FACILITATOR EFFECTIVENESS
There are several dimensions that are important in and to those who are trainers, or facilitators of human learning and change. Some of these are personal and some are related to professional knowledge and experience.
Personal Requirements
The human element is the most critical and most real component of facilitator effectiveness. One of the most significant personal dimensions of a facilitator is the ability to feel empathy for another person. Of course, we never can fully experience someone else's situation, but it is crucial that a facilitator try to see things from another person's perspective. Another important personal dimension is acceptance-allowing another person to be different, to have a different set of values and goals, to behave differently.
Congruence and flexibility determine two additional aspects of the person. Congruent people are aware of what they are doing and feeling and are able to communicate these to others in a straightforward way. A healthy and psychologically mature person is flexible, not dogmatic, opinionated, rigid, or authoritarian. A healthy facilitator should be able to deal with another person at that person's pace.
If people have these personal attributes, they are therapeutic. Just being around them makes others feel good; they help by being well-integrated persons themselves. The most meaningful growth that facilitators can undertake is improving their own personal development, furthering their own understanding of their values, attitudes, impulses, and desires. Two of the most important interpersonal conflicts that HRD professionals must resolve for themselves are their individual capacities for intimacy and their relations to authority.
Specific attention should be paid to the facilitator's role as a person who interacts with others. The facilitator should strive to be a person who generates enrichment rather than a person who extracts nourishment from others. Facilitators should focus on giving trainees opportunities to grow as individuals. Many training programs are combinations of counseling, personal growth, consciousness raising, value clarification, sensory awareness, and other experiences in addition to content training; the intent is to help participants to experience themselves and others in a growthful way.
Professional Requirements
Appropriate training for group facilitators is an important issue in education and in the applied behavioral sciences. The trainer needs more than a package of structured experiences to facilitate learning effectively. Solid exposure to and integration of the following components are needed.
Conceptual Knowledge
It is important that the group facilitator have a solid understanding of people, groups, and facilitating styles. This knowledge may be obtained through formal means (a university or other professional training program) and/or through less formal ways such as reading or attending seminars.
Theories. Theory is a resource. It is one of the components a facilitator uses to develop and improve as a practitioner. Theories abound in applied behavioral science; there are theories of personality, group dynamics, organizational behavior, community behavior, and systems.
Techniques. One also can improve the effects of training and consulting through techniques and design components such as structured experiences, instruments, lecturettes, confrontations, and verbal and nonverbal interventions.
Understanding People. The facilitator has direct and often intense involvement with people. Knowing about people in a theoretical sense contributes to knowing them in a personal and professional sense. This knowledge can be obtained through the study of normal and abnormal human behavior, theories of personality, and theories and techniques of counseling, as well as through other sources.
Understanding Groups. A thorough knowledge of group interaction and dynamics is required. A "cognitive map" is crucial to the adequate understanding of how groups develop and how members relate to one another. Several models are available for understanding the stages of group development in both the personal and task dimensions.
Skills
Experiential Learning. Experiential learning as a group member in various types of groups is a necessary beginning. Being in a group as a fully participating member may be the best way to learn about groups. Supervised co-facilitating experience is an important introduction to the role of group facilitator. It is at this point that the integration of theory, practice, and experience is approached. Supervised facilitating without a co-facilitator is the next step, and ongoing professional development is needed throughout one's practice. Such development may be acquired through laboratories, workshops, seminars, and professional conventions.
Communication Skills. Certain basic communication skills are necessary in order to promote individual, group, and organizational growth. A facilitator needs to develop the ability to listen, to express (both verbally and nonverbally), to observe, to respond to people, to intervene artfully in the group process, and to design effective learning environments that make efficient use of resources.
Presentation Skills. The perceived effectiveness of a presentation is dependent on several variables, including the presenter's appearance, use of language, bodily movements, preparation, content, and delivery. Attention to the following items can help to make any presentation more effective.
n Appearance. It is important that the facilitator appear credible and professional to the participants. One of the most obvious ways in which this perception can be affected is in the facilitator's choice of clothing and accessories. Needless to say, it would not be appropriate to show up for a training program at, for example, IBM, wearing a dashiki and sandals. In some other situation, it might not be appropriate to wear a business dress or suit. The trainer should determine what the culture of the sponsoring organization and participant group is and, in most cases, dress accordingly.
n Language. It is a good idea to use the participants' language as much as possible, with the exception of the crude vernacular or excessive jargon. Before speaking, take two or three deep breaths. Slow down and speak more deliberately than you would in a normal conversation. This makes it easier to remember what you want to say next, and it also is easier for the participants to understand.
n Body language. Nonverbal body language also is part of the trainer's presentation. Good posture helps to present a professional image, but it need not be stiff or formal. In fact, it often is a good idea to appear to be relaxed. It is important to look at all the group members as one speaks and to maintain eye contact briefly.
n Preparation. Preparing one's presentation ahead of time, practicing (in front of a mirror or on videotape), and observing seasoned professionals who are presenting can help to develop effective physical and verbal presentation skills.
It also is important to take the participants into consideration during any presentation. There are many books on the subject of metaverbal and nonverbal communication that can help a trainer to gain skill in reading the body language of the participants. One should be able to recognize nonverbal messages of enthusiasm, impatience, boredom, fatigue, conflict, mistrust, and so on. Other theories and models can help to improve a trainer's presentation and facilitation skills as well. For example, an understanding of neurolinguistic programing can help to make one's presentations more interesting and memorable for the visuals, auditories, and kinesthetics in the audience. An understanding of social styles can help one to understand and relate more effectively to the analyticals, drivers, expressives, and amiables in the group.
Functional Effectiveness
The group facilitator needs to demonstrate competency. This is a combination of the facilitator's knowledge, personal style, and training experience. Facilitative functions can be structured or unstructured, verbal or nonverbal, exotic or traditional, but they all are intended and applied to effect desired outcomes. Lieberman, Yalom, and Miles (1973) have identified four basic, facilitative functions in encounter groups: emotional stimulation, caring, meaning attribution, and executive function.
n Emotional stimulation represents evocative, expressive facilitator behavior that is personal and highly charged emotionally. The facilitator performing this function frequently is in the center of the group. Personal confrontation is valued; high risk is pervasive.
n Caring is evidenced by the development of specific, warm personal relationships with group members. These relationships are characterized by understanding and genuineness. Caring is a completely separate issue from technical proficiency.
n Meaning attribution is achieved by the facilitator's providing cognitive explanations of behavior and definitions of frameworks for change. As a functional skill, it means giving meaning to experience.
n Executive functions are managerial approaches such as stopping the action and asking group members to process the experience or suggesting roles and procedures for group members to follow.
Included within these four basic functions are specific behaviors. Some of these behaviors are listed in the table on the next page. They comprise a typology of facilitator functions and behaviors.
Reference
Lieberman, M., Yalom,
Source
Pfeiffer, J.W., & Ballew, A.C. (1988). Presentation and evaluation skills in human
resource development (UATT Series, Vol. 7).
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