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Facilitation and Process, LLC is celebrating its first year anniversary as a consulting firm. Over the last year, I have had the privilege of working with clients from the social sector including: nonprofits, philanthropic organizations and government agencies. This year confirmed for me that “change” is the new normal for the social sector and that, for many organizations, the old tired solutions are no longer strategic and forward-thinking. Those contacting me over the last year have often expressed frustration that they have been to “the local workshops,” attended the right “networks” and have tried cookie cutter templates and yet their organizations are stagnant with their resources and impact continuing to erode. The clear and consistent message is that those organizations seeking to make a difference are ready for the fresh, imaginative and objective. There is a need for Strategic Facilitation. Strategic Process. Together.
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The concept of facilitation and process was the genesis of my firm and during this first year my work with almost a dozen clients has made it increasingly clear that agencies need solutions in the space where nonprofits, philanthropic organizations and government agencies meet.
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So as my firm moves into its second year, I have partnerships with many organizations in our community and my work has given me a clearer focus. When considering the local the social sector, the common challenge of nonprofits, philanthropic organizations and government agencies is not simply the need to operate more effectively in an environment of less. Rather, the social sector is being challenged to fundamentally rethink assumptions about theories of change, leverage and scale. At this moment in time, there is an unprecedented need for nonprofit, government, and philanthropic organizations to work differently to achieve a more sustainable and systemic impact on the compelling social needs in our community. In helping you to meet this need, Facilitation & Process, LLC is your partner. Creating a better tomorrow. Together.
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Across the entire social sector, today’s strategy requires thinking differently and deeper. Expertise and experience. Strategic facilitation and strategic process. Facilitation & Process, offers leading-edge and future-oriented perspectives on social impact: vision, strategy, and leadership. As partners we offer you:
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Facilitation Services: Fresh and imaginative strategic facilitation services blending a range of theoretical foundations customized and tailored to your needs.
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Strategic Thinking: Leading-edge understanding and approaches to nonprofit strategy, collaboration, training, technical assistance and knowledge management.
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Cross-Sector Experience: Clarity and objectivity direct from the social service sector though real-time relationships and experience with community, government, philanthropic, and nonprofit agencies and organizations.
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Innovative Strategy planning and design services that are grounded on the frameworks of collaboration, social impact and social venture planning and rooted in theories of developmental evaluation, scale and replication.
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In the coming weeks I will be relaunching Facilitation and Process, llc – Version 2.0. I will be re-introducing my firm as a local brand that you can trust. My website will be redesigned and my blog will shift its focus to developing themes related to the local social sector ecology. Expect us to begin to present survey work, analysis, and advocate for change. I’ll be launching a series of l learning webinars and an electronic newsletter. And, as in my first year of practice, you can always count on quality services. Customized approaches for your success. Tailored to your needs.
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As always, your thoughts are welcome.
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Crowd sourcing is an increasingly trendy concept that is popping up in the world of group dynamics, network development and strategic planning. Elevated to prominence by books with titles like “Here Comes Everybody” and the “Wisdom of Crowds” the concept is that if you get enough people engaged and contributing ideas, unstructured, then breakthrough thinking can occur. Couple the “crowd concept” with social media technology that enables the “viral” spread of the idea and the distributed connection of larger groups, and the result is that even corporate marketing departments like Pepsi see the value in the crowd.
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So it is no longer uncommon to hear at least one voice in a strategic planning process, suggest that the group “crowd source” a strategy. In this post I’d like to tackle the question of what does it take to facilitate a crowd?
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Let me back up to the streets. Over the last several months I have worked with several clients where the facilitation processes have had a large group component. For example, I just completed an intense three month project where I helped a leadership team facilitate the process for a group of 26 professionals from across the state tasked with creating a comprehensive and forward-thinking Health Improvement Plan for the Oregon Health Authority. I also have had two strategic planning clients where assessment work included gathering diverse opinions from a range of program partners, board and staff members, and community volunteers. In one of these projects I aggregated open-ended survey comments from over 100 people. For me, convening groups, creating authentic community engagement, and navigating agreement have been standard operating practices for as I have long been engaged in community development and coalition-building work. So along with other colleagues who came up on the streets of collaboration, I simply smile at the wonderful new-found term of “crowd sourcing.”
