What is "Facilitation"?
“Just remember – it’s not about you.”
When I was first hired as an inquiry facilitator by the Boston Plan for Excellence (BPE), I knew next to nothing about facilitation. I’d been a classroom teacher for about five years. I’d also served as a department chair and had run weekly meetings with a small group of close colleagues. Those experiences did little to prepare me for the challenges of working with multiple teacher teams in multiple content areas across multiple schools. It’s no easy task to support the learning and collaboration of relative strangers, especially as they grapple with complex and often emotional work.
Before my first day at BPE, I sought the advice of a veteran facilitator – a long-time educator and leader who was often hired as a consultant by Boston-area schools to facilitate teamwork. What one piece of advice would she give me as I began my journey as a facilitator? “Just remember – it’s not about you.”
My viewpoint on the four core actions is that developing technical skill with each is necessary but insufficient. We also need to work to hone our mindsets, attitudes, and beliefs. My last post was on an article by the New York City Leadership Academy (NYCLA) titled, “Essential Beliefs about Adult Learning.” Today’s post addresses a companion piece written by the same organization, “Essential Beliefs about the Facilitator’s Role.” To facilitate effectively, we need to approach the work with the correct mindset. To do that, we first need to understand our goals in the role.
In “Essential Beliefs about the Facilitator’s Role,” the NYCLA advances the following 7 ideas:
“It’s not about you.” The facilitator’s primary responsibility is to support the learning of other team members and the accomplishment of their goals. In order to do this, the facilitator must thoughtfully structure the learning experience and model the manner in which team members are expected to engage with the learning experience. The effective facilitator makes “his or her own learning processes transparent” and “models courage and honesty in confronting that which is difficult.”
If one of the facilitator’s primary responsibilities is to support the learning of others, one major marker of the facilitator’s success is the eventual independence of the team. Effective facilitators avoid intervening in ways that create dependence upon their skill sets and expertise. Reliance on the facilitator is counter-productive to the long-term success of the team. In order to create independence, facilitators work alongside team members, use questions to provide support, and leverage others’ skill sets whenever possible.
Much like board game players, facilitators often think in terms of “moves.” “Facilitator moves” are deliberate interventions selected by facilitators in the moment to help advance the goals of the team. Interventions available to facilitators include asking questions, referencing established norms, adopting a different tone, directing the team’s attention to a text or data set, and modeling. Choosing to do nothing or to embrace silence can also be effective faciltiator moves. Determining which intervention is most appropriate requires a high level of awareness as well as the determination to stay attuned to others’ feelings as well as to one’s own.
This statement has become a touchstone for my own practice. Don’t get me wrong – there are times when it is important for school leaders to advance particular ideas. It’s just that we’re not facilitating when we find ourselves doing that. In the role of facilitator, our task is to assure that the thought process is rigorous and of high-quality. Effective facilitators create space for team members to surface and grapple with complexity.
Focus on leading teams through well-designed processes rather than on pursuing particular outcomes. A high-quality thought process almost always yields high-quality outcomes. And the truth is that the best outcomes for a team are often ones the facilitator could not have anticipated at the outset.
Schools are composed of layered networks of relationships. That is what makes them such meaningful places to work. That is also what makes them so challenging to navigate. The effective facilitator keeps in mind not only the people and the tasks currently in the room, but also the connections and contexts that extend beyond the room. Facilitators must be able to “zoom in and zoom out,” shifting perspective as they guide the work of teams. In one moment, the facilitator may tune into minute details (e.g., the small change in a team member’s facial expression) and in the next moment consider an aspect of how the team is situated globally within the school’s overall context (e.g., “How might the decision the team is charged with making need to be worded in order for it to be received well by resistant colleagues?”).
Discomfort is part of the learning process. After helping the team establish an atmosphere in which members feel safe to take risks, the facilitator must discern “when to push and when… to pull back.” The effective facilitator intervenes in ways that provoke the discomfort needed for meaningful learning while also ensuring that anxiety does not creep to levels that prevent the team’s progress.
The effective facilitator promotes the work of teams with intentionality and upholds the team’s goals with integrity. At all times, the facilitator’s moves are selected purposefully, and they reflect a commitment to holding high professional standards, giving honest feedback on the degree to which those standards are being met, and providing rigorous accountability. This commitment to high standards, feedback, and accountability is one the facilitator makes both to others and to himself or herself.
As you reflect on these beliefs about the role of the facilitator, which do you feel are most aligned with your current beliefs about the role? Which beliefs are the ones you feel you must grapple with next? How might engaging with these beliefs improve your work as a leader?