Maxine is a seasoned facilitator. Her assigned topic is vanilla and of little interest to her. Several minutes into her presentation, the audience seemed distant and disengaged. She wondered what to do. She stopped and singled out two people who were engaged. “May I ask you a question?”
“Ok. What’s on your mind?” The participant was engaged, and several others paid attention.
“What did you expect to get from attending today?”
“I expected a relevant topic. How did you decide on talking about this topic?”
“I was assigned the topic, sir.
“If you had the job of deciding what topic or topics would be addressed today, what would you suggest?”
“I would suggest that we talk about fear in the workplace.”
“Anyone else have any suggestions?” Maxine became animated.
Seven hands went up. Then six more. The next fifteen minutes were filled with ideas of importance to the group. Maxine decided to focus on one of the suggestions.
What causes groups to revolt?
The audience suggested multiple reasons:
- Group distrusts the facilitator.
- Facilitator dismisses or ignores the group’s emotional leaders.
- Facilitator suppresses input of the group.
The subsequent discussion spawned numerous ideas:
- When you facilitate, check your voice’s tone and tenor. Audiences dislike pretentious presenters. Be humble and present facts with a calm voice.
- If the audience feels put down and ignored, it will resist any facilitator suggestions.
- When there is tension in the room, something is wrong. There is no alignment between the group and the facilitator.
- The word ‘facilitate’ means “to make easy.” If you are uneasy either as the facilitator or a member of the group, call for a timeout and check the temperature of the group. A timeout can lower the temperature. To continue without the timeout can raise the temperature.
- When someone begins to object or argue, stop immediately. Allow the person to continue until s/he is verbally exhausted. Then ask anyone in the room if they would like to elaborate on the objection, present a different point of view, or address the group on a subject of their choosing.
- Do not argue or criticize with the objector. You are a facilitator, not a debater
- Psychiatrist Rudolf Dreikurs was quoted:
- The real issue in ongoing conflict is not about what we think it to be. We argue and differ about sex, money, politics, morality, clean apartments, where to go, what you said, what I meant, why must I do this or that, and why you should do this.
- In conflict what the argument is about is RESPECT.
- Respect is missing when:
- My right to decide is being weakened
- I feel defeated
- I feel powerless
- I feel inferior
- My status is being questioned
- I feel unfairly treated by the other person
- My judgment is not being considered
- When these feelings are addressed, we gain and regain respect. Respect levels playing field.
When
the idea discussion began to die down, Maxine dismissed the group confident
that they had gotten what they came for – and – she had earned her fee.
