Facilitation

Facilitation: To make something easier or more likely to happen.

Facilitators are like a secret sauce. Add them to a previously rote process and remarkable things can occur. Our world has too many problems that need new approaches. Let’s apply imagination, wonder, and collaboration.

Is your board in a rut? Are the team members’ roles a bit murky? Has your nonprofit lost a clear sense of purpose? Maybe it’s time to let some your programs go — but which ones? Is change on the horizon and you want to be proactive?

Each of these is a great reason to include a facilitator in your process.

We do the boring stuff so that you don’t have to — like adhering to a schedule and making sure all voices are heard. We also bring the unexpected in the form of prompts, tools, and activities that kickstart creative, even profound conversations, that lead in intriguing new directions.

Best of all, facilitators lead so the team can be a team. We read the room and mediate, so no one else has to take on emotional labor. We have a backup plan when we need one.

COSTS

I used tiered pricing that reflects the size and financial resources of a client. It is important to me to work with and for organizations that are intentionally doing prosocial work.

Good facilitation opens up possibilities and makes previously invisible connections visible.

“We urgently need to bring to our communities the limitless capacity to love, serve, and create for and with each other.” - Grace Lee Boggs

WHAT TO EXPECT

GET STARTED: During an initial conversation(s) about your needs and goals, I might ask:

  • What do you hope will come from this — immediately, a year from now?

  • What are obstacles for this process, for your “success”?

  • How does each member of the team define “success”?

  • If you (as a team, an organization, an individual) were going to stop doing one thing that you think is no longer effective, what would it be?

  • Who is your audience?

  • Why does this (project / organization / service) matter?

NEXT:

  • I draft an outline of a facilitated experience that includes timing, goals for each segment, notes about “vibes”,etc., and I incorporate your feedback into the session(s).

EACH FACILITATED EXPERIENCE:

  • is built around collectively established safety and transparency

  • breaks down hierarchy so that all voices are heard and everyone’s experience matters

  • includes activities that are playful & humanizing to help us bring our entire selves to the table.

Examples of my facilitation work:

TWO

Client: Coalition of nonprofits

  • Issue: The group of 30+ members from various organizations hadn’t met since before the pandemic. They needed to reconnect and establish a three-year agenda.

  • Sessions: During a morning-long session and three shorter followups, we used writing prompts and paired sharing, exercises that encourage BIG thinking; and physically moving in the space to indicate preferences.

  • Outcome: The group identified three main purposes for its work; self-organized into working groups; and identified short- and long-term goals.

ONE

Client: Three teams of scholars

  • Issue: How to find common ground across disciplines and projects toward a shared community- and narrative-based framework.

  • Sessions: Over the course of four 2-hour meetings, we used storytelling, drawing, and clay modeling to learn about each other’s work and identify overlapping areas.

THREE

Client: The James Gang, an umbrella nonprofit of other nonprofits

  • Issue: For its 20th birthday, the James Gang wanted to capture its history across its numerous iterations.

  • Sessions: For three hours, we held a fishbowl format with a center circle for talking and outer rings for listening; people had a chance to tap into the inner circle when we reached the era during which they participated with the organization.

  • Outcomes: Everyone had a chance to participate in the inner circle and share memories. The organization’s complex history was captured and shared.