Resources. Focus on facilitation

Citation

(1999), "Resources. Focus on facilitation", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 14 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp.1999.05014fab.001

Resources. Focus on facilitation

Resources

Focus on facilitation

Keywords: Facilitators, Trainers, Groups, Participation, Effectiveness

Pete Norris, General Manager of NDMG International Limited provides an explanation of the role of facilitation in today's organisations.

Facilitation comes from a Latin word meaning "to make easy". A facilitator is a person who makes it easy for groups to do their work.

Why do we need facilitators?

Effective groups probably don't because they already have members or leaders who do what is necessary for the groups to be effective. These people may be performing their roles consciously or unconsciously. Our information is, however, that most work groups are not very effective.

One reason for this is that human behaviour is habitual. People will behave in certain roles even when their behavior is a negative influence on the other people with whom they are working. The role they are in is probably one they learned as children, and they are unable to see, or do not want to know, the effect their behaviour is having.

What do facilitators do?

Facilitators have some theoretical knowledge applicable to the work of groups and they use this knowledge to choose to intervene in order to maintain the "health" of the group so that it can attend to its task. Intervening requires a set of skills. Maintaining the role of facilitator throughout the life of the group requires not only knowledge and skill but also attitude.

The need for organisations to have people who can employ facilitative methods as part of their daily skill set has arisen from the continuing need to adapt to changes in technology and work practices. Traditional directive and persuasive methods of managing and influencing have not been particularly successful in building commitment to individual, group and organisational success in changing environments.

This is not to say that these methods do not have their place. It is simply to recognise that an employee at whatever level of expertise or management is more likely to achieve success with a wider range of skills to draw upon, than one who overuses skills that may have been developed in another place at another time.

Organisations with skilled facilitators as well as skilled "directors" are likely to:

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  achieve productivity goals;

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  build commitment and morale;

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  match individual aspirations and organisational goals;

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  adapt quickly to new circumstances;

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  take on new methodologies;

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  keep the best people ­ those who know their skills are saleable on the open market;

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  set the benchmarks for the future.

Today we are experiencing increasing demand from employers and professional people for facilitation skills. Employers seem to be realising that:

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  managers cannot be responsible for productivity improvements only -- employees can;

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  intelligent people own the means of production in the modern work (knowledge) and they can take it with them if they are frustrated by ineffective groups, inappropriate management practices, or failure to seek their participation in decision making;

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  relationships at work are at least as important as the specialist knowledge required for the task;

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  giving customers a feeling of being well served is a form of facilitation;

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  focusing the intellect of the workforce on business success is a massive competitive advantage.

Professions tell us they are finding themselves in competition with alternative providers of their services and with each other. Their clients are more discerning, more demanding and more prone to resort to litigation than ever before. Their training in traditional disciplines has not equipped them to find a way forward that will preserve their lifestyle and their status. A growing number are realising that adopting facilitative practices can be a competitive edge. Another advantage we are finding is in terms of career progression. The recent spate of downsizing of large organisations has reduced the promotional prospects of many people or made them redundant. Those with facilitative skills have acquired flexibility in employment choice that the technical specialist often does not have.

The UK contingency

NDMG International Limited is the UK member of a global group of networking consultancies. Our network is focused on learning and applying skills to facilitate the innovations necessary for people to make the transition from an industrial to an information based society. We aim to be at the cutting edge of development service.

The core business of NDMG International is to facilitate innovation in organisations and communities. The focus of our activities as facilitators of innovation is people and finance. The purpose of the company is to enable people to link information and innovation to decisions that produce results.

Learning facilitation with NDMG International

Our method of enabling people to learn facilitation is experimental. Participants are all at different stages in their development. Our facilitator provides coaching in the skills, explanation of the theory and a commentary on what is happening until the participants are able to do these things for themselves. When members of the group can do it themselves, they are facilitators.

For further information contact Pete Norris by e-mail: Pete@NDMGInternational.Freeserve.co.uk. Tel: 07971 564 483; Fax: 07970 703 735.