supporter
The environment and facilities
Our toolbox and materials”
(Advanced Facilitation, p. 65)
At first glance, you might say “Well duh. Of course the participants are the most valuable resource.”
I’m of a mind though that the design and facilitation of many meetings and workshops might suggest otherwise, sadly including parts of my own at various moments in my career.
Yet whenever I’m stuck or floundering a bit as a facilitator—perhaps too focused on what tool or technique to use—the group almost always has the answer if I let go of my need to fix things and simply ask: “What would you find most helpful right now?”
Doing so echoes Bentley’s thinking of what becomes possible if we first center or privilege the resourcefulness of participants.
Why Some May Not Fully Center Participants
It’s easy to understand why less experienced facilitators might focus more on the environment and facilities, themselves, and their toolbox and materials: to a certain extent, they can control these elements. While obviously important—heaven knows few people obsess over them as much as I do to help create optimal conditions—they rarely match the aggregate power of participants to shape better discussions, decisions, and results.
When I’ve coached workshop presenters on how to design and facilitate more engaging learning experiences, another control need often surfaces. Many fear what might happen if they “turn people loose” in an activity or discussion. They worry that people may not stay on task or that the right topics won’t be explored. Of course this can happen. That’s why effective session design includes preparing to call an audible and modify on the fly and to structure small group work to ensure it is productive.
Dig a bit deeper into this desire for control and a mental model sometimes reveals itself: these individuals see themselves as presenters of content, not facilitators of learning. This self-perception and/or their ego may be one reason why some presenters cling to the old “sage on the stage” approach: they want (or need) participants to find them smart and knowledgeable … if not omnipotent and all-knowing. They think the attention should center on them instead of the participants. While perhaps relatable, this limiting mindset often produces underwhelming learning experiences for participants.
Centering Participants’ as Knowledge Resources
Advance surveying of participants for one of my facilitation skills workshops revealed that they saw themselves as highly capable facilitators compared to others (4.13 on a 5.00 scale). As such, I opened with a multi-round activity to help surface some of their knowledge and share it with each other. I played a minimal role during those 30 minutes, the result of having structured a simple and engaging process for participants to learn from—and share with—each other.
While debriefing that opening activity, I shared my general guideline for workshop content: the more participants possess content knowledge and insights relevant to a session’s intended outcomes, the less likely I am to present that information.
Instead, privilege active learning formats and focus on helping participants’ contributions surface, get shared, and be applied in meaningful ways. Make strategic choices about session design and conversation formats that will best honor participants’ insights and experience. Save presentation segments for areas where you may have unique knowledge or ideas to contribute.
Bottom line?
The power is in the people. Always. Effective facilitation sees participants’ knowledge, experience, and perspectives as content integral to achieving meeting or workshop outcomes. Sessions that are more resourceful in centering participants’ contributions in meaningful ways and that create an equitable, inclusive, and safe climate will accelerate and amplify the value they can offer each other.
Getting in Action
How might your session design and facilitation change if you better applied the mindset that participants are invaluable resources for achieving session outcomes?
When do you most effectively center participants’ knowledge and insights in your session design and facilitation? How might you do more of that?
In what types of meetings or workshops are you less likely to take full advantage of what participants can contribute? Why might that be and how can you adjust to better tap into what they can offer?
© Facilitate Better and Jeffrey Cufaude. All rights reserved.
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