By Richard Alper, Founder and Principal
In recent posts, I wrote about how I became a mediator and facilitator and told the story of co-founding a community mediation center. In this entry, I’ll share what it’s really like to do this work professionally, particularly for larger projects involving multiple groups.
In the complex natural resource management projects I work on, I view facilitation like the classic kids’ strategy game Connect 4, with the game progressing on three or more levels. One level might involve observing process vs. content, another level could be watching for rights, power, and interests to surface, and a third level might be noticing what is going on within relationships among the parties.
This is fascinating, multi-faceted work where the struggle, energy, and wisdom that a group invests can bring about good and durable outcomes.
Monitoring process and content in a multi–party facilitation
If you’ve run a large meeting, you understand the struggle involved in keeping to the agenda versus welcoming extended discussions or topical detours that feel vital to attendees. In a complex multi-party conflict, a facilitator needs to simultaneously be aware of keeping an agreed-upon agenda moving forward (process) and noticing if participants are focused on a particular topic in ways that might be worth exploring (content). Every conflict is unique and so is a facilitator’s approach to balancing these three important factors.
Rights, power, and interests
Another level facilitators monitor is watching for the surfacing of rights (legal, ethical, etc.), power (authority), resources, moral persuasion, charisma, contacts, and interests (needs, feelings, values) among the parties. These elements are important to any conflict resolution professional, because they are common motivators driving or blocking the desire for change.
Relationships among the parties
Facilitators also closely observe relationships among the parties to notice:
- Who gets along (or doesn’t)?
- Is there anyone the group tends to look to for answers to questions?
- Who is checked out, distracted, or otherwise not paying attention?
- Are groups that typically don’t work together starting to warm up a little?
- Who is taking what roles?
- Who is trying to move the group or part of the group in a certain direction?
The facilitation process
Back to our Connect 4 game, here’s an overview of what a facilitator does while managing a conflict. As a professional facilitator, you are:
- Listening to the words spoken, noting body language, and observing the strategic and emotional moves that people are making.
- Monitoring the agenda (process) while gathering this data and deciding in each moment whether to stick with the agenda or depart from it (content).
- Watching whether people are talking about rights, power, or interests, and deciding how to best work with people based on this information.
- Looking for issue tensions or relationship tensions between the parties and unaddressed areas and questions which might be opportunities for common ground.
- Noticing who seems to have credibility and respect from the group, how they define the situation, and what kind of language they use.
- Is it cognitive, emotional, or behavioral?
- Do they speak in terms of rights, power, or interests (or a combination of these)?
- Observing whether people are listening to each other and if conversation is flowing or people are saying the same thing over and over in different ways.
- Noting whether coalitions are forming, certain values are being elevated, or specific perceptions are being accepted. Are any shared stories or symbols surfacing or becoming accepted or struggled over by the group?
Facilitation outcomes
The work I do isn’t just about feeling like you’ve done a good deed or reached a deal. It’s also about creating a space for the parties to explore, understand, and move past a hard conflict that has kept them stuck. The end goal of facilitation is rarely consensus on all issues. Rather, facilitation can help parties in conflict understand the other side’s point of view and explore options to move forward. Helping people in conflict reach an agreement on all or even part of their disagreement feels like you’ve moved the world a tiny step closer to a moment of peace and collaboration where possible.
