Groups Facilitation is a process where a person called “The Facilitator” helps the group to identify and solve their issues to allow the group make decisions. The Facilitator needs to be designated and accepted by all group members and he/she needs to be neutral which means to don’t have personal interests. He/she doesn’t have a big authority to make decisions. The Facilitator doesn’t decide on their behalf, he/she help them to make their own decisions based on the information that he/she gets during the conversation from each group member.
The Facilitator takes care mostly of how the conversation process than the conversation content. The Facilitator should’t work as a mentor or a coach. Let’s review below the Facilitator competencies.
Facilitator’s Responsabilities
- Guarantee Dialogue – invite all group members to participate. If during the conversation, new topics come up we should guide the group to make a decision of either postpone this new topic for another conversation or give it priority and postpone other that was in the agenda originally. Participants needs to be aware that they need to make a decision because time won’t be enough to talk about everything.
- Breakdown big topics – when the topic is too big, people don’t focus on it. We need to break it down in smaller topics to allow member focus on them one by one prioritizing them to get results. If we don’t do this, usually people will talk about different things and won’t be decisions made at the end of the conversation. The group should help to breakdown the big topic, we can guide them with questions.
- Help to understand rephrasing ideas – repeat ideas that someone else told already in a different way to be sure all people understood it. If this didn’t happen, it will create a short discussion that will help them to be in the same page.
- Make information visible – the facilitator needs to be sure that all people have all information, if you were provided information that you think other people might not have you should confirm it and share.
- Ensure suitable conditions and resources – people needs to feel comfortable, each needs to have the own place, they should have everything to make notes, draw, good light and temperature conditions. This will to allow people focus in the conversation and don’t get distracted.
Statement of Values & Code of Ethics
There is a code of ethics published and proposed by the International Association of Facilitators that a Facilitator should follow.
- Client Service – we are in service to our clients to add value to their work using our competencies.
- Conflict of Interest – we openly acknowledge any potential conflict of interest. The facilitator needs to be neutral.
- Group Autonomy – we respect culture, rights and autonomy of the group.
- Processes, Methods and Tools – we uses processes, methods and tools responsibly.
- Respect, Safety, Equity and Trust – we create an environment where all people can speak freely.
- Stewardship of process – we practice stewardship of process and impartiality toward content.
- Confidentiality – we mantain confidentiality of information.
- Professional Development – we are responsible for continues improvement of our facilitation skills and knowledge.
You can check it out here https://www.iaf-world.org/site/es/pages/statement-values-code-ethics
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