What is facilitation?
We understand facilitation as the art of making the work of a group easy. A facilitator is someone who can hold a complex group process, like coming up with a shared vision, creating shared agreements for how to work together or deciding on the strategy for the next year. Depending on the topic, the experience of the group and the internal dynamics, a facilitator might guide a process more closely or loosely. Their job is to hold a group in the discomfort of “not knowing” so they can find their own answers to the challenges they are trying to overcome – and step out of the way once the group starts gathering momentum. An external facilitator can balance the power dynamics of a group, by creating a more neutral frame, thereby increasing the chance that every voice gets heard.
Who is it for?
Facilitation can be useful in many different situations. In an ideal world every group would have an external facilitator, who’s job it is to just hold and observe the processes. Below we listed a few examples of situations when we found external facilitation particularly useful in the past:
- When a new group is forming facilitation can help to get clear on the purpose and vision that brings this group together. Similarly, it can be useful to set up agreements around decision-making, conflict, and strategy.
- After an intense period of engagement, facilitation can help to debrief well and distill the learnings of a group, so they can be taken forward.
- At the beginning of a project, facilitation can be useful to clarify the goals of the project and the roadmap of how to get there.
- When there is tension in a group, that can’t be resolved with internal resources, an external facilitator can help get to the bottom of where the tension comes from and help transform it.
A few examples of the kinds of meetings we’ve already facilitated:
- 2 hour online reflection sessions to debrief an event.
- 3 day retreats to debrief monthlong occupations
- 3 day strategy workshops to plan a campaign around an election
- 2 day long open spaces to bring together diverse groups within one movement
Sounds great, how do we get started?
If you’re part of a group that could benefit from facilitation, click the button below to fill out our request form. In the form, there are some questions that will help you and us to better understand if we can offer the kind of support you need, or if we can connect you with other resources from our network. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible and plan the next steps together. Usually that involves a call to clarify any questions we might be having and come up with a rough plan together. Then we polish that plan and loop it back to you for feedback.
Cost
Facilitation is highly skilled work and we want to pay our facilitators fairly for it. The fee for a day of facilitation by two people is 1000€. This includes a preparation meeting, design of the agenda, and one feedback loop on the agenda before the event.
However, it is important for us to support those who will benefit from it, regardless of their economic circumstances. If your group is not able to pay the full fee, please reach out to us anyway. We sometimes have the ability to work at a reduced fee and are always happy to get creative together about sources of funding.
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