Schuman S. - The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation (2005)(en)

tators manage the group process well to the extent that they succeed in sorting out and clarifying the various meanings.

A meaning-centered facilitator is interested in both the journey and the destination, because no matter how smooth the process is, the group members will not go very far if they do not understand both the nature of the problem and what they really want to achieve. The meaning-centered approach facilitates the problemsolving process because it seeks to accomplish the following:

•A deeper understanding of the nature of the problem. “What might have contributed to the problem? What can we learn from it? What purpose does it serve? What is the meaning of the situation? What are the main issues involved?” The group not only needs to describe the problem accurately, but also understand the nature and causes of the problem.

•A clearer understanding of group goals and objective. “What do you really want to achieve? What is the significance and purpose of the goal? Why is this goal preferable to alternative ones? How important is this goal with respect to the larger picture and your long-term plan?” Once this understanding is achieved, the group can quickly move to resolution or terms of settlement.

•A better understanding of the self. “What are the bases for your strong feelings about this issue? What are your concerns? What is preventing you from changing your view on this issue? Are you excited about finding a solution that everyone can be proud of?” Self-understanding can contribute to personal growth and positive group dynamics.

The meaning-centered approach will facilitate the problem-solving process because it helps to clarify the main issues and empowers the group to move forward. In the following sections, the benefits of a meaning-centered orientation to group facilitation will become clearer.

CREATING A POSITIVE PARTICIPATORY CLIMATE

To create a positive, participatory climate, the facilitator needs to avoid the following common errors:

•Saying the wrong thing at the wrong time

•Saying nothing when intervention is needed

•Saying the same thing repeatedly

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•Saying things that favor one subgroup or coalition

•Saying things that are confusing or contradictory

•Saying too much

•Saying too little

Any combination of these mistakes can derail the entire process. In the story at the start of this chapter, the vice president who chaired the task force committed several mistakes, especially the first two errors.

The facilitator needs to avoid the trap of yielding to the tyranny of the majority or the tyranny of a few powerful members. He needs to pay special attention to what the minority has to say, and empower the passive and inarticulate members and ensure that their views are expressed.

At times, the facilitator becomes so preoccupied with the cognitive or analytical aspects of the group process that he overlooks the emotional undercurrents and the affective components of interactions. The facilitator needs to pay the same amount of attention to the exchange of emotions as the exchange of information, because an emotionally wounded group member can be very destructive.

While avoiding these common mistakes, the effective facilitator needs to attend to the following key steps.

Build Rapport

Introduce yourself and your role as a facilitator. Explain your philosophy and approach to group facilitation. Demonstrate your unconditional positive regard, empathy, and genuineness. Assure the group of your strict adherence to the cardinal rule of neutrality.

Explain the Facilitation Process

Explain the decision-making process and procedure of finding a solution to make sure that everyone knows exactly how things will be done. This common understanding will ensure that the meeting will focus on issues that have been mandated or agreed on and will not allow any party to take over the meeting with its own agenda. Let everyone know that the procedures, meeting format, and agenda are not set in stone, for two reasons. First, a change in the seating plan, meeting place, or format may help create a fluid situation, in which participants may become more open to change and more creative in finding a solution. Second, the process

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is only as good as it is moving effectively to a successful solution. When the process is stalled, an experienced facilitator will be flexible and wise enough to make the necessary adjustment to get the process going again. These adjustments may involve breaking the group up into smaller subgroups, bringing a consultant in to address some thorny content issue, or having a weekend retreat, for example.

Emphasize That the Process Is Result Oriented

Explain that to achieve successful outcomes, the process needs to focus on issues and solutions rather than politics or personalities. If the discussion is not regulated and focused, some individuals may wander all over the map, go around in circles, or get bogged down in trivial side issues, and then the process may become unproductive. It may be helpful to focus on one issue at a time, because that allows the facilitator to jot down the various contributions, summarize the best ideas, and reach some consensus before moving to the next issue. Also, small, incremental steps of success can boost morale and enhance trust in the process. It is important that the facilitator not rush things to make sure that he has a good understanding of how everyone feels about an important issue and whether the solution is shared by most of the group.

Establish Ground Rules

Keep the meetings on time, and follow the agreed-on agenda and objectives. Emphasize the importance of avoiding accusatory, inflammatory, and injurious statements and the need to express opinions clearly. Ensure that everyone has the right to speak, question, disagree, change one’s views, be heard, and treated with respect. No one is allowed to insult others or sabotage the process through nonparticipation or passive aggression.

Clarify the Objectives and Goals

It is important to identify and clarify the objectives and goals of the group. The process cannot move forward unless the parties involved can agree on what they need to accomplish. In the story at the start of the chapter, the students did not agree to the objectives of the task force, as mandated by the university president. They wanted the university to hire human rights officers to develop human rights principles and procedures rather than have the task force do this directly.

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Manage Meaning Systems

It is essential that the facilitator, through a variety of skills, such as empathizing, reflecting, and summarizing, help the group create a system of shared meanings by grasping each individual meaning system and their similarities and differences. The rapid exchange of information needs to be synthesized and crystallized to manageable building blocks in order to construct shared meanings.

