Help Surface What's Hidden for Better Discussions and Decisions (Facilitation Friday #7)
One of the core principles of effective facilitation
If you only facilitate what is expressed in a meeting, a group may never have the discussions that matter most or address the most important questions it needs to consider.
Effective facilitation helps individuals and groups identify and discuss the important issues they may be unaware of or unwilling to address, as well as the assumptions or beliefs behind the opinions expressed or decisions considered. These may be issues or thinking perceived as too “hot” or fraught with potential conflict to address or they may be topics difficult to discuss freely given the mix of meeting participants.
That's why creating an equitable, inclusive, and safe climate is so important. Without it, individuals may not raise difficult questions, contribute alternative perspectives, or challenge assumptions behind others' thinking. It is also why facilitators with a stake in the conversation may need to manage how their lack of neutrality could impede open and honest discussion.
Making it easier for participants to contribute freely
Facilitators should identify how to best support participants when they perceive the conversation climate isn’t conducive to them speaking freely. Skillful questioning and non-intrusive observations can make it easier for them to share concerns, perspectives, or ideas. Here are several possible facilitative contributions:
I wonder if the current conversation gets at the core issue(s) or addresses what matters most to you.
What other important questions need discussion today?
What other perspectives might we need to consider?
What’s not being said, but needs to be a part of this conversation?
What assumptions are behind the course of action under consideration?
What unintentional biases might be at play in this discussion?
Don’t be surprised if participants sometimes avoid direct answers or initially remain silent, particularly if they perceive that responding might make them vulnerable. Hold the space. Allow some time to pass. Someone often responds and others follow.
Facilitation must help surface unacknowledged or invisible beliefs, thoughts, patterns.
If someone says, "Well everyone knows we need to change things around here" the facilitator should hear one individual asserting an opinion as universal truth and probe it non-judgmentally: "Jerome suggested people agree about the need to change. What do others think?"
Similarly, when individuals offer a specific course of action as a fait accompli or assert a particularly strong opinion, effective facilitation can help them share the thought process behind their perspective: "Susan, could you tell us a little more about what's led you to your conclusion?” When participants “show their work,” the additional information shared often leads to better understanding and may decrease resistance to—or increase support for—their opinion or recommended course of action.
And because facilitators tend to listen to the conversation as a whole more than participants, we can check what they make of any patterns we observe: "Many of you seem excited when talking about XXX, but the group has interest or enthusiasm for YYY. What is your sense?”
The more that teams, boards, committees, and work groups learn to address issues openly and honestly, the more productive their relationships and work activity can become. When speaking freely is less likely, facilitators can still use real-time techniques to help get the right content into the conversation. Example:
Provide all participants a large index card. Ask them to note one question or issue that really needs discussion, but that people are unlikely to raise directly in the group. Explain that you will anonymously read the card responses back to the group. After all cards are read, help the group identify how they want to address the topics just surfaced.
More issues can now be addressed openly, a short-term tactical success. Long-term group progress requires facilitated conversation about what needs to occur for participants to freely express their opinions directly and openly in the future.
Why surfacing matters
By attending to the relationships among individuals in a group and the natural dynamics that unfold as they work with each other, facilitation can increase people’s comfort in engaging in open and honest dialogue. Individuals feel supported in making statements that previously they might have found too difficult to share, such as opinions that counter conventional wisdom or the perspective of those holding the greatest power. They may also become more comfortable respectfully sharing how work conditions or others’ behavior affect them and their efforts.
The Quakers have a wonderful belief that "Everyone holds a piece of the truth." One of the riskiest meeting behaviors is when a conversation doesn't surface and explore individuals’ truths, but instead addresses the glossy abstractions they might offer to avoid rocking the boat. Everyone puts in the time, but will have less to show for it.
To help a group continually progress with discussing what matters most, you may find it helpful to periodically (or regularly) ask these evaluation questions:
What percentage of this meeting dealt with the most important issues or questions?
What else needed to be discussed?
What might have allowed people to speak more openly and honestly?
Bottom Line?
We must help people have robust, inclusive, and meaningful conversations, ones that talk about the ideas and issues that matter most. Issues and opinions can only remain below the surface for so long before they need to escape lest they suffocate a group’s effective and forward momentum. Effective facilitation makes it easier for them "come to the top" in a helpful way, one that supports better discussions, decisions, and results.
Getting in Action
Think of meetings you’ve experienced where the “real conversation” only happened during break, offline, or after the actual gathering. Why was that? What was needed to ensure the important conversations happened with the full group convened?
When facilitating, if you sense some participants avoid difficult discussions, what might you do? What are potential consequences of the actions you identified and how would you prepare for each of them?
In soliciting input for a meeting agenda (or feedback on a draft agenda), what questions might you ask to ensure the most important topics are included and that the discussion of them will be robust and inclusive?
© Facilitate Better and Jeffrey Cufaude. All rights reserved.
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