What is Facilitation?
The word facilitation is derived from the Latin ‘facile’ which, simply translated, means ‘to make easy’. A facilitator is therefore someone who makes something easy for others. So how is facilitation different from other professional services that might also make something easier, such as consultancy, training or mediation? And how is facilitation different from other group leadership roles, such as chairing? Clarity of definition can help to manage expectations on the sides of the client, the group and the facilitator, and so achieve better outcomes.
A classic if lengthy definition is that of Roger Schwarz:
“Group facilitation is a process in which a person, whose selection is acceptable to all members of the group, is substantively neutral, and has no decision-making authority, diagnoses and intervenes to help a group improve how it identifies and solves problems and makes decisions, to increase the group’s effectiveness.” – Roger Schwarz.
This definition addresses three critical dimensions – the role or stance of the facilitator, what he or she does to make things easy; and to what purpose.
Firstly, the facilitator is neutral to the content and task of the group. That is not to say that the facilitator cannot or should not have any content expertise or any stake in the outcome of the task, but that the group must be able to have confidence that the facilitator will not allow these to influence the group’s work and decisions. In contrast, the consultant provides expert advice and the trainer imparts knowledge or skills, both contributing content expertise.
Secondly, what the facilitator does is to diagnose and intervene in how the group works. In other words, he or she contributes process rather than content expertise. The facilitator is not neutral to process, but indeed is granted responsibility for the group’s process, by the group. A leader cannot impose a facilitator on a group without its consent.
Excerpts are from Source: https://martingilbraith.com/facilitation-and-how-it-can-add-value/
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The Flight Of Harmony For Motivated Organizations
In nature, when
birds have to fly to a warmer climate to escape bitterly cold weather, they
flock together and start their journey as a group. The success of the journey
depends on the group: if an individual bird does not join the group, it cannot
reach the destination on its own.When geese fly
together, each goose provides additional lift and reduces air resistance for
the goose flying behind it. Consequently, by flying together in
a v-formation, scientists estimate that the whole flock can fly about 70%
farther with the same amount of energy than if each goose flew alone. Geese have discovered that they can
reach their destination more quickly and with less energy expended when they
fly together in formation. When people work together harmoniously on teams,
sharing common values and a common destination, they all arrive at the
destination quicker and easier, because they are lifted up by the energy and
enthusiasm of one another.Individual Viz Part of the wholeThese birds fly in a
particular formation of ‘V’ shape, with an appropriate space between them as
they fly. If they fly too close to each other, their wings get entangled; they
lose their balance and fall. If they remain too far from each other, the formation
cannot be created properly, and they are not able to ride the currents of air,
which help to propel them in their flight. Furthermore, the leader of the
formation does not remain the leader throughout the whole flight, but moves
back and allows another to take its place. This repositioning continues
throughout the flight until the destination is reached, allowing individual
birds to contribute to the success of the journey.The reality of life is that we are
individuals within a collective whole. Just like the birds, we are all a part
of an unlimited Flight of Harmony.Just as there are two faces to one coin; a leader who
wishes to have a successful team
understands the freedom
and space needed for the existence of each member’s unique individuality
, as well as the closeness and set boundaries needed for the existence of the
group or collective organization. One cannot exist without
the other.How to
achieve the perfect balance in Individual Space Viz Part of the whole?Organizations which have people who have almost met
the bottom four of the “Hierarchy of Needs” in the maslow’s motivation
theory, may well choose to develop a culture that leads their associate employees to meet their top most need i.e.
“Self-Actualization” and motivate their employees to develop spiritually towards
self-actualization (the top most ‘need’ in the maslow’s theory of motivation ).
