3 Secrets of Facilitation
By Becca Schwenk
Facilitation is a way of holding space for groups to move through collaborative processes such as workshops, dialogues, check-ins, strategic planning, and more. Facilitators create flexible structures for sessions based on the group’s needs, interests, and goals. Inclusive facilitators foster safety and equity as integral ingredients for the spaces they host and experiences they guide.
My facilitation experience began simply by observing facilitators doing their thing and curating experiences for me and fellow participants! I attended a Jewish Social Justice summer camp as a kid, and later worked there as a counselor. The programming at this camp was, quintessentially, facilitation. Counselors taught us about concepts like community, equity, and intersectionality through creative programming that didn’t even feel educational until the ‘aha’ moment was revealed. I cherished both learning and educating in this way, which led me to many subsequent facilitation roles; all under the umbrella of diversity, equity, inclusion, and collective movement towards hopeful futures. I recognized facilitation as an invaluable skill both professionally and in life more broadly, and set out to share it with all those who wished to hone it themselves!
While it takes time and practice to learn inclusive facilitation, there’s no one stopping me from sharing a few juicy secrets to pique your interest, so without further ado, allow me to present some behind the scenes tidbits from the world of facilitation.
1. Feeling stage fright is normal
Nervousness is both a normal and important part of facilitation. I find it extremely helpful to differentiate between confidence and competence. Pardon the extremely random way I learned of this distinction, but I have to credit Australian sports psychologist Jonah Oliver, who my partner heard discussing the concept. He shared that nervousness is a key indicator that we care about the outcome of something, and therefore is to be reasonably expected when engaging in things that matter to us. Stage fright is natural when we care about a performance and hope it turns out well. This principle is very relevant in facilitation!
Confidence without competence can lead to poor execution of a skill. The presence of competence will ground us even when we feel fearful. Unlike confidence, competence will enable us to assess a situation, reflect on what’s needed, pull from our tool belts, and go from there! A confident facilitator lacking competence may unintentionally gloss over people’s needs, pull the wrong tools and/or misuse them, and possibly generate a sense of disappointment, confusion, dissatisfaction, or harm.
I find it much more compelling to be guided by someone who cares about the wellbeing of participants and the quality of the experience, so I would rather learn with a nervous-yet-competent facilitator than a confident-yet-underprepared facilitator. I have over 10 years of facilitation experience and still get hit with nerves! Sometimes it’s unpredictable and it helps to perceive it simply as an embodied expression of how much care lives within us for the people and subject at hand. This is why we have a comprehensive Facilitation Certificate Program (FCP) helping folks build competence in their facilitation; because even the most brilliant facilitators get stage fright, and yet it doesn't impede their immense and transformative impact.
2. Facilitators are always learning and growing
In many ways, we are socialized to regard teachers as authorities in their respective fields, and students as empty vessels within which to bestow new knowledge. Authorities can be pedestalized as all-knowing — so much so that if someone inquires further or suggests additions to teachings, it could be perceived as a challenge to authority, and therefore the teacher as a person, rather than a valuable supplement to existing resources. Guiding learning without adapting to curiosity or nuance can alienate learners, leaving them feeling shut down, misunderstood, disengaged, or ashamed. And even if a Facilitator did, hypothetically, know all there was to know about a given topic, engaging collaboratively can still be more accessible for participants’ focus! Variety is the spice of life, and this applies to how folks focus and contribute. Willingness to learn continuously and reciprocally can elevate trust and respect between educators and participants; bringing folks more closely together in mutual learning.
Facilitation disrupts the traditional model wherein teachers teach and students learn and that’s that. It employs more collaboration whereby Facilitators uphold loose structures to better ensure safety, timeliness, effectiveness, and group alignment, but also leave space for engagement to flow with the group’s insight and interest. Facilitation honours that we are all brimming with diverse wisdoms that interweave into patchworks of knowledge, perspective, and depth. Collaboration allows a more expansive breadth of knowledge, and in order to achieve this breadth, Facilitators must acknowledge the constraints of what they currently know and embrace the potential for it to expand infinitely.
Truthfully, I have yet to meet a Facilitator who has not expressed tons of credit to participants for the learning and growth they’ve experienced. Not only is it simply part of the gig, it’s also an invaluable perk. Learning on top of core materials can be incredibly fulfilling for Facilitators. It’s an honour and a delight to observe the beauty of content coiling in and out of different awe-evoking shapes, and many teachings I have learned from participants continue to resonate with me as significantly as ones learned from Facilitators.
Collaboration allows a more expansive breadth of knowledge, and in order to achieve this breadth, Facilitators must acknowledge the constraints of what they currently know and embrace the potential for it to expand infinitely.
3. No two facilitators are the same
Though the word ‘Diversity’ is often tossed around as a buzz word in the mainstream corporate world, if we get back to the root of its meaning it signifies variety and complexity. Diversity is of immense value in most areas of life; culturally, intersectionally, and even in terms of the food we eat, the books we read, the ways we learn, and more. Under systems of oppression that push sameness and unachievable archetypes, we know how dehumanizing it is to only value one thing, one way. This same concept applies to Facilitation – there is no singular ideal, and diversity of style elevates accessibility, interest, and connection.
You’re here engaging with Bakau’s content, so I’m going to hazard a guess that you already value diversity and representation. Staying true to that notion, representation is crucial to Facilitation in that participants enjoy variety and covet not only seeing their own qualities represented, but also new ones that pique their interest and keep them engaged. In the FCP, participants host short and sweet presentations to give folks a chance to practice (no they are not graded, cue sigh of relief!). Each year, participants have remarked how powerful presentations were, even though they covered similar topics, because of the array of energy the Facilitators brought forward. Their presence, authenticity, boundaries, and care were palpable, and it moved the group profoundly. The purpose of the FCP is not to teach folks to model themselves after a fictional idealized Facilitator. It is quite the opposite! While qualities such as values, skills and strategies are shared across cohorts, participants are encouraged to turn inward to their authentic selves for inspiration on how they show up to facilitate. In doing so, they allow participants to bask in the unique energy being received, engaged with, and learned from.
To end with one final idiom: Different strokes for different folks. Different facilitation styles will resonate with different people on different days. While my facilitation style tends towards casual-yet-passionate-and-purposeful, it also fluctuates from session to session, and I’ve learned I can host the same sessions over and over and do so slightly differently each time. Humans are complex and our energy is in constant flux, so not only are no facilitators the same, but no one facilitator is the same all of the time. I have learned as much from extroverted Facilitators as introverted ones; from scripted Facilitators as those without notes; from seasoned Facilitators as brand new ones. The learning potential is endless, and diversity of style makes the learning more powerful.
So there you have it, the beans have been spilled! Well… three beans have been spilled — there are more where those came from. To learn from many more unspilled kernels of wisdom, I hope you join us in upcoming Facilitation Certificate Program cohorts this Fall 2023!
Becca is an innovator who thrives when applying her creativity to justice-centred work. She is the creator Bakau’s Facilitation Certificate Program and former COO. Her honed skills of note include relationship building, transformative consulting, people leading, and anti-oppressive business advising. With 10+ years of experience in anti-oppression, she is all about deep and meaningful analyses of injustice paired with innovative solutions. You can frequently find Becca slipping social justice tidbits into everyday conversation; ready to engage free of judgment and full of empathy.