Facilitating Conversations

For the process in this guide to be effective, facilitators will have to:​

  • Create trust within the decision group
  • Clarify and interrogate the facts in context within the group
  • Build a shared understanding of what matters to different individuals, and a shared commitment to what should matter most
  • Explain each step the team goes through so participants understand what they’re doing and why.

Group facilitation is an area of work that comes with its own skill set, knowledge base, and character traits. In addition to these, for a facilitator to be successful in this process for system-level decision-making, she will need to be skilled at:

  • Demonstrating and helping others demonstrate respect
  • Asking good questions
  • Reframing responses
  • Distinguishing between facts, values and emotions
  • Acknowledging participants’ emotions and their perspectives about facts and values and helping to collectively work through these