Please excuse me asking the most fundamental of questions of this group.

I have recently left the Royal Navy with a background in training. I
was directed to this newsgroup as a possible place of common interest
with other trainers.

The term that is confusing me is "facilitator".

Is this an American management term for lecturer, trainer, presenter
or the organiser of seminars? Perhaps I am just totally out of touch
and need to go back to college!

If anyone could find time to help me on this or point me to the FAQ
it would be appreciated.
--
 Paul - interact...@zetnet.uk.co
                   Supporting UK Trainers in Need
Marketing, training advice, grants information, legislation,
employment, news/gossip and networking.

Following are some definitions of facilitation that you may find helpful.
Also I have appended instructions on obtaining the FAQS.=20

Group facilitation is a process in which a person who is acceptable to all=
=20
members of the group, substantively neutral, and who has no=20
decision-making authority intervenes to help a group improve the=20
way it identifies and solves problems and makes decisions, in order=20
to increase the group's effectiveness.=20

Roger Schwarz, "The Skilled Facilitator:  Practical Wisdom for Developing=
=20
Effective Groups."  Jossey-Bass, 1994.  Page 4.

The primary role of a facilitator is to assist parties to have a=20
constructive dialogue. Facilitators usually help groups set an agenda=20
and manage the process of discussion. ... For example, facilitators=20
help the parties to recognize how their own styles of interacting or=20
the institutional prejudices that they embody may interfere with=20
constructive problem solving.  Here the objective is to promote=20
understanding among the parties.  Additionally, facilitators may=20
propose a series of process steps to keep the discussion on target. =20
Facilitators may also explicitly help parties find a mutually agreeable=20
solution to a dispute.=20

Barbara Gray, "Collaborating:  Finding Common Ground for Multiparty Problem=
s. =20
Jossey-Bass, 1989.  Page 163.

The facilitator's role =85 is to lead the group in drawing out answers,=20
building a vision and developing plans that motivate everybody to=20
achieve agreed upon goals - in short, to win.  The more input the=20
manager collects and channels, the more creativity is released.  The=20
facilitator functions much like the conductor of a symphony,=20
orchestrating and bringing forth the talents and contributions of=20
others.  The facilitator is also a communicator.  Working with=20
decentralized structures such as networks, small teams and cross-
departmental task forces =85 the facilitator fosters communication=20
and understanding between the units.=20

Laura Spender, "Winning Through Participation:  Meeting the Challenge of=20
Corporate Change with the Technology of Participation.  Kendall/Hunt=20
Publishing, 1989.  Page 12.

-Sandy

Sandor P. Schuman              Moderator, Group Facilitation Discussion
S.Schu...@Albany.edu             Newsgroup: misc.business.facilitators
University at Albany, SUNY       Listserv:  Grp-F...@cnsibm.albany.edu

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
The FAQs are a series of text files that contain information=20
on a variety of topics pertinent to group facilitation. =20
Many of the FAQs are compilations of posts to this discussion group. =20
If you don't know how to get the faqs, here's what you should do:

Send an email message to:

LISTS...@CNSIBM.ALBANY.EDU

In the body of the message, type the following:

GET INTRO.FAQ GRP-FACL

Do not include any other text or signature in the email message.

Via email you will receive instructions on how to access the FAQs.

From Alan Scharf:

Paul Jarvis says "The term that is confusing me is "facilitator".

Here is a quote from an old book of mine titled "Making Wiorkshop Teams
Effective--Practical Tools for Facilitatimng Group Workshops."

"THe role or purpose of the workshop facilitator is to guide the team
through a process which will lead towards the desired solution."

"In carrying out this role, the facilitator must have the required technical
and behavioral knowledge and skills. He or she must be comfortable leading
and motivating a diverse team towards a common solution. The facilitator
must be familiar with many techniques and approaches for generating and
evaluating ideas, for fostering harmonius group interactions, for modelling
or putting together conclusions, and for keeping the team on schedule. THe
facilitator provides the group process. The particiapant provide the content."

So the facilitator is not a lecturer, trainer, presenter or organiser of
seminars, although she may do any of these things when not facilitating.

Alan Scharf, Futurist and President
Scharf and Associates Creative Leap International
1137 Elliott Street, Saskatoon, SK. Canada S7N 0V4
Email: asch...@eagle.wbm.ca  Tel: 306/244-4164  Fax: 306/652-0633

WELCOME TO IMPRECISE BUT CREATIVE AMERICAN ENGLISH! It's all the
same basic thing, but with different seasonings!  I have or am all of
your descriptors!