Manage Group Dynamics

Observe the group dynamics, dominating personalities, and patterns of interactions. Make sense of the emotional undercurrents, and monitor the emotional intensity from moment to moment. The facilitator has the skills to manage potential conflicts and emotional levels to ensure that group dynamics remain positive and constructive.

Teach Some Basic Skills

Depending on the needs of each group, the facilitator may provide instructions on basic skills, such as active and proactive listening, empathy, and dialogue. Dialogue has emerged as a valuable tool (Burson, 2002) in conjunction with learning organizations (Senge and others, 1994) and community building (Wong, 2003). When the situation involves racial and cultural conflict, it also is helpful to teach some basic cross-cultural counseling skills (Sue and Sue, 1999).

Provide Feedback

After each session, there needs to be some time for feedback and reflection. This exercise serves two important functions: it is a self-corrective process, and it demonstrates a spirit of openness and the desire to improve.

Identify and Celebrate Progress

Identifying and celebrating each small victory along the way helps maintain a positive climate and create the momentum toward success.

Debrief

At the conclusion of the process, debriefing will help evaluate what has been accomplished and create a sense of closure. It will also be a time for healing, repairing, and consolidating.

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COMPETENCIES NEEDED TO CREATE A POSITIVE PARTICIPATORY CLIMATE

Competencies in Communication Skills

Communication skills are important. Basic counseling skills such as feedback, reflecting, and summarizing can play a vital part in facilitating dialogues and discussion. The ability to grasp and integrate diverse ideas and the ability to summarize and communicate what they have in common are also important in enhancing participation. Finally, group members need to learn how to be assertive without being aggressive and how to express dissent without resorting to negative or accusatory words.

Competencies in Cognitive Skills

The facilitator needs to have a well-educated mind. It takes years of learning and cultivating of one’s intellectual ability to be able to grasp complex issues quickly and accurately. A person who does not have a sharp, analytical mind and does not possess a rich deposit of knowledge and experience will have difficulty following the arguments and counterarguments and teasing out the essentials from trivial side issues. The cognitive skill of synthesis is equally important to make sense of the myriad pieces of information and summarize the main points.

Competencies in Leadership Skills

A facilitator is by definition a leader. A great deal of leadership skill is needed for keeping the group together and motivating them to work through difficulties to arrive at some destination. These skills include team building, conflict resolution, maintaining discipline, vision casting, and delegating. It also important for the facilitator to have the ability to read people and situations and sense the underlying dynamics at work. She needs to understand the developmental nature of any group process and possess the necessary skills to help a group transform itself from uncertainty and mistrust to a cohesive work team.

As a group leader, the facilitator needs to understand and manage different kinds of diversity in order to transform tensions and conflicts into creative energies. This means that the facilitator should possess a certain level of knowledge and understanding of individual differences in ethnicity, culture, beliefs, values, temperaments, and learning style.

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Competencies in Maintaining Neutrality

It is essential that the facilitator be a fair-minded, honest broker and a well-trained group process expert. It is not easy to maintain neutrality when some group members violate your moral sensitivity or try to get under your skin. Our sympathy tends to lie with those who share our values and are like us. Often our partiality surfaces in subtle and unconscious ways. However, even the slightest hint of bias can rob the facilitator of effectiveness and even derail the entire process. That is why the facilitator should not even hint which solutions are better or whose approach holds the best promise, even when his own expertise wants to cry out: “Look, I think so and so has got the best answer!” It takes a great deal of self-discipline to maintain self-control and not let one’s own feelings and biases get in the way.

Competencies in Managing a Positive Climate

Climate management involves a set of skills such as gentle confrontation, unearthing hidden feelings, reframing negative events, and translating emotional outbursts into objective statements. To create and maintain a positive participatory climate, the facilitator needs to set the tone and standard for the meetings, and have the courage and wisdom to moderate and modulate the climate. It is important that she demonstrates and cultivates a climate of openness, acceptance, honesty, trust, respect, and professionalism (Wong, 2002b; Wong and Gupta, 2004). The facilitator also inspires confidence and optimism that the group can work together to find a solution.

To maintain a positive climate, the facilitator must not allow any individuals to disrupt the group process. He needs group skills to manage this, such as gently reminding people of the ground rules, turning to other members of the group for support to reinforce the ground rules, and talking to difficult members privately and soliciting their cooperation.

Competencies in Meaning Management

From the perspective of MCC, the key to effective facilitation is meaning management, because we live in the world of meanings, and problems and conflicts are most often due to:

•Misunderstanding each other’s beliefs and values

•Misconstruing each other’s statements and positions

•Mistrusting each other’s motives and intentions

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•Misreading each other’s emotions

•Misattributing the causes of the problem

•Misconceived projects

•Misguided ambitions

•Misplaced priorities

•Misdirected objectives

To facilitate the problem-solving process in a complex and conflictual situation, the facilitator focuses on meaning clarification. Primarily, this involves clarifying the nature of the problem or dispute, clearly defining the objectives and goals, and identifying major issues and obstacles. In addition, it involves the ability to grasp the meanings of verbal and nonverbal communications, keep things in proper perspective, and view problems within a larger context of social responsibilities and humanistic concerns. Finally, it aims at cultivating a deeper understanding of the self as well as the group process.