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Benefits to the organizations having individuals who are developing spiritually are obvious from the
following reasons:1. They feel a
personal sense of value.2. They clearly
recognize their uniqueness and have the feeling that there is the freedom to be
whatever they choose to be.3. At the same
time, their sense of personal independence allows them to come close to others
and work with them.4. They do not
have selfish independence. They get close to others because they have found
fulfilment in their own self.Someone who has truly found the value of the self
above and beyond labels, name, fame and approval can effectively cooperate
within the collective or group and interact appropriately. Such people not only
feel themselves to be a part of the whole but, even more importantly, the group
or collective feels them to be a part of the whole. -
Ever wondered why does a sailor try
to get to the eye of the storm if ever caught up in a sea storm while sailing?A wise sea captain, caught in a tropical storm knows that if he holds
his vessel on the periphery, it will get hurled from one side to the other. If
he can reach the eye of the storm, he will enter a place of stillness. The
storm will then subside and the ship can continue its journey.Recently,
I came across the real life story of a courageous lady who followed her passion
for animals and turned a financial crisis into an opportunity. She started a unique business of mobile
petting zoo during the last economic downturn in USA. This idea came to her as
a blessing in disguise to support her passion for her pet animals when her
husband lost his job and she did not have enough money to take care of her pet
animals.She set
out to create a mobile petting zoo and
aimed at conducting 10 events per annum, just enough to fund her pets care. But
the idea became such a big hit that last year she conducted 700 events ! Now
she has a big team to manage this unique business truly driven by her passion
and love for animals. She had the option of making a practical decision of
giving away her love for animals and may be sell them off to get money to run
the house. But she chose to remain
stable at that stormy moment and went with the option guided by her inner
conscious voice which was the mobile petting zoo business.Another
similar example to quote here is that of a blind
musician named Raju Rao who is from Bhopal, India. Despite his visual
impartment, this multi talented musician writes lyrics of songs, composes
music, plays many musical instruments and even sings ghazal and sufi music. Not
ending at that he has performed with some renowned artists like Ghulam Ali,
Kavita Krishnamurthy and Anuradha Paudwal among others. All this happened only
after he had no opportunity with other music studios and hence, decided to open his own. This is
again an example of turning a crisis into an opportunity.This
affirms that when everything around us is changing in a very intense way and
against us then the best place for us to seek help is not on the outside
circle, but deep within the self, where we can get in touch with self, the
inner being to find strength and
stability, then come out with creative solution using lateral thinking and
do whatever it is that we need to based on our inner conscious
voice .We are always safe at the eye of the
storm that means in any adverse situation if we can focus within we will find
solution to be safe and protected to sail on smoothly in life. -
Rainbow Enclosing the Aircraft Shadow Ever wondered why reflections cannot be the exact same realities of
life?Recently, I came across this interesting
picture shown above, shared by my college friend. While on her way back home,
to USA from India, she saw a pretty rainbow in the sky. With excitement, she took
out her camera to capture that beautiful moment, just when she noticed another smaller
aircraft, flying parallel to the one she was travelling in. It took her only a
few seconds; to realize that it wasn’t another aircraft, but the shadow of the same aircraft she was
travelling in!Similar to her perception which lasted only a few seconds; don’t we all want to
see a part of us in others; in our friends, relatives, co-workers or our
children? Or isn’t this how we perceive our shadow in other people to be a reality?
Even when we are building new relationships or trying to be in sync with the
existing ones, we are constantly trying to find a piece of ourselves in the
other. Quite often, we try to identify their traits, habits, choices and approach
etc. with that of ours.Unfortunately, most often the people who fall
prey to such perceptions are our children. Just because our children are with
us for the initial part of their life, (like a shadow) they really can’t be
driven by our choices and habits. If we fail to accept the differences in their
opinions choices, likes and capabilities then we definitely have chosen to
invite frictions in our relationship. This friction starts seeping in, when our
kids get into ‘teenage’ and it gets really
rough if we still do not identify their differences and give them the freedom
of choice to ‘be’ just ‘who’ they are. A recent example, of this failure by a parent was reported
in the Times of India Newspaper last
week(TOI – June, 2015), where an engineering third year student committed
suicide by jumping from top floor of his residence building because he wanted
to study sociology and he was forced to study engineering by his parents.This doesn’t mean we do not discipline our children
for what is ‘right’, but at the same time we need to agree to disagree sometimes and understand that each and every soul on this earth is unique
and has a unique part to play on this world stage, in this eternal drama called,
life. To have a strong, healthy and a lasting relationship, we need to
realize that every individual is as different as his/her finger prints or
retina impressions and; so are the soul impressions (traits, karmic accounts) of
each actor on this world stage different.If we accept people without any resistance
for “who” they are and enjoy the diverse human nature, having diverse
habits, traits, capabilities and choices,
then we surely can excel in our interpersonal skills at work and at home. After
all, we all love colors in the rainbow, don’t you?Hence, the beauty of life lies in diversity. -
Why do we all have attachments
with “My Firsts” in our life?Quite often we hear out people connecting in the middle of a
talk with their “firsts” like my first job, my first car, my first house, my first
pet etc. etc.Why do people adore their firsts more than what they have
now which is much better over the antique pieces that they used to have?