I am a member of a newly appointed Board of Directors for a new
community service agency. A colleague and I have the task of selecting
a facilitator for our first Strategic Planning process.
We appear to have a choice between people who have a great deal of
knowledge in the field of our business, and who may seek to impose
their particular model on this Board, and other excellent facilitators
from other fields who will be less directive, and more open to
allowing participants to be innovative.

The members of the Board as community-based Board members, but lack
professional experience in this specific field.

Any advice you can give me will be appreciated.

Brock Vodden

brock.vod...@odyssey.on.ca

Definitely hire someone who is going to be objective and "facilitate" the
process.  They should have knowledge of a process to take you through, but
the content needs to come from the group.

I've worked with community service boards to do this kind of planning.  They
really appreciated me being in an unbiased position and being able to move
them through their "muck" and "stands".

Good luck,

Arline Berman

At 06:53 pm 8/25/96 GMT, you wrote:

I am a member of a newly appointed Board of Directors for a new
community service agency. A colleague and I have the task of selecting
a facilitator for our first Strategic Planning process.
We appear to have a choice between people who have a great deal of
knowledge in the field of our business, and who may seek to impose
their particular model on this Board, and other excellent facilitators
from other fields who will be less directive, and more open to
allowing participants to be innovative.

The members of the Board as community-based Board members, but lack
professional experience in this specific field.

Any advice you can give me will be appreciated.

Brock Vodden

brock.vod...@odyssey.on.ca

In article <1996082107401269...@zetnet.co.uk>, Paul C Jarvis
<interact...@zetnet.co.uk> writes

Try "Facilitation - Providing Opportunities for Learning", a very
accessible book by Trevor Bentley, published in the McGraw-Hill Training
Series & widely available in the UK @ 19.95 - ISBN 0-07-707684-2

Regards

Sandy (who left the Royal Air Force with a background in training 26
years ago - but we won't hold it against each other)

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy McMillan        Career Solutions to help people manage change
sa...@careern.demon.co.uk           http://w3.win-uk.net/ppp/career
            " What will be different in your chosen future?"
-------------------------------------------------------------------

In article <Pine.PMDF.3.91.960824083801.539009876K-
100...@cnsvax.albany.edu>, "Sandor P. Schuman"
<sschu...@cnsvax.albany.edu> writes

--
David Williams
GNP Ltd, Encouraging Excellence
da...@gnp.co.uk
"Our product is imagination"

To subscribe to the Training and Development electronic discussion group
send an email message to:

LISTS...@PSUVM.PSU.EDU

In the body of the message type:

SUBSCRIBE TRDEV-L Your Real Name

Do not include any other text or signature in the email message.

-Sandy

Sandor P. Schuman              Moderator, Group Facilitation Discussion
S.Schu...@Albany.edu             Newsgroup: misc.business.facilitators
University at Albany, SUNY       Listserv:  Grp-F...@cnsibm.albany.edu

At 06:53 PM 8/25/96 GMT, Brock Vodden wrote:

There is a difference between consultation--providing expert
advice--and facilitation...and often a fine line between them.

There is a place for both of these skills. Ideally, the organization
would arm itself with all the knowledge and opinion it needs
before it sits down to a facilitated session. The 'experts' can
be consulted before the session.

However, the Board needs to have clear air to sort out their
particular views during the session, and this is best achieved
by a true facilitator, not an expert masquerading as one.

It is useful for a facilitator to have some expertise in order to
understand and promote dialogue, and to anticipate a need to
respond to certain situations. This can be achieved by having
the facilitator participate in prior discussions, so as to gain at
least a little understanding of the issues behind any conflicts.

John
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Walker                                      john_wal...@mindink.bc.ca

Ethika Performance Enhancement            Phone:  (604) 980-9448
Vancouver. B.C. Canada
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have seen too many groups leave room almost (well, actually more than almost)
 embittered because they were led by a content-based facilitator rather than a
 process-based one. You and your fellow participants are the experts. You don't
 need an expert facilitating you - it's one too many. Go for neutrality. Your
 outcomes will be much more real and they will be yours.
Rich Heiland

I'd like to add my comments to your request....

It's nice to know content, but as facilitators, I believe our role is to
make sure the processes get the group to its outcome, whatever that may
be.  If the group doesn't understand content, then it's the faciliator's
role to help them figure out how to get it, be it working with the team
leaders/coordinators before the meeting or with everyone during the
meeting.

