Aristocracy of the capable in facilitation - Post 1 in the series

Introduction

Welcome to the three-series post on aristocracy of the capable in relation to process facilitation.

What happens when people assigned to run a process aren’t the ones who can, or should? 

The core idea is that facilitation is strongest and supports the most successful processes when it draws on everyone in the room. 

Post 1 introduces the approach (below).  Post 2 offers practical methods for extending your co-facilitation team to participants.  Post 3 pulls back the curtain on what it really takes to backstop a process and lead from within and behind.  

1 Formal and informal facilitation teams – aristocracy of the capable with respect to process

Introduction

The phrase “aristocracy of the capable” was one of my mother’s favorites.  I’ve come to appreciate it more as time has rolled on.

The root words of “aristocracy” are “aristos” – best – and “kratos” – rule.  The aristocracy was the ruling class of those people supposed to be the best, usually defined by social or birth position.  The framing structure is a hierarchy.  In the phrase “aristocracy of the capable” as it relates to facilitation, the “best” is defined as those who show capability by contributing directly to process management. The structure of reference is a web or network.  In this sense, it’s not a closed or inherited ruling class.  Anyone can join, at any time, by stepping up and stepping in.  if there's a place for them.

Sometimes these are people assigned a particular role; other times the most capable surface in the course of an event or process.  They step forward and step up in the moment and that first contribution can be positively leveraged to a sustained engaged role.

A creative part of a facilitator’s job is identifying such people and ensuring a clear place for them in process management and facilitation.   Making space for co-creation energizes and lifts an entire meeting or event. 

Picture by Osaruque Igoinoba for UNSPLASH

What you can shape and what you can’t in your facilitation team

A facilitation team or cofacilitation team is the group of people with assigned responsibilities for different aspects of process and event management:  lead organizers, coordinator, administrative

leads, substantive leads, strategic leads, decision-makers. 

People may get assigned to those roles because of their regular work functions.  As a lead facilitator or cofacilitator, you won’t have the scope to assess their capability or even choose them.  You have to work with who you have, and more, make the most of it.

Perhaps the group members will be capable.  Perhaps they will be an aristocracy of the capable, each excellent in his or her own sphere and able to actively work with others to together achieve lift-off, successful achievement of the purpose, goals and objectives.  Those times are a privilege.

Perhaps not.  Those times are more typical.

When one part of the interlinked functions is weak, the effect is to shrink the overall ability of a facilitation team to succeed.  Every team has people with varying levels of experience and competence. Your role as a lead facilitator or cofacilitator has to shape itself around these realities.

One thing a lead facilitator can do is informally assess a group for capable and committed individuals who either volunteer or can be called on to function as an actual extended facilitation team, co-managing and self-managing the process from within.  This is a form of drawing on the wisdom of the crowd or a group, specifically with respect to bringing a process to life. 

Many processes are successful because participants step up and step in:  this approach makes the strategy a more deliberate and systematic part of an approach to facilitation and process management.  A key aim of engagement and participation is addressed in a way that builds connection and ownership.

Make the most of the people assigned to key process functions

In an early planning stage, you’ll hopefully have a chance to develop a good sense of people’s capabilities.  Working meetings and their follow-up are good indicators of what you can expect. Support them as much as you can.

Some senior people make it challenging when they inflate and talk up the capacity of a team as part of encouraging them or trying to generate camaraderie.  Track how effectively people are delivering on the aspects of their role that are visible and on which others depend.  If you can see that experience is limited, people's skills are weak, or keeping to a shared timeline on which others depend for timely delivery is new to people, you have to make some choices. 

Lower expectations and standards?  Not recommended.  Encourage and build people’s capacity?  Recommended with the caveat that this can take more time than you have and you and the process still require essential things to be done in a given timeframe.  Make trade-off decisions about what you can drop and what you can’t, where you can compromise and where you can’t.  Raise that to a conversation with organizing leads. You and they will be doing this anyway, because every process requires it – things don’t unfold the way we plan, which is part of the magic of groups coming together and the irrepressible surprises of human behaviour and dynamics. 

Adjust your expectations to the range within which people can deliver and do your best to help them deliver to the upper end of their spectrum of possibilities.  Be respectful and don't criticize, be sarcastic about or demean any person in a public forum. I mention these because I've seen them all. The effect is always on the process overall, not only on the unfortunate people.

In a necessarily flexible approach that aligns to changing realities, adjust your role to backstop the team.  See separate post on this theme on the INSIGHTS page at https://www.facilitateit.ca/blog

Open the scope for participants to be part of an informal extended facilitation team

A third possibility open to a facilitator to cover weak capacity in assigned process functions is to open contributions to facilitation to members of the group, attendees or participants.  And offer them immediate coaching or training to focus on a shared standard.

Most people prefer an effective process over a bumbling one.  Given an opportunity, a core and sometimes a majority step up. And each brings something unique.  Working together leavens a dynamic process.

A separate post introduces ways a facilitator can extend an informal facilitation team to include capable participants, as a coalition of the interested.  The measures span the full facilitation spiral and apply before, during and after an event or initiation of a process.  (See INSIGHTS page https://www.facilitateit.ca/blog.)

In closing

Informal and in-the-moment nurturing of an facilitation team draws on as many participants as willing and interested into the collective job of lifting a process.  It can be exhilarating, and make a process flow appear to flow as smoothly as water.  What’s in the background or shadows of a process is seldom codified in terms of reference or deliverables, but can be the difference between fully shared satisfaction with a successful process and a bell curve of satisfied, indifferent and disaffected.  Aim for the former. Facilitate It at https://www.facilitateit.ca/ refers to these less direct and often less visible or prescribed process management aspects as “shadow facilitation”.  A separate series of posts addresses other examples of shadow facilitation and ways to address them in your facilitation practice.   

Recognizing participants’ contributions encourages people to do and give more.  The effect is a ripple-on one.  Try these tips as you develop your own approach to strengthening the aristocracy of the capable to the benefit of the processes you facilitate and results they achieve.

• Invite people to touch base with you personally to share something they’d like to contribute.

• Extend an invitation to the full group to join the extended facilitation team, as part of the process of introducing the design and setting process norms.  

  
  

  Distributing the work promotes a sense of engagement, connection and ownership — and like all positive dynamics in a group, it’s catching.  It transforms a potentially mechanical or flat process into something people feel genuinely motivated to be part of and contribute to, more willing to trust the design and process as these unfold.

The next post in the series explores the “how” – practical ways to extend this invitation, identify willing and capable contributors, and build your coalition of the interested into the aristocracy of the capable.

Thanks for your interest!