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On the streets of community development and coalition-building, strategy has always been “outsourced” to the community and is not a construct new to crowd sourcing. So while crowd sourcing may be the new lingo, the principles of facilitating crowds remains the same. In my experience, some of the more critical principles of facilitating “crowds” include:
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Stay Open Early On: As anyone experienced facilitator knows, the messy space of open ideas can be uncomfortable. Indeed, in a recent facilitation process, one frustrated board member interrupted at one point and said, “Can you assure me that when we leave at the end of the day that we will come out of the clouds and stop flitting around?” While being in that open space can be difficult, one of the strengths of crowd sourcing is the very broad opening that it promotes the generation of ideas. In this process, a facilitator needs to be comfortable in the open space and not rush towards narrowing too quickly. Let expansion happen.
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Recognize When a Crowd is a Crowd: A second principle of facilitating a crowd is to recognize when a crowd is all you have. When the expectation is that large, bold new ideas will emerge out of the collective input of the crowd and those expectations are not met, a facilitator needs to be a mirror to the process and acknowledge the limitations of the convening.
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The Pepsi Refresh marketing campaign, thinly veiled as corporate giving, is a great relevant example. When the Pepsi Refresh project started, the concept was that by engaging people in voting for, defending and promoting great ideas, the nonprofit world would reap the benefit of innovation and up-start new ideas would come out of the “wise crowds.” Several months later, one just needs to peruse the list of funded projects to see that they range from the mildly innovative to the immediate & tactical (such as building a kindergarten playground and starting an animal food bank). Worthy projects? Absolutely. The cutting edge of social innovation to large-scale social needs? Not so much.
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Pepsi Refresh has become an exercise, not in “crowd sourcing” but “crowd re-sourcing.” That is to say that those agencies best at mobilizing the time and energy of networks of people to vote (again and again) likely can succeed. In facilitation, a crowd is just a crowd when it is orchestrated engagement meant to influence an outcome. When a facilitator recognizes that s/he is facing a crowd, then s/he is able to adapt the facilitation process to ensure the inclusion and equity in voice, not only of the crowd but the voice of the crowd outliers.
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Recognize Differential Knowledge: In every large group process I have facilitated, one of the core tasks of facilitation is to draw attention to differential knowledge. I have used this imagination as an illustration of the concept. Imagine a group of 5th grade boys walking back from a field trip when a box falls off of a truck speeding by. The boys bring the box back to the classroom and see that it is labeled “chocolate candy, keep out of direct sunlight.” If these boys were left to their own “crowd sourced” strategy related to that box of chocolates, what do you think the outcome would be? Indeed, there would likely be a super-majority of agreement, if not outright consensus on the course of action to open the box and devour the contents. Now enter a teacher who brings differential knowledge about ethics, the purpose of the contact information label on the box, and even the consequences of consuming pounds of chocolate. Do you think the crowd sourced outcome would be different? While the point is oversimplified, the concept should not be lost. In every crowd there is differential knowledge that needs to be given weight. All ideas are not equal.
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Seek Community Not Consensus: A final principle is to recognize that the goal of a large group is to find shared understanding and not necessarily consensus. Facilitation for a large group is about engagement that involves creating equity, voice and understanding. If you achieve these three things then often times consensus matters less. On a level playing field where all participants are given voice, community will emerge and, in the context of community, the collective will trump the crowd. When a group is meaningfully engaged through an empowering facilitation process then more authentic outcomes result. I have written elsewhere about the concept of community engagement because such a process is fundamental to the authentic community-building.
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Taken together, these four principles outline a framework that can assist in facilitating a crowd. Now I recognize that for some, bringing a facilitation process to the concept of crowd sourcing defies some the popular literature on the subject. It is a flaw of the crowd source construct that creates an artificial either/or dynamic. It is either “crowd” or “crowd control” with no in between. In the minds of those extolling the virtues of the self-organizing crowd, they believe that crowd control is a bad thing. I contend that a true crowd source process is aligned with (and a cousin of) community organizing, which requires a layer of intelligent design and group process. As with good basic community organizing, a skilled facilitator recognizes the power in the crowd and unleashes the potential of the crowd through a carefully constructed facilitation process.
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As always your thoughts are welcome.
