How Can a Neutral Facilitator Solve Team Conflict When Managers Fail?

Is Your Meeting Agenda ‘Emergent’ or ‘Developmental’? Here’s Why It Matters.

Unlock the power of collective intelligence with Marsha Acker’s The Art & Science of Facilitation. Discover why true neutrality, embracing conflict, and understanding the “three agendas” are the keys to leading high-performance agile teams.

Read the full review below to master the “neutral perspective” technique that instantly diffuses team conflict and unlocks creative problem-solving.

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A collaborative work environment isn’t a luxury anymore – it’s a necessity. And collaborators often need skilled facilitators to manage their work processes. Team-leadership expert Marsha Acker explains that facilitating is both an art and a science, and she teaches you how to handle both facets. In her framework, facilitators guide people through dialogue to develop fresh ideas using communication and collaboration – a combination that draws on the participants’ “collective intelligence.” Acker’s hands-on practical guide is particularly suitable for new facilitators.

Take-Aways

• Facilitation is an art and science that helps teams access their “collective intelligence.”
• People in organizations don’t collaborate well. But, they need to.
• Successful facilitators provide an objective, neutral perspective.
• Facilitators must embrace conflict and persevere.
• The facilitator should trust and honor the team’s knowledge and insight.
• The facilitator should focus on the group’s vision and agenda.
• New facilitators must understand that they’re responsible for being agile and for steering processes.
• Facilitators must master the art and the science of facilitation.
• Organizational change requires communication.

Summary

Facilitation is an art and science that helps teams access their “collective intelligence.”

In today’s fast-paced business world, people face pressure to make complex, creative decisions quickly while adapting to constant change. A collaborative workplace ethos is meaningful under such conditions. However, people often get too busy or distracted to engage in an authentic collaborative process that makes the most of their colleagues’ shared knowledge and wisdom.

“Within truly collaborative spaces…teams discover solutions to their most complex problems.”

Facilitators enable this kind of authentic collaboration. They lead teams or groups through a collaborative process that they direct toward common goals. Since business conditions and objectives are subject to frequent change, facilitators must be agile. They must be able to guide teams and organizations through the process of adapting to and accommodating change.

Facilitators help create innovative, high-performing teams that collaborate. Their success rests more on the quality of their presence than on any particular technique or procedure. A facilitator draws on “self-awareness, self-management, group awareness, and group process” to help teams work together and achieve their goals.

People in organizations don’t collaborate well. But they need to.

Leaders want their employees to work cooperatively, to be innovative and productive, and to enjoy fulfilling their responsibilities. Collaboration helps workers meet these goals because it gives them more of a stake in their work. It aligns their goals and work styles.

Though many companies may go through the motions, most individuals and teams don’t work collaboratively. Facilitation corrects this problem by allowing for bottom-up decision-making that gives employees greater individual independence in pursuing shared goals.

“Facilitation is possibly one of the most undervalued leadership competencies.”

Skillful facilitation can be subtle and nearly invisible. For that reason, managers often think it’s not worth the money to bring in a seasoned facilitator. After all, the work looks easy, and can’t anybody run a meeting? Not really.

Steering productive, collaborative dialogue takes skill and the ability to apply your expertise carefully.

Without facilitators, attempts at group collaboration can become chaotic. People may cut each other off, start shouting, and obsess at length over one issue. Frustrated team members may decide that collaboration isn’t worth the trouble. A good facilitator can help that team or group hold effective, cooperative meetings that achieve clear goals in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

Successful facilitators provide an objective, neutral perspective.

Facilitators inspire and enable a team’s collaborative spirit and encourage the members’ cooperation. The facilitator isn’t a member of the team. As an outsider, the facilitator contributes an independent, objective perspective and promotes a process in which every team member can participate and contribute his or her views.

The facilitator is responsible for moving the group toward its established goals, setting rules for how the process will work, asking questions, and connecting different ideas that group members air in their discussions. The facilitator does not participate in the group’s discussions about issues.

“Owning the process of a meeting means letting go of your need to share your opinion or point of view on the topic being discussed.”

Neutral facilitators resist offering their opinion on the topic at hand. They don’t pass judgment on the team, how it’s proceeding, or the solutions it entertains. By remaining neutral, a facilitator reinforces trust among team members and gives the team greater confidence moving forward. Neutrality enables the facilitator to see from a wider perspective. He or she can focus on how the group works rather than on what its members are discussing. The facilitator hones in on the process, not the content.

Facilitators must embrace conflict and persevere.

Group or team discussions inevitably generate stress and conflict as people’s differences emerge. Conflict comes from various sources: general disorder, an unknown future, a rigid belief system, or narrow, polarized thinking. Other conflict-inducing stumbling blocks include alternative values and agendas or disputes over rank, philosophy, or authority.

“Most groups do not naturally want to stay in conflict situations. In fact, they usually have a pattern of avoiding them, often at all costs.”

Facilitators don’t deny or avoid conflict. They embrace conflict as an opportunity to find clarity and solutions by allowing team members to articulate multiple points of view. But facilitators are human. Even if their immediate internal response to brewing conflict is the desire to flee, they must stay in the conversation. That requires mindfulness.

Remaining present and engaged when fights are percolating also requires a view of the big picture. A facilitator can gain a better understanding of a team’s social dynamics by observing how a conflict unfolds. Even though conflict is uncomfortable by its nature, the facilitator needs to stay engaged to enable the group to reach the insights and clarity that can emerge from emotional intensity.

The facilitator should trust and honor the team’s knowledge and insight.

Teams aren’t collections of autonomous individuals. Each one has its own dynamic. Groups that channel their members’ collective intelligence identify problems and arrive at solutions that would elude isolated individuals.

