When and How to Inter­vene

Pic­ture this: You’re run­ning a reg­u­lar, non-eventful meet­ing when…  Sce­nario One: Sud­denly, as if some invis­i­ble but­ton has been pushed, unex­pected emo­tion erupts from the group. Or…Sce­nario Two: You sud­denly sense a strong feel­ing of resis­tance from the group. No one says any­thing about it, but you can’t shake your own aware­ness of “push-back.” Or…Sce­nario Three: You notice that Bill has his arms crossed over his chest and is rolling his eyes as oth­ers talk.

Have you been there? Is there a “right” thing to do in these instances, and if so, what is it?

The Facilitator’s Inter­nal Process

Suc­cess­ful facil­i­ta­tors are as aware of what’s going on inside of them as they are of group dynam­ics. This aware­ness helps them make deci­sions about if and when to intervene.

Before we go any fur­ther, let me define my terms. The three-stage process I will describe is equally rel­e­vant to teach­ing as it is to facil­i­tat­ing. In this arti­cle, I’m focus­ing on the process of facil­i­tat­ing a group so that it can develop its own solu­tions. A great facil­i­ta­tor can be con­sid­ered a “process expert,” while a great teacher is a con­tent expert first.

So, when I speak of facil­i­ta­tion, I am talk­ing about the process of facil­i­tat­ing group dynam­ics toward some end prod­uct. We facil­i­tate when we run a meet­ing, lead a strate­gic plan­ning process, or run a brain­storm­ing ses­sion. We facil­i­tate when we ask, not when we tell.

From the time a great facil­i­ta­tor steps into the room in which s/he will facil­i­tate, s/he “tunes in” to a three-stage inter­nal cycle. When a facil­i­ta­tor is aware of these steps, s/he can respon­si­bly and aptly ful­fill the facil­i­ta­tor role.

Three Stages of Tuned–In Facilitation

Stage One: Prac­tice “CEU,” or Cel­lu­lar Envi­ron­men­tal Aware­ness
Great facil­i­ta­tors allow them­selves to acknowl­edge all the tan­gi­ble and intan­gi­ble aspects of the facil­i­ta­tion envi­ron­ment. How does it “feel?” (Is the room set up in a way that adds or detracts from a feel­ing of open col­lab­o­ra­tion? What attempts have been made to “de-institutionalize” a ster­ile envi­ron­ment?) What hints about their emo­tional states do the par­tic­i­pants give as they walk in? What do you see, hear, and feel through­out the meeting?

The act of facil­i­ta­tion has been described as “fol­low­ing the “chi” (or energy) of the group. A facil­i­ta­tor prac­tic­ing CEU uses every fiber of his/her body to per­ceive the group’s shift­ing dynam­ics through­out their interaction.

Stage Two: Diag­nose
As you notice behav­ioral shifts, changes in the “feel­ing” of the meet­ing, or ver­bal hints, ask your­self: “What’s going on?” It is this inter­nal, ongo­ing acknowl­edge­ment of dynam­ics that enables the facil­i­ta­tor to make the right choice: to inter­vene or not to intervene.

An exam­ple: Susan notices that Pat and John, who are sit­ting next to each other in a meet­ing, often speak to each other in low tones. Susan asks her­self “What’s going on?” Pat and John could be laugh­ing at her or at the meet­ing itself, they could be pro­cess­ing infor­ma­tion to under­stand bet­ter, they could be dis­cussing last night’s episode of “Survivor…”

Susan real­izes that Pat and John will play unique roles in the changes under dis­cus­sion, so when she thinks, “I bet they’re talk­ing about THAT…” she feels she may have got­ten it right. The sense (call it a guess) of “I believe THIS is going on…” is all there is to Stage Two.

Three essen­tial reminders at Stage Two, the Diag­no­sis Stage:  Your diag­no­sis is yours alone. It may be off the mark. Your diag­no­sis guides your actions. Your actions impact the group. You are not oblig­ated to go to the next stage.

Stage Three: Intervene

In the exam­ple above, Susan will only inter­vene if she gets the feel­ing that “Some­thing needs to change.” Ingrid Bens, in Facil­i­tat­ing With Ease! defines inter­ven­tion as “any action delib­er­ately taken to improve the func­tion­ing of the group.” When the facil­i­ta­tor inter­venes, s/he holds up a mir­ror to the par­tic­i­pants so that they can see and under­stand their own process bet­ter. Though the deci­sion to inter­vene is made inter­nally, the inter­ven­tion is external.

Here are some ques­tions to ask your­self while decid­ing whether to intervene:

• Could this sit­u­a­tion go away on its own?
• Is it nec­es­sary to stop the action? Why?
• What impact will inter­ven­ing have on the flow of the meet­ing? The environment?
• What will hap­pen if I do nothing?

Here is some help­ful lan­guage when intervening:

• I’m notic­ing that…
• Let’s stop for a moment and look at what’s going on.
• It strikes me that…
• I’d like to suggest…

A tuned-in facil­i­ta­tor is a good facil­i­ta­tor. Using a pop­u­lar metaphor, the role of a facil­i­ta­tor is to orches­trate the process of the group. With­out aware­ness of his or her own inter­nal process, a facil­i­ta­tor is read­ing from only half the musi­cal score.

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Read more arti­cles about Facil­i­ta­tion Skills. Learn about Guila Muir’s Facil­i­ta­tion Skills Work­shops.

Guila Muir is the pre­miere trainer of train­ers, facil­i­ta­tors, and pre­sen­ters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great pre­sen­ter: www.guilamuir.com

© 2007 Guila Muir. All rights reserved.
You may make copies of this arti­cle and dis­trib­ute in any media so long as you change noth­ing, credit the author, and include this copy­right notice and web address.

Related posts:

1. What Is a Trainer? What Is a Facilitator?
2. RULES? Who Needs RULES? Part One
3. 3 Tips to Tame Unruly Meet­ings, Part Two
4. How to Blow Your Cred­i­bil­ity From The “Get-Go”
5. Flu­id­ity and Facilitation

Tags: Facilitation Skills, facilitator training, group facilitation, instructional design, meeting facilitation, Presentation Skills, presentation skills workshop, public speaking, Train the trainer, train the trainer training, train the trainer workshops, trainer development, trainer training, training courses, workshop facilitation

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