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When convening a group, two of the primary tasks of a facilitator are to clearly articulate the label that is applied to the group and to create an appropriate social contract between group members. The terms “workgroup,” “taskforce,” “coalition” and “advisory group” are labels that are often used loosely and sometimes even used interchangeably. However, each of these labels carries a very different meaning and more importantly a different implied social contract. My experience (both as a group participant and a facilitator) is that when a group of people are convened as an “advisory group” the front-end work around developing a social contract becomes critical.
Perhaps there are more sophisticated definitions for an advisory group but in general, as the name implies, an advisory group is a collective of participants who are invited because of expertise, representation of constituents, connections, and/or position for the purpose of helping to inform representative decisions. In their highest use, advisory groups are convened because the increasing complexity of social problems demands broad critical thinking. In their lowest use, advisory groups are convened to create the illusion of participation and provide political coverage for decisions that need to be made. In between these two points on the continuum there are likely a number of different points of functioning for advisory groups. One can readily see that, wherever an advisory group falls on the continuum, the success of the group will be dependent upon the clarity, expectations and social contract negotiated with the group.
Groups convene, partnerships are formed, and collaboration occurs largely because there is a compelling need that transcends the abilities of an individual or single organization. Adapting from an excellent resource on evaluating collaboratives (see resources below), I would suggest that collaboration occurs in the social sector because: 1) social problems are complex, 2) there are intensive resource pressures, 3) the social net continues to fragment, 4) communities don’t respond well to endemic problems, and 5) change is pervasive, rapid and sweeping. Implicit in these magnetic forces is the need to network and create shared solutions.
While I have written before that there is a compelling shift towards collaboration and networking, I believe that there remain organizational challenges and barriers to collaboration. The polar opposites that make collaboration difficult are such issues as 1) cultures of organizational superiority, 2) single-issue myopia, 3) differing mandates and procedures, and 4) competing/adversary relationships (especially around resources).
In this context, when an advisory group is convened, there is an unspoken orientation towards action and, at times, the internal undercurrent of the barriers that initially undermines trust in the process. This mix of expectations and barriers is the driving reason to create a social contract for participation. So what does a social contract for an advisory group look like?
Explicit Definition of Advisory: First and foremost, a facilitator needs to help the parties define the “advisory purpose” of the group. If there is a “disconnect” between the perceived role of the participants and the intention of the convener, the group progress will be hindered because of the conflicting expectations. The facilitator needs to ensure that everyone is in agreement to what “advisory” means for the group process. Inherent in this definition is the concept of authority. In other words, the group needs to be clear what authority is connected with the advice. For example, if a government agency brings together an advisory group to help prioritize pressing community issues for funding, the participants need to be clear if their advice (in terms of prioritizing) has a direct link to decisions made about funding or if the advisory authority is limited and other constraints could possibly trump their recommendations. Failure to make this expectation clear has the potential to undermine the entire advisory process.
Consideration of Transaction: A second component of the social contract relates to the transactional or relational nature of the advisory group. With limited resources, especially time, the convening of an advisory group needs to bring some benefit to the participants other than the potential of free coffee and pasties at the meeting. This is especially true if the group authority is limited by external constraints. Profile, status and relationships are often implicit (but not often explicit) transactions that can support an advisory function. However, following authority to influence direction, the transaction that is important to advisory group participation is bringing the “voice” of the community to the process. Indeed, as the voice of the community is amplified by the collective participation of group members become a community organizing effort even if authority is lacking. Advisory group participation builds relationships and can be the foundation for future action.
Process Support: A third characteristic of a social contract for advisory groups is to ensure the process is supported and resourced. The facilitation of the group must include the supporting structure that is the basis for any meeting facilitation (clear agendas, decision-making process, and minutes). Additional support includes clear communication during and between meetings and a clear beginning and end point with movement markers in between.
Participant Expectations: Finally the social contract must define participant expectations. For an advisory group to be successful expectations that are important include: 1) being honest and open, 2) making contributions to the process, 3) focusing on issues and content, and 4) being a provocateur when needed. In addition, standard meeting ground rules such as respecting others, being on time and following through on agreements and action items need to be in place.
While not essential, the most successful advisory groups I have participated in, codify the social contract in a brief operating procedure. In the resources below, I link to a handbook for community advisory groups that was developed to guide EPA advisory groups. While very jargon laden, the document has some sample documents that can serve as models for advisory groups seeking to create a written social contract.
