When should we hire an outside facilitator?
You’re an organizational leader, maybe an HR pro. You certainly feel like you know how to run a meeting in your own organization, right?
Well, sure. You’ve got the weekly leadership team meeting down to a science, and your 1:1s with your direct reports are often fantastic conversations. But what about this meeting? It might be an important board meeting, a budget-wrestling session, an all-staff meeting following a community crisis. Maybe you’re launching a strategic planning process for the first time in five years!
Now, the stakes are higher.
So, how do you know when it’s time to bring in outside facilitation help? Time to ask yourself these questions:
Am I reasonably neutral on this topic?
I mean…probably not, right? There are perhaps a few topics in organizational leadership on which we don’t have opinions, where we might be more or less neutral—but those are rare. Chances are you—and everyone else in the room—already has some idea of where they want this conversation or process to go. And that’s ok! You’re in it, you love your organization, and you’re all the ones who will be living with the decisions made in that room. Unless you’re truly neutral, consider finding someone outside the organization to help move things forward. Facilitators are great at getting contributions from many sources, not just the loudest/most powerful voices.
If you have a skilled facilitator on staff, do you feel 100% sure the power dynamics in the room won’t have influence?
When I led HR for a nonprofit, I built a level of expertise in facilitation that serves my clients well now that I am a consultant. While I was in the organization, though, that facilitation skill made sense in specific meetings—but definitely didn’t make sense in others. An example: I regularly facilitated all-staff meetings, workshops on various topics, and conflict resolution sessions between employees and management. When it came to the board of trustees, though, I was not the right choice. Not only did the board not see me as an equal in the room, I had a lot of emotional baggage related to the power dynamics between this board and my staff. While perhaps I could have been somewhat effective in those meetings, I would have carried a lot of fear—which is not what you want in a facilitator!
Is organizational leadership at risk of losing trust? Or have we already lost it?
This is tough. Leadership almost always has power and privilege that the staff has to tiptoe around in their daily lives. When leadership loses the trust of staff—or in those delicate moments when trust is at risk—it is critical that an outside facilitator (not a member of leadership!) can step in and manage that tricky situation. If a member of leadership decides to run things themselves, you run the risk of further alienating staff—and you certainly won’t be as effective as you want to be. Bonus: When you say “perhaps I don’t need to run this” you are choosing to relinquish power in favor of a just outcome, and staff will appreciate that.
Do I have the broad experience necessary to see the many different angles?
Here’s where facilitators can be worth their weight in gold. Coming from outside an organization, having worked in many as both an employee and a consultant, a facilitator brings experience and a new lens to every question. Stuck on finding new revenue streams? A facilitator has seen some cool programs. Not sure how to get staff onboard for strategic planning? A strategic facilitator has done that. Navigating workplace conflict and difficult power dynamics? A neutral facilitator does thorough pre-meeting work with stakeholders and can enter a space with everyone’s interests equally at heart. Importantly, an equity-informed facilitator can help you resolve conflict in a way that is restorative, not painful.
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