The right facilitator

In co-design, there will be times where you need a strong and skilled facilitator. However just because someone can facilitate, it doesn’t mean they are the right facilitator. What you need to know:

What is the role of the facilitator?
What are the types of facilitation required in co-design?
Are you the right person to lead the co-design?
How can I develop my skills as a facilitator?

What is the role of the facilitator?

Balancing power dynamic

Creating an environment where all people (included in the facilitation) feel equal, can be heard and have their perspective valued.

Managing conflict

Mediating any disagreements or conflicts that may arise.

Maintaining a systems view

Facilitating with the perspective of the shared vision of the co-design team balanced with a systems view.

Sense-making

Assisting people to better understand and articulate their perspectives, communicate that to other people in the group and assign meaning to it.

Helping people to expand their frame of reference

Co-design is about unlearning, and relearning through co-learning, and the facilitator guides this mutual learning process.

What are the types of facilitation required in co-design?

Facilitate community/stakeholder engagement

Facilitating community and stakeholder workshops and forums requires high level facilitation skills. Facilitation impacts the quality of information gathered and environment created, therefore it is important to have the right person – for the right audience – doing it. There may be people within your service (but external to your co-design project) with the skills to facilitate this engagement for you. However, you should consider engaging an external facilitator for community/stakeholder engagement include:

It is a sensitive topic for the community engaged (principles of trauma-informed practice need to be applied)
Members of the co-design team have (or are perceived to have) a set agenda or desired outcome
Members of the co-design team are not comfortable with facilitating the subject matter

Peer-to-peer engagement may also be an appropriate way to approach facilitation, especially where there needs to be attention paid to equity in co-design.

In Engage and Align, the first stage of the co-design process, the co-design team will begin to plan the broader engagement with the community. This is where you can begin to identify what engagement may require a facilitator.

Facilitate co-design team meetings and workshops

A facilitator may be required to engage with the co-design team to promote efficiency, productivity and balance power. This can be regular, or when there is a key objective to be achieved or issue to explore, that requires facilitation.

As everyone should both feel and be equal in co-design, having a facilitator will remove the unbalanced dynamic of someone in the team leading or facilitating the discussion. This could also be achieved by having a roster where different people take turns at facilitating team meetings, again balancing the power within the team and demonstrating co-governance.

Facilitate the broader co-design process

External facilitators may be needed to facilitate the co-design process in projects where:

There are high levels of power differentials (e.g. ‘opposing’ stakeholders, ‘insiders and outsiders’ view on subject matter, team members tend to become hierarchical)
You are aiming to create a solution or imbed a change that there is or has been resistance/opposition to
There is a large core co-design team or a large number of stakeholders to be engaged

The facilitator would guide the team through the co-design process and assist the co-design team to care for each other, balance power and facilitate the peer performance review process.

Are you the right person to lead the co-design?

Whilst this might be a problem, challenge or opportunity that you are passionate about, you may not be the right person to lead it.

Honestly reflect on the following statements which indicate cases where you are probably not the right person to lead the co-design:

You have no shared identity or experience of working in the context
You have no ‘way in’ to build relationships (e.g. with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people)
You aren’t comfortable with the subject matter or are likely to be re-traumatised (e.g. sexual violence, racism)
You are stuck in knowing what’s best for people (i.e. expert mindset)
You can’t act impartially (that is, stay unattached to a particular agenda or outcome)

Adapted from McKercher, K. A. (2020). Beyond Sticky Notes

How can I develop my skills as a facilitator?

Facilitation skills are often developed through “doing”. You can develop your skills through doing by seeking out opportunities to facilitate meetings in any area of your work and reflect on this with a mentor or peer.
Observing facilitation can also help you to learn about facilitation. When attending workshops and meetings, reflect on the facilitation style used, and see what works, what doesn’t work and WHY.
There are many online courses and resources to learn more about facilitation (e.g. Workshop Facilitation, Online Facilitation)
There are now also some co-design training courses, see Additional Resources for a few suggestions.

When should I use an external facilitator?

There are some projects where an external facilitator should always be used; for example:

There are high power differentials (e.g. opposing stakeholders, conflicting ‘insiders and outsiders’ views on subject matter, strong hierarchies)
You are aiming to create a solution or imbed change where there is or has been resistance/opposition
There are a large number of people involved

Even where there are favourable conditions for co-design, using an external facilitator can allow the co-design leads to sit back and observe, or even participate in, the process, rather than having to focus on managing group dynamics and paying attention to the logistical issues.

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