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Facilitator
Facilitator
by Dr. Jeremy Sullivan
Have you ever witnessed a master plate-spinner? You know, those vaudeville stars of yesteryear who spun plates on the top of poles? They were somehow able to keep them spinning and balanced by going to each plate and continuing to spin it precisely how it needed to be spun to keep from toppling to the ground and bringing down the whole display. These artists are the perfect metaphor for this month’s Spotlight on Support function: facilitation. While “facilitate” comes from the French faciliter, which means “to render easy,” the act of facilitation requires harnessing numerous skills simultaneously to maximize the collaborative strength of a group or team (Garmston & Wellman, 2016).
When performing the support role of facilitator, learning specialists plan and guide meetings grounded in the norms of collaboration in order to maximize the problem-solving and decision-making process. The facilitator is not the keeper of the knowledge or the power. The facilitator is the neutral party whose job is to keep all of the plates in the air and moving while the team members engage in the cognitive struggle needed to move the work forward.
Garmston and Wellman (2016) emphasized facilitators do not need to be flashy but do need to harness several skills to help teams achieve success.
Consciousness- Facilitators must be aware of the numerous elements, both verbal and non-verbal, at play in a meeting and know how to adjust.
Clarity- We have all heard the phrase “clear is kind.” Facilitators utilize precise language and role definitions to remove as much ambiguity as possible from the meeting process.
Competence- Facilitators ground their work in the knowledge of what makes for an effective meeting. This includes knowing when to use dialogue and discussion, what strategies or protocols to use based upon the intended outcome, and what resources might be needed for the team to make as informed a decision as possible.
Credibility- Credibility is established when clarity and competence combine with the confidence of the facilitator. It should be noted this doesn’t come from within the facilitator but is instead created by the perceptions of the group about the facilitator.
This school year has presented a number of new challenges for collaborative teams to tackle in what often seems like less time than before. This makes the need for skillful facilitation even more important. Utilizing a learning specialist as a meeting facilitator allows all team members to be equal participants in the work and leverages the specialists’ strengths in ways that will benefit the group as a whole.
How might utilizing a neutral party trained in meeting facilitation help your collaborative team? Reach out to your learning specialist to learn more about how they might be a resource to your team.
Garmston, R. and Wellman, B. (2016). The adaptive school: a sourcebook for developing collaborative groups. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
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