The point that I am trying to make is that unique group structures require unique facilitation approaches. While coalitions derive power from collective action, advisory groups primarily inform and influence the actions of others. This is not to judge the importance of one structure over the other but simply points to the unique facilitation needs of advisory groups. It is my belief that advisory groups are a critical component of the civic engagement process and their success is dependent upon the clarity of process and expectations. Social sector organizations need collective wisdom and advisory groups are one pathway to that wisdom. Skilled facilitation that pays attention to the labels and social contract can help such groups succeed.
Resources
Taylor-Powell, E., Rossing, B., & Geran, J. (1998). Evaluating Collaboratives: Reaching the Potential. Madison: University of Wisconsin-System Board of Regents and University Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Extension (190 pages pdf).
Community Advisory Group (CAG) Handbook Department of Toxic Substances Control California Environmental Protection Agency
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Once a couple of years ago, I was in a car listening to my sister swear at the voice on her car’s GPS system and I once rented a car with the sometimes handy device. Until recently, that was the extent of my expertise with car directional GPS systems but in the last month a series in the Doonesbury comic strip and a quick Google search has expanded my expertise about car GPS systems. I now know that many GPS systems work by mixing and matching fewer than 60 snippets of words. Imagine that driving from cost to coast is dependent on two or three minutes worth of voice commands ordered and re-ordered in ways designed to keep you going in the right direction. Okay, this may sound like trivial pursuit but there is a point to this digression into minutia.
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In my experience, many facilitators are as efficient and effective as GPS systems. When the goal is to lead a group from point A to point B good facilitators, adept at using a few skills well, can direct a group. When the meeting gets lost, a good facilitator reshuffles his/her directions in order to get the group back on the right road. Effective meeting management is an essential linear process facilitator skill but unfortunately, facilitation is increasingly less about getting from point A to point B in a linear fashion. Governance and networking thinking is collaborative and non-linear and, as a result, facilitation is fundamentally changing.
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This month I have been following a theme in my posts about the shift in business practice away from hierarchy and towards governance and network thinking as they relate to the practice of facilitation. In my last post, I described the role of the theory of empowerment education as a primary influence for facilitators operating in a “governance” or “networked” environment. In this post I want to further expand on the concept of constructivism in facilitation.
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First we need to define constructivism in a practical way. Constructivism is the principle that learning is fostered through putting together the pieces in order to create a whole rather than deconstructing the whole into the parts. By reflecting on experience, embracing ambiguity and paradox, and learning collectively groups find more meaningful knowledge. Constructivism is about an iterative process rather than linear thinking and as such, requires new ways of facilitating. In this context, the traditional GPS facilitation tools associated with hierarchical, government thinking are inadequate to address the self-direction that constructivism demands.
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At the same time we need to recognize that a constructivist shift in facilitation is not an either/or proposition. Clear meeting facilitation skills are fundamental to any facilitation process. Constructivism simply expands the facilitator’s skills and demands that s/he approach groups with constructivist tasks such as: creating, deciding, predicting, designing and analyzing. For a facilitator such action verbs suggest more than running a good meeting. Facilitating in a constructivist environment suggests three overarching frames:
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Facilitate in Ambiguity: Often, constructivist approaches require a facilitator to be comfortable with ambiguity. The mantra that “chaos is okay” runs counter to the command and control style of good meeting process. But for constructivism to work, it often takes a process of several iterative cycles from broad to narrow and from disorder to order. Hanging out in the space of ambiguity needs to be okay. Unfortunately, typical facilitation doesn’t make such space but rather moves rapidly from a brainstorm list to a priority list. In a typical process, speed and order are valued over process and synthesis but in a constructivist environment the opposite is true. In constructivism, efficiency takes a back row to process and understanding.
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Facilitate for Construction: Often facilitators bring to a group process a tool bag full of deconstruction tools. How do we take this problem apart, break it into manageable tasks and fix it. Facilitating in a constructivist environment requires construction tools, as constructivism is a systems-thinking skill. The tools of construction require space where participants can learn and build. Scenario planning, storyboarding, open space technology, video narrative, and concept mapping, are examples of constructivist tools that might be used to facilitate a constructivist environment.
