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Facilitation: A Key for Successful Advisory Boards and Committees
by Dr. Tom Taylor
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Boards and committees are formed to perform a task or solve a problem and then are expected to go off and do their work. Unfortunately, like most groups, many meet and continue to meet with limited results. The missing ingredient often is “good facilitation.” The goal of facilitation is to produce practical, fair products that all can be proud of. This article offers suggestions for achieving the facilitation objectives, talks about who can facilitate and offers ideas for improving facilitation of your boards and committees.
Suggestions for Achieving Facilitation Objectives
Committee Purpose and Plan
The first step is shaping a mission that everyone can identify with. Often, elected officials or administrators give the committee a charge (and sometimes they don’t). The key is to hear from all members about their expectations and those of the groups they represent. Identifying which expectations are common and in conflict also is helpful. This provides a basis for shaping a work plan and a schedule for addressing the priority issues. Too often, groups have one meeting after another with little understanding of the steps needed to get their job done. Similarly, agendas for each meeting need to be more than a long list of topics. Meeting plans should also include facilitation techniques, background materials and worksheets.
Mutual Education
Many times, the chair or staff plan presentations based on their professional disciplines: law, business, science, etc. Long, boring, irrelevant presentations discourage continuing participation. It is helpful to develop consensus on the priority questions to be answered, the information needed to answer the questions, and who to bring in as experts. This will greatly improve the quality of the presentation and the attention it receives. It also is important to remember that everyone has a piece of the truth and that no one has all the truth. Committee members and others need to be able to ask questions and share insights. Different perspectives, expert and stakeholder, are critical for arriving at practical, creative solutions.
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Creative Problem Solving
Adversarial sessions get the adrenaline going, which shifts the mental functioning from the rational to the reptilian “fight or flight” mode. A key role of facilitation is to engage the group in exploring possibilities, instead of arguing for their positions. Structured exercises and questions can quickly have an angry group creating lists, laughing and surprising themselves with what they can come up with.
Consensus Decision Making
Majority voting at its best is simple and efficient. At worst, it makes half the group “losers” who want to get back at the “winners” and who may not to want to come back to a group that does not care about their concerns. Reaching consensus may take a little longer, but the dividends, including better results, more commitment to implementation and improved relationships, are great. Consensus does not mean that everyone loves the outcome. It means that, at a minimum, they feel they have been heard and, therefore, will not block actions desired by the group. In some cases, nobody is too happy, because everyone has had to give a lot to get an acceptable agreement. Ranking the acceptability of options on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 3 allows the group to focus discussions on items on which agreement is possible. This avoids wasting time talking about issues on which there already is agreement, or on those on which agreement is very unlikely.
Conflict Resolution
We all have seen groups that spend endless hours arguing, or ones that avoid critical issues because they are controversial. Conflicts require different facilitation techniques from problem solving or consensus seeking. Like a mediator, the facilitator helps the parties understand each other’s needs and helps shape agreements that optimize their priority interests. If members still are not able to resolve differences, they can agree on next steps that may include getting an expert opinion, or asking the commission or an administrator to make the decision. It is best to include these procedures in the instructions to the board or committee.
Action Planning
All talk and no action leaves everyone frustrated. Every recommendation should specify who is responsible, set deadlines and discuss sources of resources. Without these practical necessities, people may be happy with the pleasing platitudes, but implementation will be uncertain at best. If no answers are agreed upon, the group needs to specify tasks and responsibilities for gathering information, problem solving and getting commitments.
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Trust and Commitment Building
Good facilitation allows people to express their deepest desires and uncertainties and feel accepted. As people see each other as whole beings, rather than villains and victims, trust builds. Allowing people to tell their stories, sort out commonalities and differences, and seek mutually acceptable solutions, builds lasting relationships and commitment to implementation. This level of commitment is stronger than what comes from voting by adversaries.
Facilitation Roles
Good facilitation is a combination of art and science, learned skills and intuition. In most cases, the responsibility for facilitation falls to the chair or president. Sometimes there is a staff member or outside facilitator. Having a neutral facilitator can pay big dividends. Often, it means the group can get much more done in less time, and it allows the chair to contribute to the discussion. Everyone in the group also can contribute to a well-facilitated meeting. Anyone who understands good group process and facilitation techniques can ask the right questions and offer process suggestions that build shared understanding, solve problems and help reach consensus.
