Article

The Practice Of Mindfulness In Facilitation - By Christopher Titmuss.

The Purpose of Facilitation is to cultivate:

1. A sense of empowerment for the group
2. A deepening of commitment by the individual or group
3. A sense of solidarity and inter-connection.
4. A revelation of insights and vision

The Role of the Facilitator is to:

1. Enable the group to listen and understand each other
2. Enable the individual to express themselves
3. Give support to the process
4. Mirror and explore differences.
5. Inquire into stuck areas
6. Acknowledge differences rather than deny them
7. Build consensus
8. Allow opposing viewpoints to exist

Awareness of Means by the Facilitator:

1. Keep the body language calm
2. Give everybody the opportunity to speak, not just the vocal ones.
3. Everybody's voice is acknowledged without fear or favour
4. To ask "Is this what your mean?" and summarise if words are unclear
5. To ask others "How do you understand what this person said?"
6. To be specific rather than indulge in generalisations
7. To be watchful of repetition, going off on a sidetrack
8. To be mindful of not confusing control with facilitation
9. Struggle and difficulties for the group or individual form part of the process
10. Summarise key points
11. To explain to the group the core problem
12. To express regularly appreciation to individuals or the group
13. Collect different points of view
14. Develop an open attitude to unpopular opinions
15. Notice and respond to signals of annoyance or withdrawal.
16. Stepping back from the process to describe it can be invaluable as long as it isn't judgemental like "obviously we are not getting anywhere."
17. Don't become impatient and impose decisions.
18. Keep questions rather short, thoughtful, simple and non-reactive.
19. Acknowledge progress, regress or stagnation and be inspirational
20. If reaching a decision, or time has run out, give a summary followed by shared silence or handholding at the end.