In addition to meaning clarification, meaning management involves the ability to make sense of chaos, paradoxes, ambiguities, uncertainties, conflicts, and confusions. This requires the ability to analyze and synthesize multiple pieces of conflicting information and weave them into meaningful patterns. It entails the process of deconstruction and reconstruction of arguments and stories. It demands the creation of a new meaning system that incorporates diverse viewpoints and reflects a shared reality. This becomes more challenging in working with members from different ethnic backgrounds, because the facilitator needs to be knowledgeable of cultural differences in values and orientations (Leong and Wong, 2003; Triandis, 1995).

Finally, meaning management involves the ability to manage the group process to ensure that it moves purposefully toward a successful conclusion. The facilitator needs to possess the ability to keep one eye on the ball and another eye on the goal post. He is able to move the group forward by managing the moment-to-moment turbulence caused by the cross currents of conflicting ideas and clashing directions.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE GROUP FACILITATORS

Based on all the characteristics set out already, what would be the generalized portrait of an effective, meaning-centered group facilitator? Note that the following characteristics are quite different from those of negotiators from the traditional adversary system.

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Attributes and Attitudes

The following attributes and attitudes are vital for a meaning-centered group facilitator:

•Being a compassionate and caring individual

•Being a growing and self-actualizing person

•Being a wise and mature person capable of good judgment

•Understanding human nature and the human condition

•Understanding universal existential anxieties

•Understanding individual struggles with existential issues

•Being a world citizen who respects people from different nations

•Trusting in the individual’s ability to overcome and grow

•Trusting in the group and the group process

•Remaining optimistic even when things are not going well

•Being enthusiastic, engaging, and inspiring in working with people

•Being purposeful and focused in carrying out the responsibility

•Being open to new ideas and flexible to adapt to new situations

•Being supportive, accepting, and warm toward others

•Demonstrating authenticity and integrity to engender people’s trust

•Being strictly neutral and objective in order to facilitate the process

•Demonstrating empathy and understanding as a good counselor

•Having a genuine interest in people and being willing to enter into their worlds

•Being professional and confident and not taking offense easily

•Being generous in validating others and giving of oneself in serving others

•Being willing to put aside one’s ego and self-interests in order to facilitate group success

Roles and Responsibilities

By definition, a facilitator has the expertise to manage the processes of information exchange and interpersonal dynamics toward an appropriate or desired goal.

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From the perspective of MCC, the facilitator not only focuses on the process but also plays an important role in helping to clarify the objective to make sure that it is attainable and agreed on by all group members. More important, the facilitator is responsible for creating a positive, supportive participatory climate that is conducive to problem solving and positive transformation.

To summarize, the facilitator fulfills the following roles and responsibilities

A counselor—to facilitate clarification of the issues and discovery of meanings and purpose

A mentor—to cultivate unconditional positive regard, empathy, and genuineness

A teacher—to guide and challenge group members to come up with the best answers to their problems

An honest broker—to facilitate some resolution of conflicting positions; to take a neutral and detached pragmatic view of disputed issues

A moderator and referee—to facilitate the process and enforce the ground rules, maintain order, ensure all members are treated equally, and control problem people

A model—to demonstrate how to keep cool and focused even in an emotionally charged situation

A leader—to motivate and inspire creative, cooperative problem solving and create a team from diverse individuals

A consultant—to provide some guidelines or insight to get the process moving forward

A manager—to manage time and resources effectively and create and maintain a positive, participatory climate

An actor—to put aside personal feelings and biases in performing the role of facilitation with authenticity and neutrality

CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESS

Given the complexity of the task and the important responsibilities of the facilitator, the precondition for success is that the facilitator has received quality graduate education and professional training and has resolved most of her debilitating personal issues and achieved a certain level of maturity.

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From the perspective of MCC, success is measured not just by the efficiency of the process, but also by the positive impact the process has on the individual members and the group as a whole. Successful meaning-centered facilitation is transformational.

Therefore, this approach is appropriate in the following situations:

•Resolving conflicts and impasse between two groups or members within a group

•Reducing the level of mistrust and conflict in an organization

•Facilitating the decision-making process to achieve organizational goals

•Brainstorming sessions

•Mediation between two parties

•Focus groups

•Community agency planning

•Community development projects

•Strategic planning and visioning

•Retreats for management and staff

•Task forces involving different stakeholders

•Commission with expert members

•Bridge building and peacemaking

•Corporate training to transform organizational culture and climate

•Membership meetings

•Alternative dispute resolution

•Board meetings

More often than not, CEOs or presidents want to control the agenda and process of meetings in order to secure maximum board support for their projects. This approach is not applicable to such situations. However, a CEO who prefers a responsible and active board that participates in the decision-making process needs to adopt the role of a facilitator in chairing board meetings. Furthermore, CEOs may take on the role of facilitator to empower staff members to participate.

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