I still remember how my first job gave me a boost of being
somebody and how my first car gave me loads of joy of being independent on the
wheels. The firsts are always special in our lives no matter how
tiny or obsolete they may look now or even then. But we always keep our firsts
in our fondest of memories. 🙂While doing a retrospect on the reasons of this fondness of people over
firsts, I reconcile here as some of the reasons that came out for my attachments towards my firsts is firstly, the feeling of “self-worth” or fulfillment that the firsts gave are much more at an index level
than the next ones in our life. Secondly,
the effort that went into making it
happen is much more than the next ones, this effort quotient is most definitely
directly proportionate to how we value something that we get in our life. Lastly and most importantly it’s the desire or the passion to get there as a milestone is what is making it hold a very special place in our life’s journey.So, if we want to collect more such fond memories similar to
our firsts then we continuously need to challenge and break our own limits that
we set for ourselves in whatever that we are doing and keep on flying to
explore the new and direct our efforts towards it that makes it worthwhile to
achieve and this is how we reach our peak potential i.e. self-actualization and hence, I Believe I can Fly. -
When you come to a point
where you have no need to impress anybody, your freedom will begin.Yes, true freedom lies with you ! ! ! When you choose NOT to be
compelled by judging your progress and self-worth by comparing with that of
others, you can clearly prioritize what’s important for YOU.Quite often we are not happy or content with where we are and we
postpone our happiness to our next goal or our happiness gets stolen by success
of others. But little do we realize then that we are actually getting into a
cage of endless run and escaping our own freedom of choosing to live life the
way we want and this is how we end our freedom.You can drive the car of your life safely out there in the traffic
of journey of your life and decide the comfortable speed for yourself when you
realize this truth that you are the driver who can choose not to be in a race
and you can choose to enjoy your drive with just what you have and just where you are ! ! ! You can exactly distinguish between what you need and what you want.Then you can clearly see your options and decide what suits you best. That is when your true freedom begins with you.Have a safe and happy journey of life. 🙂 -
ArchanaPingle: Essentials for Success in The Corporate Life: When it comes to success in the corporate life – everyone has their own definition of it, as each one is looking at it from their level. So there is no definite definition of success. But in essence mathematically you can say that “Success is about reaching from point A to point B.”
Nowadays, most of the so called successful breed in the knowledge economy is passed out from Best of the Tech. collages and B-Schools, to even further glorify their path they would also not leave any stone upturned in their learning and would surely attempt to get their lessons from the best of the management gurus in the world. Just as you have the 4 Ps (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) essential for the success of any product, they say that you need to have the 4 Ps(Passion, Plan, Patience and Perseverance) in you for your own success too.But the question is what happened to the success of the some of the most gloried of them all who were like celebrities in the Indian IT world ! ! ! To name a few Mr. Ramalinga Raju (Satyam CEO and Founder) and Phaneesh Murthy (iGate CEO)? Did these folks not have all the ingredients mentioned above to be successful? What made the whole building of their success collapse ??Answer to these questions in my opinion is: The essential foundation to one’s success is 3 Cs and that is Character, Congruent Communication and Compassionate Leadership.
