A big chunk of environmental communication work involves facilitating meetings around environmental questions. Facilitation in this context is similar to moderating a meeting — making sure it’s on track and in good conditions, basically.
Of course, what that means is in the end highly subjective and liable to depend on the facilitator(s). (For better or for worse? I don’t know, should we even pass moral judgement on it? It kind of can’t be any other way…? Really…)
The word facilitation has it’s root in Spanish (not really). Facilitar means to make something easier. Ironically, that is just about the opposite of what a good facilitator would strive to do.
The easy thing is to just let the powerful stakeholders use their power to dominate all others, impose their will and all else be damned. Even easier is to not even attempt to create an atmosphere of good will and civility. We sort of saw an example of that in class.
The perhaps trickiest part of facilitating a meeting is not that one should be committed to creating and managing the process to one’s best ability, to as smoothly as possibly allow for all perspectives to be included, heard and valued, and integrated into a resolution that is harmonious and beneficial to all parties.
I personally find it even more challenging that the facilitator ought to do this with no stakes in the outcome. You should not care much about the result, yet invest so much in making sure whatever comes out does come out in the best way possible. It’s not what you do that’s important; it’s how you do it.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a damn good challenge, one that can develop the valuable skill of focusing on the process rather than only the goal. Enjoy the journey (or, in this case, make the journey enjoyable), not only the destination. (Moreover, if you plan and travel the journey well, the destination you arrive at should be one that the whole company can enjoy.)
It can even circumvent the typical moral issue of good ends justifying terrible means: the good facilitator either (i) doesn’t put much care in the end and therefore doesn’t feel forced (or justified?) in adopting horrific means, or (ii) assumes that by ensuring the best means possible, the best end possible is reached.
Mind you, dear reader, that this entire post is my personal take on facilitation, based on this first week of being introduced to the concept. We covered a lot more in class. These are some reflections I’ve extracted from our lectures and discussions.
Next week, we will practice designing and facilitating class discussions on various controversial topics. I cannot wait to get deep down in this!
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