Abstract
Facilitation (assisting a group) is an art, a creative undertaking in which the group’s moderator needs to continually act, focusing on what is currently happening while taking into account a group’s setting, participants, aims, relevant history, current situation and future opportunities. This chapter discusses the creative facilitation of meetings and provides a case study which points to some of the problems that can develop when not enough attention is given to effective facilitation.
This chapter is an updated version of “The Art of Facilitation” that appeared in Moving Toward a Just Peace (2014) edited by Jan Marie Fritz (2014).
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Notes
- 1.
Nielsen (2012, p. 87) wrote about how “a range of semiotic resources (whiteboard, colored cards, speed markers, re-usable adhesive putty, body posture, gestures, gazes, pauses and talk) is used in a facilitated meeting.
- 2.
Shaw et al. (2010, p. 4) indicated “the true art of an effective facilitator is often not always about the methods, tools or techniques that they employ but on the internal condition of the facilitator” which allows the facilitator to “create transformation in groups.”
- 3.
According to Shaw et al. (2010, p. 4), “as scholars and practicing facilitators have emphasized, facilitators work intuitively, and often need to act in the moment…deciding if, when and how to intervene…”
- 4.
Smock and Serwer (2012, p. 2) indicate that the three components of facilitated dialogue in conflict and post-conflict situations are (1) being sensitive to situations and intervening as needed to make conversations productive, (2) focusing on underlying interests and (3) organizing topics to achieve early consensus on less-difficult topics.
- 5.
Robert’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised, (11th ed.), is a widely used parliamentary authority in the U.S. The first edition of the procedures was published in 1876.
- 6.
According to The State of Queensland, Department of Justice and Attorney-General (Australia) (n.d.), “mediation doesn’t usually involve large numbers of people… [and] facilitation is used for large-scale disputes, often involving several parties, an organization, a department or entire community.”
- 7.
Shaw and his colleagues (2010, p. 5) have defined intentional facilitator in the following way: “we use the label ‘intentional’ to distinguish a purposeful (or formal or professional) facilitator from one who facilitates a group meeting with only a tacit awareness of the reasons or motives behind actions or with limited knowledge of facilitation tools and techniques.”
- 8.
Hardiman and Dewing (2018, 2769) identify two types of facilitators—novice and proficient.
- 9.
Dukes and Firehock (2001, p. 32) noted that “a volunteer facilitator, or even a paid agency staff person with minimum training, may not have the skills required to help parties negotiate the twists and turns of a highly political and/or highly technical issue: Innocent mistakes by an untrained person may result in parties leaving the group or other adverse outcomes.”
- 10.
See, for instance, Herd (2019, 21–27).
- 11.
Full implementation did not happen. According to Brian Ross (2012) of CR Planning, the implementation work was to be managed by an employee of the small parks department and not the consultants. Most of the plan was not implemented because the parks department employee who was to manage the implementation was hired away by another organization and county officials disbanded the parks department and shifted the responsibility for parks to another county department that had a different focus.
- 12.
Nielsen (2012, p. 89) indicated that “a workshop facilitator is often an external consultant , working to organize and lead events like meetings, seminars, workshops and group sessions in order to help their participants reach a certain goal or conclusion defined in advance (by the participants or the management).”
- 13.
See, for instance, Retreats that Work (2006) by Liteman, Campbell and Liteman.
- 14.
Those who want more information about defining roles in meetings may find it useful to look at How to Make Meetings Work (1976) by Michael Doyle and David Straus.
- 15.
The example described here is based on an actual case that is discussed at length in “The Bumpy Road to a Tobacco-Free Community: Lessons from Well City” (Fritz et al. 2000). Pseudonyms are used here and in the original article for the names of the city and individuals.
- 16.
Five years after Marge’s group (BADLAW) lost its last court battle against the city, Marge Can, 52, died of lung cancer. During the 20 years she had lived in Well City, Marge unsuccessfully tried many methods to quit smoking, including acupuncture, hypnosis, and the patch. She did not try to quit smoking while she was the spokesperson for BADLAW. One year before she died, Marge learned she had lung cancer and would have to have surgery. She stopped smoking. During her last year, she established a website to let others follow her progress in dealing with cancer. When she became too weak to type her own website entries, family members made the entries for her. The obituary that appeared in the local paper noted Marge’s community service, particularly her volunteer work on behalf of the American Cancer Society .
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Fritz, J.M. (2021). The Art of Facilitation. In: Fritz, J.M. (eds) International Clinical Sociology. Clinical Sociology: Research and Practice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54584-0_12
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