Facilitation: a flexible and gentle approach.
Facilitation is a great early intervention where disputes are brewing. Through facilitated conversations, good communication can be restored, reducing stress and anxiety, and helping people move past the issues.
Facilitation offers a flexible approach and works for groups of any size – from two individuals to multiple parties or a full group setting. It’s about getting people talking, ensuring people are heard, keeping the space safe, and not necessarily having an “outcome” in mind. The key is to create an environment where everyone is comfortable to communicate well, and to provide an informal process which feels fair, natural and constructive for all parties. As the facilitator, I remain neutral as I guide parties towards some form of resolution or improvement. This can include agreement on key issues, but does not have to.
By creating the right environment and process for constructive conversations to take place, issues can be reduced and disputes unwound. The ultimate goal is to guide parties to some form of resolution in an informal but assisted manner. Unlike mediation, that may not mean “agreement” or “conclusion”, it may just be that those involved in the mediation start to understand each other, and each others’ perspectives, differently. This may lead to an improvement in the relationship(s) between the parties, or even an “agreement to disagree” and move on, with out an ongoing “dispute” as such. Or it may lead to all parties adopting a different approach moving forward.
Facilitation follows some of the steps of mediation, and also offers some of the advantages which mediation affords. However, a facilitation approach is more flexible as to process, and is often used at an earlier stage when a dispute or disagreement is brewing and needs addressing early.
The advantages of facilitation almost exactly mirror the advantages of mediation, summarised below:
Need more information?
- Contact Mark here
- Is the dispute, disagreement or set of issues you are facing well suited to mediation? Find out here.
- To find out more about the process, timeframes, costs and next steps, read this page.
- Read more about mediation here and more about facilitation here.
- More detail about Mark’s background here.