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Facilitate from Authenticity: The third overarching frame for the facilitator in a constructivist environment is to be authentic. I have seen a facilitator manage a group claiming that the process would be a blank slate in which the participants could create, design and decide. However, as the process unfolded it was clear that the agenda was not a “tabula rasa” but was, in reality, largely predetermined. In the end, participants in the process felt that it was disingenuous and, “yet one more reason not to trust the hierarchy.” Constructivism decentralizes power and should only be used when equity and empowerment are the transparent goals.
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Constructivism can be a powerful construct in facilitation, especially in the new reality of facilitating in the context of a network and where the process matters as much, if not more than the outcome. Old school facilitation where chart paper is inked up and participants are taken from start to finish as if on an amusement park ride are less and less relevant in today’s challenging economic times. The new breed of facilitation is thinking more deeply about theory and frameworks across several academic disciplines. In this context, constructivism and empowerment are emerging foundation stones of a new facilitation practice.
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As always your comments are welcome.
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Further Study:
I want to thank Bernie Dodge, faculty at SDSU’s EDTec program, whose generous knowledge sharing has over the years continues to influence my practice and thinking. http://www.slideshare.net/bdodge
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Raise you hand if in the last three months you have sat in a meeting that was dominated by process model of information presentation ==> discussion ==> and decision; followed by information presentation ==> discussion ==> and decision, in a pattern that was repeated until the end of the meeting? Unfortunately hierarchical meeting structures are still all too common in meetings today. You can put your hand down. In my last post I discussed the shift of group interaction away from hierarchical, government thinking towards governance as a dominant facilitation model. In this new facilitation environment the old framework where the facilitator imparts and the group members receive, memorize, and repeat is wholly inadequate in meeting the challenges of facilitating for governance. My contention is that governance thinking requires the re-discovery of community organizing tools and methodologies and constructivist learning theories. One place where the theories of community organizing and constructivism meet is in the framework of empowerment education.
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The father of empowerment education is Paulo Freire and I encourage all facilitators to read deeply of his work. There are a three principles that I would like to briefly discuss as touchstones of Freire’s work. These three principles, in my view, are integral to informing the skill-set of any contemporary facilitator.
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Conscientization: The first touchstone is that Freire’s believed that all learning is political. Conscientization, as he described the concept, was that education had the function of developing a critical awareness about the social, political, and economic contradictions and realities so that individuals would take action against the oppressive elements of reality. Transferring this concept to facilitation, it forces the facilitator to see that facilitation is not simply the process of information presentation ==> discussion ==> and decision. Facilitation becomes the process of making the connections between the internal context and external context to not only create change but also open the possibility for sea change. In another post I wrote extensively about facilitating for community engagement, which serves as the basic process for a conscientization approach to facilitation.
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Constructivism: The second touchstone of Freire’s pedagogy is that learning is not a process of transmitting of information and imposing decision-making from the top-down. In the hierarchical model, the experts are on top and the majority of the group (below) are passive receptacles in the process. Constructivism purports that learning is an active process of construction on the part of all learners that involves making meaning out of a multiple perspectives and data. Constructivism requires a facilitator to move beyond simple brainstorming, sorting and prioritizing exercises and engages groups in such authentic tasks as creating, designing, analyzing and deciding (a topic for further exploration in a follow-up post).
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Praxis: A third touchstone of Freire’s thinking is the concept of praxis. Freire believed that local transformation is the product of praxis at the collective level. Together, groups need to move from theory to practice. In application, praxis becomes an iterative process of theory, application, evaluation, reflection, and then back to theory. Learner driven experimentation is the basis for true system’s change and performance improvement and the facilitator’s role is to create the dynamics of iteration. One approach to engage learners in iterative learning is to use strategies of rapid cycle testing (such as the Plan, Do, Study, Act model). Additionally, the concept of praxis also implies learning over time and that creates for a facilitator the need to think in terms of the long view.
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Empowerment education is a critical theory that serves well as one of the foundation stones of facilitation. A facilitator needs to understand the experiences and worldviews of the group in order to successfully foster change and further the learning process. Moreover, strong facilitation uses empowerment and critical reflection to not only solve the pressing and immediate need but also seeks to equip groups to applying such thinking to future problems.
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As always your thoughts are welcome.
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References
Freire, P. (1972) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Freire, P. (1995) Pedagogy of Hope. Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York: Continuum.
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