Building Facilitation Capacity
Facilitation skills are something we use every day, but most of us never get any instruction. The productivity of local government boards and committees could be doubled if chairs and staff could get facilitation training and support. Educational materials also can be provided. Some governments have a cadre of trained facilitators who are assigned to committees or special meetings as needed. Committee charges, charters and protocols can be written to encourage problem solving and consensus processes. Meeting and committee progress evaluations help achieve continuous improvement.
Conclusion
Advisory boards or committee chairs and members need to be informed advocates and to contribute to the group’s productivity. It is a challenge to do both. Facilitation training and written guidelines are important. When possible, it pays to have a neutral facilitator. Efforts to assure good facilitation usually are repaid many times over in better-quality products, less time spent by members and staff, stronger commitment to implementation, and improved relationships.
Dr. Tom Taylor, is associate director of the Florida Conflict Resolution Consortium. He may be contacted by phone at (850) 644-7816 or via e-mail at ttaylor@fsu.edu.
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When are Advisory Boards and Committees Appropriate?
When To Use Them
The issue needs more study than is feasible in commission meetings.
There is not obvious solution, and creativity is called for.
There are conflicting groups and interests; complex negotiation is needed.
Commitment from different groups is needed for implementation.
There is adequate technical and logistical support available.
When Not To Use Them
The purpose is to distract activists and keep them out or commissioners’ hair.
The decision already has been made.
Critical interests are not invited or willing to participate.
There is not a clear charge or scope of work from the commission.
There is not adequate time to do a good job.
There is not adequate technical and logistical support.
There are not resources to implement the recommendations.
The task would be better done by experts.
Types of Committees and Other Involvement Options
Permanent committee
Temporary or ad-hoc committee
Facilitated workshop or series of workshops
Charrette (a one- or two-day design or problem-solving session)
Mediation between groups in conflict
Contract with a consultant/expert
Public meeting
Focus groups
Request for written comments on draft recommendations
Public survey
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Your Action Plan for Enhancing the Success of Citizen Advisory Boards and Committees
Check all that will enhance your effectiveness:
Review current committees’ structure and performance.
___ Compile a database on membership, terms, meeting times and place, appointment method, purpose, progress and products.
___ Conduct a satisfaction survey of committee chairs, members and staff.
Create or refine a policy for committees and boards.
___ Assign to staff.
___ Hire a consultant.
___ Create a committee.
Provide appropriate training for the
following:
___ Commissioners on creating, picking, giving a charge to and managing committees.
___ Chairs and members on subject area knowledge.
___ Chairs, staff and facilitators on process planning and facilitation.
Establish a mechanism for supporting and monitoring committees.
___ Designate committee-commission liaisons.
___ Create a cadre of trained facilitators.
___ Require quarterly or annual reports for appropriate committees.
___ Identify a person or office to be responsible for monitoring and supporting committees.
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Further Readings
Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, Sam Kaner, et al., (Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers/Canada, 1996). Provides clear guidance for thinking about group dynamics and the open discussion and structured facilitation techniques needed to enable (not control) group productivity.
Managing Public Disputes, Susan L. Carpenter & W.J.D. Kennedy (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 1988). This is an excellent guide for anyone involved in large-scale community disputes.
How To Make Meetings Work, Michael Doyle and David Straus, (New York: Jove, 1976). This is a good practical guide for mediators and facilitators. It provides a general approach for group processes and descriptions of specific techniques.
Collaborating: Finding Common Ground for Multiparty Problems, Gray, Barbara, Jossey-Bass, 1989.
Great Meetings! How To Facilitate Like a Pro, Kelsey, et al., Hanson Park Press, 1999.
The Skilled Facilitator, Schwarz, Roger, University of North Carolina, 1994.
Breaking the Impasse: Consensual Approaches to Resolving Public Disputes, Susskind and Cruikshank, Basic Books, 1987.
Web Sites
Florida Conflict Resolution Consortium
The Planning Commissioners Journal
Montgomery County (Md.) Committee Materials
Calackamas County (Ore.) Committee Handbook
Longboat Key (Fla.) Committee Materials
Washington State Board Roles
Most Complete Source on Conflict Resolution
Group Facilitation Discussion Group
International Association for Public Participation
Association for Conflict Resolution
(see “Environmental Public Policy” section)
Reprinted from Quality Cities March/April 2004
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