Ladies Have Facilitation Experience - Coursework Example

Name: Institution: Course: Date: Ladies have facilitation experience Introduction Facilitation is the process that uses the facilitator to help an organization or group of people to understand the established objectives and goals, a factor that facilitate planning and decision making in the organization. The knowledge and experience of the facilitator enable the organization and individuals to perform their duties and responsibilities effectively, hence achieving synergy and collaboration. In other words, the facilitator supports organization and individuals towards pursuing their objectives through the process of making the high-quality decision. Thus, during the process of facilitation the facilitator takes the neutral position without participating in decision making. The facilitator intends to cultivate sharing of responsibilities, promotes mutual understanding, and encourages full participation (Carr A, Durant R & Downs A. 2004). Therefore, this paper will analyze an interview conducted to Dorothy. An organization may have an internal facilitator or hire an external facilitator who is not part of the organization to in decision making or problem solving process. Different groups require the services of the facilitator like group of disparate, entire organization, department, or a team. Dr. Dorothy has more experience and skills in the field of facilitation that facilitate her role of facilitator and group leader based on her training and roots in methodology and the theory of psychodrama and group work. Dorothy got into the field of facilitation when she became the content and process expert. For more than 25 years, she has gotten experience from coaching, facilitation, training, teaching, and consultant both in schools and organizations. According to Dorothy, her knowledge and experience have facilitated and enhanced her performance in the field of facilitation, a factor that has improved performance of individuals and organizations where she has worked and guided. She has spent most of her career serving in the government organizations to private practicing consulting, schools, and community organizations. For example, she has served and coached relationship and image management, personal priorities, leadership, and managing people. In addition, she molds other people to be facilitators and design facilitation using the framework that they have developed with her colleagues. Some factors like alliance workshop, contentious meetings, operational planning, and strategic methods have enhanced performance among the facilitators. According to Schwarz, R. M. (1994), an articulated framework that incorporates decades of learning and experience is able to translate group theory to various lay languages. Based on her responses, a strong correlation was evidenced between the approaches she uses and her framework with the requirements. In the facilitation action, the framework comprises: opening with purpose, keeping the focus, finding similarities and differences, getting people listening and interacting, and finally closing. Dorothy indicates that she has managed to achieve great performance in the field of facilitation through building relationship networks by making the observation, modeling good listening, interacting, paraphrasing, and creating understanding. On the other hand, she manages to focus effectively on the facilitation process that is especially related to power by considering the practical aspects of design, activities, and purpose of facilitation. Most importantly, she understands and believes facilitation to be a process rather than being content. Dorothy indicates that it is a principle for the facilitators not to lead individuals or group towards decision making or the answer that they think to be the best, but rather make it easier for the organization to high-quality decision. Strategies used in facilitation Dorothy indicates that design is important and paramount in the facilitation process during the preparation because all the organizations, groups, and individuals she has served have attained their goals and objectives through the respectful design she used. In addition, the facilitator needs to establish the right perception and create a good relationship with the manager and other stakeholders. For one to get the design right, he or she needs to clarify the purpose and understand the content. With her experience and knowledge, she is able to overcome challenges of underlying process and facilitate the process effectively by linking the system with the design plan. In most instances, she works together with the suggested participants while strategizing and designing. She claimed that working together effectively with the participant helps to understand the concerns and interest of participants, a factor that enhances the process. During the design stage, she gets to know who will take part and understand what is required for the facilitation process to be successful. According to Dorothy, making the design right and effective means work gets done with the purpose attained in an interesting and enjoyable way. The facilitator need to exercise power in the facilitation process to be able to manage the process well. Most important and central aspect of facilitation is to find methods of empowering participants, a factor that will ensure they accomplish the work by themselves. Buchholtz AK, Young MN & Powell GN (1998) states that “facilitation can describe an activity or process it can also refer to silence, non-action and even the facilitator’s absence.” For Dorothy, indicates that work is made easier and effective through the design that gets the work done without controlling and managing the process. For example, during the facilitation process she uses strategies and an approach that ensures everybody participate and eventually make decision among them. According to Dorothy, the situation in the facilitation process is similar to the games activity where everybody needs to participate because the facilitator plays the role of guiding and facilitating action and decision making without taking part. The facilitator need to be equipped and ready to manage different dimensions of issues in a group. Moreover, he or she must be able to direct and guide the group towards being self-reliable. Dorothy further reveals that when dealing with inexperienced groups during the facilitation process, design is the best intervention tool to create understanding among them. In the past, she has managed to make designs that are acknowledgeable and respectful that encourages individuals to feel safe while speaking. However, things may get horrible when the facilitator has not planned and designed the facilitation process. Some years ago when i got a chance of working in one of the production organization in Australia, i experienced the importance of planning and design in in a discussion. While we were discussing in a small group, one of the group members disrupted the discussion by claiming that no more discussion. Eventually, when the facilitator intervened she managed to discuss with the whole group in her own preferred way, where she later set the work to be done by members and left for the participants to proceed with the work. On a different occasion, i encountered a bad experience when i was facilitating consultation of stakeholders in a care organization. During the invitation process, i relied on the local management to do the invitation of attendee without realizing that they had excluded the key stakeholder. At the beginning of the meeting, one of the members stood up unexpected and made his grievances, a situation that become had for me to facilitate. Eventually, the discussion got powerful and allowed some members to discuss