There is a real art to effective facilitation in line with the values and principles of the community organising approach. But this is a skill that can be learned and developed with practice.

We need to be guiding but not controlling, discreet but very aware of power, and know when to ‘lean in’ to a more leading role and when to step back and allow the group to work things out for themselves. 

If we swap ‘leader’ for ‘facilitator’ and ‘he’ for ‘they’ we will discover a very relevant summary of the facilitators’ role. 

But before you can facilitate small groups they need to be formed in the first place.

Sometimes we will be invited to a group that already exists, but it is more likely we will be forming a new group from people we have connected with directly and those who are part of their wider network. Often this process will begin with a one-to-one listening conversation, where we can find out what issues and ideas people have, find out who they know already and consider who to connect them with so they can begin to take action.

Asking people questions such as, “who else do you know who cares about this issue?” can help to determine the size of their network and identify key people to form a group with. A good initial test for a potential leader is whether they are willing to arrange a first meeting with others.

Once your group is formed, it is important for us as facilitators to take time to reflect on how relationships are developing within a group and where power is at play.

By reflecting on these questions and others, we can build up a picture of how the group functions and where power flows. We can then develop our strategy to shift power to both move it away from ourselves and make sure it is shared more equally among group members.

Our guide reflects on this and discusses the philosophy behind our facilitation approach, explores some theory relevant to group development and gives some practical tools. You can download it HERE

Although it focuses on the small group setting, a lot of the theory and practical tips will be applicable in a large group setting as well.

Hopefully, you will find it a helpful resource for the ongoing journey we are all on to become even better facilitators – but remember – we all need plenty of hands-on experience to reflect on and turn theory into practice.

We also offer hands of support with facilitation and community hosting, which you can find out about HERE