When should we consider hiring outside facilitators?

Transcript:

So this next question is, when should we consider hiring outside facilitators?

This is a really good question because there are times when it's really beneficial to have a facilitator who comes from outside of your organization or group. A facilitator, essentially, is there to help people to work together better, and to understand their common objectives, and to plan how to achieve those objectives during meetings or discussions, some considerations for hiring an outside facilitator would include if there's low trust. So perhaps there has been conflict on the team or difficulties between other individuals, or many individuals who are on that team, and so bringing in an outside facilitator can help to maintain the focus on the object of the meeting, or the subject of the meeting, rather. This is especially important because facilitators bring what's called Omni Partiality, which is essentially a holding of all sides.

Another consideration for bringing in outside facilitators is to actually explore new ways of working. Sometimes facilitators can bring in different types of tools, such as for collaborative decision making, that are really helpful with the group to move forward in a process, and may not be known within the existing organization. Expertise is another consideration for bringing in an outside facilitator. Facilitators can be brought in for example, if there is a knowledge area that is in some way connected to what the subject of the meeting is, but isn't really held or well known within that meeting. So, bringing in a facilitator who can hold onto some of those pieces and bring in and integrate it while your group is in discussion, can also lead to fruitful outcomes.

Another option is when we are working as parties who don't really have a lot of familiarity with each other - so, this could be for example, doing cross teamwork within an organization, it could also be with a network of organizations who are perhaps coming together to convene around a certain subject or within a certain community. Again because the people don't necessarily know each other well, it might be good to bring in an external facilitator who can at least help the group to establish some standard practices that will allow it to move forward with a greater sense of consistency and efficiency. So those are some of the considerations for looking at outside facilitators.

Thanks for the question.