non-discussable issues and other that had remained hidden agenda. These incidences provided a learning moment for me and helped me to realize how important design is in consultation meetings. Based on the many years’ experiences of Dorothy, she indicates that in most cases she handled and facilitated consulting meeting effectively. As a facilitator, one needs to share out her or his views among the group members, which are influential but not final decision. The establishment of networks and local relationships is necessary because it generates more information apart from your own organization. The idea of networking and establishing relationships facilitates effective facilitation process due to the generation of ideas. In the interview, Dorothy acknowledged with the idea of networking and relationship when she claimed that “establishment of the relationship with group members and networking helped me attain my objectives in facilitation.” Indicating the purpose During the facilitation process, it is always important to indicate the purpose of the function to create understanding of the work ahead. When the facilitator is doing the introduction, his or her information need to reveal the purpose. Dr. Dorothy showed that relationship in the organization is established only when good agreement and goodwill is achieved, which enhances the good work in the group. She ensured that in every introduction that she made, it was purposeful, and a factor that helped members understand and articulate their contribution in a discussion or decision making process. Moreover, she indicates that all experiential exercises need to be consistent and align with the group’s task (Owen, H. 1997). In addition, Dorothy believes that for effective facilitation process to be achieved, the facilitator should be introduced by someone else. This is important because a facilitator cannot be the host of a discussion or event. She learned the importance of all this when she facilitated activities in school associations. In one of the discussion function, she felt uneasy and never got attention from members when she made the mistake of introducing herself. On the other hand, she did not attain clarity and members never recognize her position. Therefore, she learned that ground rules and design are important in the field of facilitation. In addition, she always encouraged people to be disciplined and respectable in a discussion, activities so that they can attain desirable and great performance. Managing the group When a facilitator has been invited in an organization or group to carry out facilitation, he or she needs to respect the member of the group and their views. Based on the objective, the facilitator should find the effective way of guiding and directing them towards achieving their objectives. The most critical and difficult bit of facilitation process is constantly reminding the group members the purpose of the work and what is required for them to attain their objectives. Dorothy supported the action by making task purposeful and clear, hence contributing to high-quality decisions and great performance of the group. Further, she indicates that a good facilitator needs to focus on creating an action that will support good decision-making through the agreement of members concerning the next steps. In some situations, the facilitation activities may not take place as per the plan, thus the facilitator should be adaptable to be able to maintain the purpose of the discussion. For example, when time has been allocated for a certain agenda in most cases it may take more time than it was planned. Therefore, in this situation the facilitator need to ensure that the time budgeted should not act as deadline, hence allowing members to proceed. According to Hunter, D., Bailey, A. & Taylor, B (1996), time is used in the facilitating process to monitor the progress of the discussion or group activities and provide guidelines for the members to follow. On the other hand, realization of self-determination helps members to full learn and make effective decision. For example, in a case where time had elapsed, she could intervene and ask the members whether they should progress or not. Therefore, the most important thing was to remain focused and ensure the work is accomplished. Owen, H. (1997) suggests that these are some of the important areas that require the intervention of facilitators because it is always difficult to keep members moving when the planned time has elapsed. Discussion The issues of conflicts in a group discussion are always inevitable and normal even in groups that considered being homogenous. Dorothy suggests that when differences or disagreement happens in a group discussion, the best way is to solve and make then non-issue. I support the idea of Dorothy because every member who comes in a group discussion comes with his or her own agenda. The facilitators take this as an opportunity for him or her to make the contribution by creating creative solutions. This means that if disagreements and conflicts never existed in a discussion, then there would be no need for group members meeting. The experience and knowledge of Dorothy has enabled people to act against their will and organizations attain their goals. Conclusion The successful discussion with Dorothy revealed facilitation to be an art of science where great performance depends with concentrating on real passion, process, and continually practicing skills, a factor that empower other people carry their work efficiently and effectively. The performance and work of the facilitator will always depend on his or her preparation, design, and planning. However, in most instances facilitators are required to be flexible and know that design and plan are meant to provide guidelines and help to monitor the progress of facilitation process. When the process of facilitation commences, the facilitator will be able to make an effective intervention in a discussion through the combination of experience, intuition, and knowledge. When the process of facilitation is carried out effectively by the facilitator who is focused, members will always achieve their purpose and get the right way of attaining their objectives. Therefore, the situation of conflict and disagreement in an organization provide an opportunity for facilitators to create creative solutions that facilitate high-quality decision making. References Buchholtz AK, Young MN & Powell GN: Are Board members Pawns or Watchdogs? Group and Organisation Management,1998. Carr A, Durant R & Downs A. Emergent Strategy Development abduction and pragmatism: New lessons for corporations. Human Systems Management, 2004. Hunter, D., Bailey, A. & Taylor, B., The facilitation of groups, Gower, Aldershot, England, 1996. Owen, H., Open space technology: A user's guide, 2nd edn, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, 1997. Schwarz, R. M., The skilled facilitator: Practical wisdom for developing effective groups, 1st. edn, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1994. Appendix Topic: interview questions a. What made you to be a facilitator and for how long have you served in this field? b. Describe the facilitation style you use, your behaviors and how you handle disagreement. c. Describe organizations you have served and the different situation you encountered. d. Which way can be used to achieve effective facilitation process? e. Do you design, plan and prepare for facilitation? f. Do you work in groups during the facilitation process? g. Which models and theories facilitate your performance in the field? h. Should facilitation be a democratic process? i. What actions or ideas do you have that can improve the performance of facilitation? j. Do you believe whether groups are able to reach consensus when left alone? Read More