“The faciltator should not be overly knowledgeable about the nature of the company’s business.” Socrates and the Fox by Clem Sunter and Chantell Ilbury, Human & Rousseau 2001

By definition, a business facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them. This may raise the question “how can a facilitator possibly help an organisation, or business unit, make strategic decisions if they do not have an in-depth understanding of the business?”

If one thinks about it, the correct strategic solution to take the company forward is invariably within the minds and experience of the participants. So, the role of the facilitator is simply to help them arrive at their own answer, decision or deliverable. That is, the facilitator must support everyone to do their best thinking during the meeting.  A facilitator is a helper or an enabler whose goal is to support others as they achieve exceptional performance. This is done by encouraging full participation, promoting mutual understanding, and ensuring collaboration to create solutions.

The facilitator, therefore, should be a ‘content neutral’ party who does not take a particular position in the discussion or advocate a point of view during the meeting. The role has been likened to that of a midwife who assists in the process of creation but is not the producer of the end result!  Hence the role of the facilitator is different from the role of a consultant.

When a facilitator is not the subject expert, the group will need to help the facilitator familiarize him/herself with the nature of the company’s business, which often forces them to return to basics and examine the business from a fresh perspective.

What then, is an effective facilitator?

An effective facilitator is one who contributes structure and process to group interactions.

A good facilitator uses skills, dialogue tools, and techniques to coax brilliance out of participants, rather than being the one who comes up with the brilliant ideas him/herself.

But remember, although a facilitator need not have a comprehensive understanding of the company’s business, he/she should not go into a session completely ignorant of the business under debate. Valuable time may be lost if the group needs to explain every aspect of the discussion. Therefore, taking a meaningful brief prior to the meeting is vital!