Leadership at Work: Facilitating Groups at Play (Part 1)

I wrote this article on 12 March 2007, and I think it is still relevant two years later. As the population of trainers increase, so will their versatility and creativity.

Leaders in education, i.e. corporate trainers, lecturers and teachers are quite fond of integrating games and activities into their lesson plans. It is not unusual, these days, that educators conduct teambuilding-type activities into their classroom delivery. Here is some tacit wisdom, drawn upon my experiences as a corporate trainer and facilitator, and my interviews with my peers. You can consider these as your guidelines when you integrate facilitation into your sessions - indoors or outdoors – so that you get more delivery from your dollar (or bang from your buck), so to speak. 

Focus on the Facilitation

Facilitation can be, simply put as, ‘To make facile and provide facility’. Teachers, corporate trainers and teambuilding facilitators may wish to consider the full range and parameters afforded by facilitation. When we facilitate a process, we have the intrinsic objective of bringing out the best in each person. The late-founder of Conjoint Family Therapy, Virginia Satir used to describe her profession as: ‘My job is to educate people to become more human than they already are!’ Facilitation is supportive, encouraging and optimistic as it moves people from being able to capable, and more future-orientated in their mindset.

Specific Skills Required

Facilitation skills allow us to draw out people’s thinking and feelings. It is not unusual to ask questions that include ‘What did you learn from this activity?’

‘What did you discover about yourself after doing that challenge?’ or ‘How was that experience like for you?’ Successful facilitation begins with a strong foundation of team dynamics, social skills, applied psychology, educational pedagogy, and effective communication at various levels (www.auroraexecutive.com). More importantly, expert facilitation works with ‘what is already there’. We do not violate people’s beliefs, values, experiences and opinions – we merely work with them.

Games People Play

Coined by Eric Bernes, founder of the Transactional Analysis movement, adults do play games. These ‘games’ usually have purpose, and the players have some sort of an agenda. When managers indulge in politicking, what do these games mean? What are their intentions? What outcomes or results do they engineer from this process of being assertive or aggressive? English bard, William Shakespeare did allude to the world being a stage, and we the players! Are you OK?

Team Dynamics

Facilitating groups with complex and dysfunctional relationships requires the sensitivity of litmus paper – notice when people are feeling bitter and when they are being caustic in their remarks. Teams can practise functional or dysfunctional team dynamics. In dysfunctional dynamics, there will be a Victim, Persecutor and Rescuer (Yardley & Kelly), and in Functional Dynamics we observe the Explorer, Builder and Encourager. Expert facilitation requires the exquisite skills of top negotiators and mediators to move teams along to more useful outcomes.

(This article comes in two parts) 

(THE INNER PILOT newsletter, incorporating Inside Leadership © Enrico Varella & Associates 2007)