The role of the facilitator - to follow the 'real' intention of a process

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I cannot believe I have not blogged in a whole year!!!! Where has the time gone? As a freelance independent facilitator and consultant, domestic life has enveloped me and consumed me which means inbetween balancing work and homelife, I have no time for reflective thinking about the work that I do!

So now I have decided it is time to stop and write something.

I have been exceptionally busy with various kinds of social processes from group coaching to diversity appreciation training to strategic planning and organisational development processes.

All of these have one thing in common - group energy and group intention. By this I mean what the group really wants to do will only emerge in the moment when people come together and if you as the facilitator will allow them to express their need and intention. This despite what you have been tasked to do with the group or even what they may have asked you to do - in many cases this will have been contracted by management or part of a set course they have been asked to attend.

This group intention is what happens when people come together and start to talk - various conversations start to give birth to issues which need airing and questions which need clarifying. As the facilitator your role is to listen intently for what is needing to come through the group. This might be in line with what the planned process was or it may be contradictory or even complimentary. As a facilitator you need to be authentic in your role otherwise the group will lose respect for you if you do not respect their need and intention. If you allow it, the process becomes more real and the possibilities for real engagement and transformation start to unfold. All the while you need to be holding the group with integrity, offering whatever wisdom you have from your own experience that may throw light on what they are dealing with or provide inspiration to open up new ideas. The facilitator needs to feel the energy and go with it, allow for group members to provide whatever wisdom they have to offer the process. It needs a 'letting go' balanced with 'good containment' for keeping the groups' intention so that it is not too unbounded and open that it does not bring things together and connect people to each other.

As a facilitator letting go does not mean giving up your role, it just means that you allow space for group members to come in as needed to provide whatever the group needs to move forward. I have found that a conversational approach that allows people to share in a relaxed space is best rather than a contrived set up space where everything is too preplanned and mechanical. This means offering opportunities to work individually, in pairs, threes, larger groups and a whole group plenary. These different constellations allow for better sharing and openness rather than keeping the group in plenary all the time.

Getting to a point of real engagement requires an environment that opens up spaces and this means allowing the conversation to flow, making good interventions where necessary, using vital moments to bring in conceptual understanding or experiential exercises - these can all add to a good social process that allows for good engagement and transformative experiences! Most of all it means really listening to the group and respecting them allowing them to lead the process as much as you as the facilitator are offering to lead the group with integrity.

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