“Honoring the wisdom of the group, at its core, is about trust.”

Ideally, honoring the wisdom of the group requires acknowledging that each member possesses wisdom worth sharing, and that everyone can receive wisdom from others. Honoring group wisdom seems straightforward at the theoretical level. But it can be difficult, because it involves real people. People who are in conflict and under pressure are far less likely, in a heated moment, to honor each other’s wisdom.

Failing to acknowledge the group’s collective wisdom or intelligence leads to problems. A facilitator can’t tell the people in a group what they need or what makes up their collective wisdom. Instead, the facilitator draws concerns, knowledge, and ideas out into the open. Even amid difficulties, facilitators must sustain the belief that the team has the wisdom it needs to reach solutions. That important message strengthens the group.

The facilitator should focus on the group’s vision and agenda.

When a team member or members fiercely resist an impending team solution to a problem, the facilitator may be dealing with someone (or some internal faction) with a different agenda. At this point, the facilitator has a choice to make. He or she can choose to focus on the already agreed-upon group agenda. Or, the facilitator can put the meeting on pause, potentially reformulate the agenda, and take the time to resolve the issue that is creating conflict. The facilitator is not the crux of the matter. Focusing on the agenda keeps the team’s needs at the forefront.

“Holding the group’s agenda is big work, and some of the most important work you can do with a team as they develop.”

Groups have these agendas at three different levels simultaneously.

1. The “presenting agenda” – This agenda includes the meeting’s overall goals, the concrete results it hopes to achieve, and the means by which it plans to achieve those outcomes.
2. The “emergent agenda” – This agenda arises out of discussions at the meeting and the different perspectives that the group presents. New, innovative ideas often surface at this level.
3. The “developmental agenda” – This agenda reflects the group’s dynamics. Facilitators don’t work with groups only to produce a few deliverables. The facilitator attempts to help the team evolve. As the team develops and members become more mindful of how they work, they become better at what they do. This means that, eventually, they may not need the facilitator.

Facilitation can be difficult. Even so, it’s important to follow through with the emergent and developmental agendas. These levels can provide momentum for meaningful change on the team and corporate levels.

Nonetheless, relatively young or inexperienced facilitators need to understand that they retain the prerogative to say no. Not every facilitator will be on board with every agenda or goal. This can become awkward if you’re a staff member facilitating a session within your company. But if you’re an external facilitator and don’t think you can keep the team focused on its agenda, it may be better to just back out of the assignment.

New facilitators must understand that they’re responsible for being agile and for steering processes.

Sustaining an agile mindset as a facilitator means remaining objective or neutral, embracing conflict, honoring team members’ insights, and staying the course with the team’s agenda. If you are new at facilitation, don’t be impatient with yourself; this is a skill that practitioners learn and master over time.

If you are developing your skills as a facilitator, the first step toward mastery is to work with a co-facilitator. If you co-facilitate with a less-experienced facilitator, you’ll serve as a mentor. This can help you become more aware of your practices and more able to articulate what you’re doing. On the other hand, when you co-facilitate with someone with more experience, you can learn, expand your practice, and move it forward.

Keep personal notebooks that enable you to examine your experiences as a facilitator. Always ask yourself probing questions. Maintaining a notebook or journal also helps you keep your work organized if you’re facilitating for a variety of groups. In addition, groups can become stagnant and get stuck in familiar patterns. Being able to recollect, recognize, and disrupt such patterns can be useful.

Facilitators need to understand why it is productive for the teams they work with to adopt an agile mindset. New facilitators also should learn how to embody agility in practice, including hewing to its principles and values. The new facilitator needs to know how developed a team is and, over time, how to ascertain whether he or she is a good fit for the group.

Finally, the new facilitator should identify the best way to maintain agility. The job of facilitation rests on managing processes, not on finding solutions or delivering results. Those are the team’s responsibilities.

Facilitators must master the art and the science of facilitation.

While the science of facilitation may dwell on deploying specific tools and procedures, facilitators must be able to engage with difficult and sometimes painful issues. Facilitators need deep inner resources, including wisdom and courage.

“At the level of mastery, there is no need to engage in debate with other practitioners about what they do or don’t do in their own facilitation processes. This is about being clear on your own model and grounded in your own practice.”

Facilitators are responsible for dealing with conflict and opposition and for guiding their teams to success. A masterful facilitator knows how to intervene if a meeting goes off the rails. But it’s not the facilitator’s job to guarantee outcomes. The facilitator owns only the role of facilitating – though that may include showing the group how to own its agenda and goals.

Organizational change requires communication.

Facilitation ultimately rests on enabling collaboration. Knowing the rules for facilitating groups or teams is less important than exercising high levels of self-awareness when you meet with your team. Facilitators need self-awareness to see clearly what’s going on in a team and, if necessary, to transform how it operates. When you meet with your team, facilitation may begin with you and who you are. Remember that when you are facilitating you have to manage yourself – you must remove your ego from the process.

“[Facilitation requires] finding collective wisdom, talking about what really matters, and bringing the conversation into the room.”

The principles behind facilitating team collaboration open the door to exploring the use and potential of dialogue. This is central to the issues that teams and organizations are facing. When companies have difficulty engaging in honest conversations, it undermines innovative thinking and affects their business plans. Language and discussion shape an organization’s culture. Leaders should cultivate an environment that prioritizes the conversations and collaborations that fuel change.

About the Author

Marsha Acker, founder and CEO of TeamCatapult, uses systems thinking, structural dynamics, dialogue, and agility to help teams collaborate. She also wrote Build Your Model for Leading Change: A Guided Workbook to Catalyze Clarity and Confidence in Leading Yourself and Others.