Is facilitation a decent word?
To facilitate means to make it easier, to assist. Facilitation literally means "making a process easier". Organizational management process, negotiation process, team discussion process, meetings, webinars - any work process involving more than 3 people.
Facilitation is a whole set of tools to find a way out of any business situation that seems to be a dead end. The facilitator's function is to be a leader. If you've worked in a team or acted as a leader, there must have been times when you wanted to tell the other person: "If you're so smart, go do it yourself". Or this moment: you saw a very talented person in the team, almost a genius, but you realized that he or she did not know how to "sell" their ideas, did not have communication skills. So, to facilitate is to give freedom to make decisions, to "let go" of the team, not to interfere with self-organization, but to guide the process, to increase everyone's involvement by trusting them.
Every work process has content and form. Content is those "too smart" or too quiet, born leaders or free spirits. In short, real people, with their strengths and weaknesses, which we have to deal with every day. The facilitator's job is to give form to this content.
Facilitation came to business from psychology. The International Association of Facilitators has existed since 1989; over the years of its existence, experts have developed many approaches to "modernize" business processes and make them meet the current social requests. One such request is the rejection of totalitarianism. Today you don't have to set rigid limits on teamwork at all, no one sticks to them. A democratic approach is more efficient and cost-effective. Everyone today wants to feel significant. And you have to give it to them in order to increase the motivation and involvement of all team members.
Does it seem complicated? And that's easy! Check the simple approaches facilitators use.
• Unconference (barcamp). It implies the rejection of traditional regulations and the dress code. At a traditional conference, a coffee break is just a break between the official program parts, but at an unconference it is the main part of the program. Talking, networking, lively discussions. There is no clear division into speakers and listeners, no prepared reports. An unconference can be held as a separate event or as part of a more standard event format. Your event - your rules.
• World café. The team or staff is divided into groups. If it's an offline event, groups sit at tables, like in a café. In each group, the facilitator writes down the ideas that emerge during discussion. Then the groups move to other tables. Each group complements the ideas of the other group. The result is a resolved issue, taking into account the opinions of all team members.
Thus, facilitation is when everyone recognizes at the beginning that they are dealing with intelligent, active, engaged people who can take responsibility, who can be trusted. And the task of a facilitation leader is to organize the work process so that everyone feels that he or she is making the decision, retaining the right to advise. The basic principles of facilitation are tolerance, empathy, attention, optimism and trust. If these are your principles in teamwork as well, then you are already a facilitator and have the potential to get your team out of any difficult situation.