To ensure delivery of timely information, please add <jobswatch@deweykaye.com> to your address book.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Getting Everyone to the Table, and Keeping Everything on Top of It
The Case for Facilitation

By Jason Bernard, Marketing Coordinator, McCrory & McDowell LLC

In the offices and meeting spaces of today's nonprofit organizations, there is an ever-increasing need for open, honest collaboration. The still-precarious economic climate has necessitated that nonprofits operate with smaller, more specialized work forces. Increasingly, decision makers are also the ones carrying out the decisions made. It is imperative for the sake of mission that these teams work together effectively. Younger employees that are new to the workforce don't want to simply be told what to do – they want to be part of the solution and make sure that their voices are heard. As more and more nonprofits are learning, collaboration and resource sharing between organizations is becoming a necessary fact of life.

To maximize the chances for success, those doing the work of collaborative projects or initiatives must be entirely committed to their outcomes. One good way to ensure a high level of commitment is to involve individuals in the decision making process and create the most open, honest collaborative environment possible. Oftentimes it is helpful (and necessary) to engage a facilitator to guide the team. In simple terms, a facilitator is someone who assists, aids or makes a process easier for others. A trained facilitator is able to harness the collective creativity and energy of a group, focus it on the group':s agreed-upon objectives, and use it to help the team understand each individual's perspective, then formulate a common viewpoint and devise a plan of action or strategic goals. Ideally, a facilitator does this without allowing their own knowledge, experience or viewpoint to influence the group, thus relying entirely on the group for its collective input. This reinforces the notion that everyone's opinion carries equal weight, and that no one person dominates the group.

At times, a manager or coworker may be able to effectively perform the role of a facilitator, assuming they can remove themselves from the discussion and remain impartial. However, it is often the case that everyone in a particular organization, or on a particular team, has a strong viewpoint and valuable knowledge to share. In these instances, it is wise to engage a facilitator to avoid the appearance (or reality) that one person's agenda is leading the others'.

There are many situations where utilizing an impartial facilitator makes sense. They include:

Group Conversations – Conducting conversations with a group or team can be daunting for a number of reasons. You may be dealing with a difficult or contentious issue, trying to collect complex data or attempting to broaden the perspectives of individuals having a tough time relating to one another. A facilitator can structure and lead a conversation in such a way that all participants feel they have an opportunity to contribute, with no one person's views taking precedent over another and everyone coming away with a better understanding of divergent viewpoints.

Consensus Building – An impartial facilitator will engage participants in different ways to elicit input, align similar thinking and illuminate the common ground, or points of intersect, that everyone can agree to.

Initiative or Project Planning – A facilitator should be able to lead a team through a process that allows them to delineate goals, develop specific action items and coordinate efforts on their own, without an outside influence telling them what to do.

Strategic Planning – A skilled facilitator is able to guide an organization (or organizations) through a planning process that establishes a shared vision, identifies barriers to achieving that vision and crafts strategic directives to overcome those barriers. He or she does this without swaying the group toward their own conclusions.

Many other types of projects that would benefit from the presence of an outside facilitator exist. As nonprofits increasingly rely on collaborations and the sharing of resources, the need for honest and open communication becomes more apparent. Engaging a facilitator can, as the definition suggests, ease the process.

 

Jason Bernard is the Marketing Coordinator for the McCrory & McDowell Group of Companies. He is a trained facilitator, experienced in working with nonprofit organizations. Jason can be reached at 412.281.9690 or jbernard@mccmcd.com.

 

Dewey & Kaye