What is the difference between facilitation and leadership?
Facilitation and leadership both have their place when it comes to groups trying to produce results. Facilitation means to support and encourage communication within a group and to guide the process of moving towards common goals and results without trying to push the group in one specific direction. Leadership means to get the group working towards a predefined goal and to channel their combined efforts into achieving it.
What is facilitation, and why do I need it?
Facilitating means to improve communication within a group. This includes applying facilitation methods as well as creating a comfortable atmosphere for all participants and making sure all necessary technical equipment is ready to use. Facilitation makes it easier for important conversations to happen – conversations that are an integral part of successful community empowerment.
When does a group need a facilitator?
Facilitation is especially important when people who don’t know each other and have never talked to each other before come together in a group, or when a group has no decision-making structure or routine in place that helps the group members come to an agreement or set a common goal. This is often the case for camps and newly established institutions of self-administration. But learning about or applying facilitation methods can also be helpful for teams that have already worked together for a long time.
How can I recognise and deal with problems?
In every group setting and at every meeting, participants assume roles without being aware of it. Some roles may be constructive, others less so. Some people always feel the need to criticize or want to be at the centre of attention, some would like to lead the group, others are distracted and thereby distract others. There are many possible problems or interruptions that can arise during a meeting or conversation, and there is no one single method to deal with them. The most important thing is to not let a fight escalate between individual members of the group and to not let a situation get out of hand. There are methods for calming people down in the midst of a heated conversation, or to move on to something else without leaving someone behind feeling as though they “lost” the argument. You can find more information on this topic in the “Dealing with conflicts” subpage.
What do I have to keep in mind when facilitating groups?
Every group is different, and so are individual participants and their relations to each other. Depending on these factors, different group dynamics can evolve. It is therefore important for a facilitator to be aware of the specific characteristics of a group, which can include but are not limited to:
- Cultural and social specific characteristics
- Hierarchies among individuals
- Traditional or progressive mind sets
The background and personal stories of group members – for instance, are they refugees/IDPs or members of a local community?
How do I start?
First things first: make sure to give an overview of what is going to happen over the next few hours or days, and what is required of the participants. By doing this, you make sure that everybody has the same information and you avoid confusion at a later stage. First steps should include:
- Opening words, administration, logistics
- Expectations, hopes, and fears
- Background and purpose
- Outline of the programme
- Information on documents, sources, further reading
- Introduction: getting to know each other
- Code of conduct: how we want to work together
What methods can I use to create an atmosphere of trust between the group and myself, as well as among participants?
It is essential that everybody gets to know each other in order to create an active and creative work atmosphere. One method to do so within a limited timeframe is an introduction based on so-called “sociometric constellations”.
Method Box – Sociometric Constellations to get to know each other
- Participants get introduced to each other
- activating and building a creative atmosphere
- Ask everyone to stand up
- Ask people a question and sort themselves accordingly. You might ask personal questions (e.g. related to their family), or professional ones (e.g. related to their training). Ask yourself which questions will help people learn something about each other that they don’t yet know. Also ask yourself: What question would be fun to ask, and would bring a smile to the face of participants?
- Suggestions for questions:
- Place yourself on an imaginary map (e.g. where you were born, where you live now, where you would like to be if you could be anywhere now… etc.)
- Stand in a line according to a certain characteristic (e.g. age, height, number of siblings, etc.)
- Stand in groups according to a certain characteristic (e.g. subject of your training, topic of work, etc.
- You can also make a statement and ask people to stand close to the middle of the room if they agree, or far away if they disagree.
- After each question, you can ask some people why they are standing where they are.
- Keep in mind the aim of the exercise: It is helping people get to know each other in a fun way. Choose questions that support this aim and that are culturally appropriate.
- Be aware that questions can establish an informal hierarchy (e.g. years of experience…), which can be disempowering. Asking for age can make very young and old people feel exposed – but it can also give the group a sense of richness and positive diversity. Use your own best judgement in choosing questions.
What are good methods to be used during the introduction phase?
You may have had participants share their expectations for the workshop when introducing the programme. Now is a good time to go into more detail in order to create a better picture of what participants want to see happening, and would rather not want to see happening, throughout the workshop. Divide participants into small groups in which they can share past workshop experiences, both positive and negative, and thereby figure out what they want this particular workshop to be like. As a next step, the groups gather their key points and share them with the larger group.
How can I create a sense of community/group identity among the participants so that they feel encouraged to contribute?
A sense of “we” among participants is essential to productive group processes. There are methods to foster such a feeling and group identity, for example by using the “The web that connects us” method.
Method Box – The web that connects us
- getting to know each other
- creating a connected community, literally
- participants sit in a large circle, with no tables between them
- the one holding the ball of wool, shares their name (and answers the other questions)
- once finished, s/he throws the ball to another person while keeping hold of the thread
- don’t forget to take a picture when finished!
- needs a sufficiently large ball of wool
How can I tell afterwards whether the participants were content with the meeting or workshop?
For the facilitator, it is important to get feedback on the workshop – only then can they learn what went well and what didn’t and work on improving their facilitation skills for next time. There are several methods that allow the facilitator to find out about the participants’ impressions. For getting feedback on parts of the workshop – e.g. on how the participants liked the first day – ask for a “snapshots” of the day. This means asking the participants to point out the moments of the day that stuck out for them – the ones that will stick in their minds. When you want to get feedback on longer sessions or entire events, for example on the whole workshop, you can use “Book titles”, a small-group exercise where participants are asked to come up with and then share an answer to the question, “if this day/these days were a book – what title would you give it?”
What are suitable methods to increase concentration among participants?
Workshop days can be long, and concentration cannot possibly be upheld at the same level the entire time. Fortunately, there are methods that help participants to concentrate even at the end of a long day (or at any other time needed!) One of them is the “Buzz” method:
Method Box – Buzz
- Waking everyone up after a lecture / input
- Giving everyone the chance to comment or say something
- Giving you time to think about how to continue (don’t overuse this!)
- Ask everyone to turn to their neighbour
- Give them one question to discuss like:
- “What questions do you have?”
- “What strikes you?”
- After 1-2 minutes, bring everyone’s attention back to the plenary
- You can also have buzzes for groups of three / trios (they will need more time)
- You can encourage listing to an input, by warning that a buzz is following it
- If you wish for a lively discussion after an input, this sequence would be useful:
- Lecture / input
- Four minutes buzz: “What questions do you have?”
- Plenary discussion about the lecture / input
What are suitable methods to create a livelier atmosphere – for example after lunch, or when participants get tired?
Sometimes, all it takes for participants to get rid of their after-lunch-drowsiness or their too-early-in-the-morning-tiredness is to move around a little. Short energizers can be simple games like asking everyone to hold of sheet of A4 paper on each hand while at the same time trying to blow the paper out of other people’s hands.