On the other hand (this may negate the paragraph above):  Your facilitator
role and what you do/not do should be determined in the "facilitator
contracting phase" prior to the actual facilitation work.  Therefore, if
you negotiate to provide expertise in this area when needed, then KNOCK
YOURSELF OUT and help that group!

Good Luck!
Maria F.R. Raper ("Weejam...@aol.com)

In article <4vq773$...@mur2.odyssey.on.ca>, Brock Vodden

What is a Facilitator?

There are a lot of differing opinions about this topic.

In practice, within our group, facilitators have been employed in many
roles. These include, but not limited to, minutes takers, clock watchers,
flip chart creators, "Keepers of the Holy Flip Chart Marker," mediators,
referees, umpires (there is a subtle difference), team leaders, and
occasionally even facilitators. Some of these roles have been appropriate,
some have not, and the purpose of this communication is to establish the
difference.

Facilitators,  in the world of process improvement and total quality
management, are helpers.
They are individuals who bring multiple skills to aid business leaders who
have identified  organizational problems.  The problems can be process
related, but they do not need to be.  What they do need to be, however, is
definable, in terms of data -- either statistical or derived from customer
feedback.

When a business leader has identified such a problem, a facilitator can
assist in the thought process that yields a decision about how to pursue a
solution.  If the decision is to form a process improvement team, the
facilitator can then offer assistance in the identification of  team
members by providing criteria for selection.

As potential team members line up, the focus shifts to assisting the team
in self evaluation of individual preparedness.  Are they team players by
nature?  Will they be able to get along with other members?  What skills
do they bring to the group?  What other skills will they need to develop?

Once a team begins to meet, the facilitator shifts to the more traditional
roles of teacher and guide.  He or she instructs the team in the proper
use of various discussions, data collection, and analysis tools within the
framework of a proven process improvement methodology.  Ideally,  the
facilitator will meet in advance with the team leader  to isolate the
goals and objectives of a given meeting. They discuss possible strategies
and tactics to achieve these goals.  This preparation time may equal as
much as 25% to 50% of the time the actual meeting.

During the meeting itself, the facilitator pays close attention to the
process of the meeting while the team leader addresses issues of content.
The team shares the separate duties of time keeper and minute taker so
that neither the leader nor the facilitator is distracted from their
primary roles.
While watching the flow of the meeting, a facilitator keeps tabs on many
things beyond the actual issue at hand.

(Alan, please note)

He or she observes the degree of participation of each team member.
Facilitators take care to check with quieter individuals to make sure
their opinions are included.  Facilitators halt unproductive or repetitive
discussions to keep things moving along. They interact with the timekeeper
to help the team adhere to the agenda as closely as possible.
Facilitators pick up on potential conflicts within the group for later
review with the leader. They may even step in to address a conflict that
is disrupting progress.

After the meeting has ended, the facilitator and team leader spend time
together debriefing what took place.  They evaluate what went well, what
didn t, and then begin to plan the next meeting with benefit of the
lessons they have just learned.  They discuss team dynamics and decide
whether there is anything that deserves special attention either in the
next meeting or before.

Early in a process improvement effort, a facilitator s involvement is
fairly high.  As work continues, the team leader takes a more active role,
the team members understand the meeting process and the tools better and
the facilitator gradually reduces involvement. They may even stop
attending meetings regularly once a team is functioning well.

So, though facilitators are called many things and have performed many
tasks in the past, their primary function is summed up in this phrase:

They are the guide on the side, not the sage on the stage.

Oh, and one more thing, they don t do windows (except at home).

Hope this helps!

Bill Davis
McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

It was interesting reading the previous post regarding facilitation and
seeing the word mediator in that context.  My perception of mediation vs
faciliatation is that in mediation there is already a perceived defined
conflict and in faciliatation there is identification of the problem but
not necessarily a defined conflict.

In the latter, part of the duty of the faciliator is to define what the
problem is from the participation of the parties. In mediation there has
already been a conflict that has esculated above "white noise" to an
actual soundtrack. This is specifically the case in litigation mediation
or divorce mediation.

I'd be interested to see more reference to the mediation process on this
board because, while I find this interesting, there are issues in specific
problem solving in mediation that I perceive as different from
faciliatation.

Let's develope this discussion.

John M. Beringer, Jr.
Beringer & Associates: Insurance Litigation Management, Coverage Analysis
& Mediation.  Remember-You can win, without losing, with mediation"