Dictator, conductor, chameleon ... facilitator

Just as participation is about culture as much as tools, I believe facilitation is about style as much as technique. But like culture, that's difficult to explain. Andrew Rixon of Anecdote has given us an excellent start in What kind of facilitator are you?. Andrew writes:

At the upcoming Australian Facilitators conference I’m looking forward to the “Facilitator Archetypes” workshop that I’m running alongside a great cartoonist, Simon Kneebone. This workshop was inspired from some work we did earlier this year exploring language in facilitation. When I asked “what metaphor describes your style of facilitation” I had no idea it would result in such an interesting collection of characters. Characters like; The invisible facilitator. Facilitator as chameleon. Facilitator as dictator. Facilitator as conductor. Thanks to Simon, we have translated our initial findings into some great cartoons that capture these characters. I can’t wait to see what characters emerge from our workshop!

You can  see the rest of the cartoons here ... I'm looking forward to more.

The cartoons reminded me of an excellent workshop that Johnnie Moore ran earlier in the year on authentic facilitation. There's another in January. Johnnie says:

Being open to the unexpected, and resourceful in responding, is a key skill for facilitators. Some of our best work comes when we have to drop our original plans and respond in the moment to what happens before us. Authentic facilitation is a great way to increase the ability to improvise.

During our workshop Johnnie encouraged conversations and some collaborative storytelling. We were strongly focussed on talking to each other. He then moved to the flip chart , started talking. What happens? The facilitator becomes the focus and we lose contact with each other. If one of us had stepped up, it would have been a different dynamic again. I don't think Johnnie was saying right-wrong - just encouraging us to reflect on how different styles and behaviours make an enormous difference, and may be appropriate in different circumstances. I grabbed a quick picture (sorry about the quality). If only there was a cartoonist on hand...

Comments

[Andrew Rixon]

Hi David,

Thanks for the trackback.

It is an interesting point you raise, about authentic facilitation. Many new to facilitation start off with the recipe approach. Which is the only way, really, that one can start. But to be able to bring a process to life, you eventually need to learn when to leave the structure, and move out into that unstructured territory.

Bob Dick summed it up really nicely by saying "You need to be a cook first and a chef later".

I think the tension between structure and no-structure is a really important one for facilitators and groups.

This tension seems to get reflected into style.

Warm regards,
Andrew