In today's fast-paced professional world, solving complex problems and fostering collaboration are essential ingredients for success. But what exactly is a workshop, why should you run one, and when do you need a facilitator? Workshops have emerged as the quintessential platform for bringing together diverse stakeholders to tackle specific challenges. Let's explore the power of workshop facilitation and how it can drive innovation, problem-solving, and productivity in your organization.
Podcast: A conversational overview of the blog article
CLASSICAL PROJECT WORK EXPERIENCES: THE PITFALLS
SeTs Ryu’s head teacher and senior Workshop Facilitator, Chris Spencer recounts that:
“When working in an IT department as a Financial Systems Specialist the imposition of new systems and technology without a sufficient collaboration process instead facilitated conflict between the IT and user departments when the systems did not immediately work as intended. In one incident it even led to the physical pushing of a technical support staff out of the office area by the department manager.”
Chris later moved to Finland in 1995 and started working for Nokia Networks (Finland) in vicarious roles from functionality specialist to project manager/leader, service concept owner and project management steering committee. He explains that:
“Requirements were just given in written form, which was very challenging to envisage from a system and functionality perspective for communicating to the technical staff in the NBI division. In the end, the owner of the project (project leader) could not manage it and handed the task over to me… later on with projects of my own we had to build customer sites on constantly ‘shifting sands’ due to a platform migration project to a personalization system which, caused major headaches with deadlines and delivery platforms (e.g. server location, CDNs & the size of video files allowed). One ‘team member’ working remotely who felt left out, deliberately sabotaged the project, delaying a 6 week project by 2 weeks. Fortunately, we succeeded anyway but, not without a great deal of unnecessary extra effort and stress, that ultimately, after 3 release projects and 7 months later, facilitated a long series of illnesses and sick leave…
The most distasteful experience, however, was when a new recruit to the Nokia Networks (NBI - Technical Infrastructure Division) team was set up as a ‘fall guy’ for trying to introduce new project processes. He designed a process and presented it to a large meeting and received quite a lot of resistance from members of the user departments. The poor young man had no idea what he was walking into but, he was the one who got ‘canned’ during his trial period.”
So, what was the background scenario that facilitated all of this?
“At that time Nokia Networks still followed the ‘Waterfall Model’ of project management. On the surface, the model implies that each stage should be completed before the next one begins. However, as it turns out, this was a misrepresentation of the original inventor’s idea, which was that the model was in practice an iterative process. However, the model served management interests, as it seemingly made it easy for them to manage the projects whilst, leading them from the front. To succeed managers and project managers like myself had to get down into the dungeons daily to see what was going on, talk to key people and try to keep things moving in the right direction. Their approach also required the writing of extensive process and procedure documents to try and create a type of ‘Learning organization’ that could survive and sustain itself should one key person no longer be available…
None of this sat well with the technical staff who thought management should keep their nose out of their business and areas of expertise and, had a penchant for ignoring the processes and procedures they had written whenever it was convenient for them. Not that anyone ever read them anyway! In all fairness, the needs and requirements of their jobs were constantly changing in the organizational matrix structure and industry in which they were working, making the flexibility to adapt critical to their working success. Eventually, a new process management movement emerged within the company towards the use of Agile development systems such as SCRUM, which put the coders and technicians firmly at the centre of the project process with everyone else, playing a more support role, for example the Project Manager now became the SCRUM master. SCRUMs involve a type of informal daily team meetings where the coders and technicians discussed and took responsibility for any tasks on the ‘Back Log’ they thought that they could do…
This worked well for ongoing project work and business systems development and some also thought it worked well for new projects also, however, the voices of dissent started to raise their heads again both from senior technical staff and management who actually bore the responsibility for the projects… The political power struggle between the two was still on-going the last I heard.”
In more recent times, Chris has been working with several business start-up projects alongside that of SeTs Ryu. One of these involves a web and mobile application system to serve the Independent Film Industry.
“The project had already been conceived and initiated by the founders when I joined the team. It was a bit confusing to understand what exactly they were trying to do or what the business case for it was. The first attempt at building the system involved a remote working contractor who was also trying to figure out the requirements as provided to him from a bunch of non-technical co-founders, some of whom could not even bring themselves to look at an excel sheet, much less work their way around technical applications and systems, even ones as simple as TRELLO. The co-founders really did not understand what the process of required of them, which left me to sort out and hold the line on all the functional and user acceptance testing. This afforded me however, a good chance to really get to know the system and the intentions of the co-founders, for which reason I became the de facto service and system concept owner…
Discussion continued around in circles for months as the co-founders further explored the potential business models and hence functional requirements of the system, and seemingly unable to focus their attention on what should be done to initiate the project. Having already set up all their business administration and project management systems for coordinating and communicating the project to all the stakeholders, the task of designing and documenting the business model and system and planning the development roadmaps for both the system and the business fell to me. For these reasons I was quickly adopted as the team’s Business and Systems Development Manager…
Eventually, our Chief Technology Officer insisted that I write it all down in ‘Use Case’ formats. This took several months and was still not the complete system. No one ever read them even if they could envisage what was written there, a talent that seemed to be peculiar to me, in part due to my experience at Nokia Networks. It was basically a total waste of time, mostly appropriate for academic study and learning purposes!..
In the real world, especially when working with non-technical staff as we almost always will be working, wireframes, mock-ups & prototyping are the way to go. Technical people will prefer to use more ‘professional’ applications such as Figma to do this, mostly out of professional pride. However, after conducting a small collaborative workshop with the founder, I was able to create a fully functional, albeit, static wireframe/mock-up of the mobile app within a few days, just using MS PowerPoint. Even the techies were really surprised if not shocked by it. It is built slide screen by slide screen for each system page and configuration. You can even record Use Case’ workflows with the screencast facility. It’s just as good for the techies as it is for the non-techies. Once everyone can see the design, the task becomes much easier and fast!..
The result of all these shenanigans and two sub-contractor attempts later, was that the development project was delayed by one to two years. Although we eventually got the MVP version done, a great deal of time was lost, potentially missing the market window for the product, and causing a great deal of political friction between members of the team. In my opinion, much of these problems could have been avoided if we had had a properly facilitated workshop-based management process in place.”
So, what is different about facilitated workshops and how specifically can they help us avoid all these potential pitfalls?
UNDERSTANDING WORKSHOPS: THE POWER OF COLLABORATION
What is a Workshop?
A workshop is more than just a meeting; it's a dynamic event where individuals converge to share insights, ideas, and expertise to achieve a common goal. This collaborative workgroup creates a synergy that propels projects forward by fostering creativity, generating solutions, and building consensus among team members.
It’s a more democratic process that promotes diversity, equity and inclusiveness (DEI) to ensure that everyone gets and feels heard, an essential pre-requisite for getting buy in and optimal contributions for a better result. It’s all about breaking down the silos and bridging the gaps between knowledge systems, people and cultures.
The Biometric Quote!
"The development of scientific technology in the 20th century has increasingly made sciences more and more specialised. The more science became specialised, technology became more advanced but at the price of limited communication with other fields. The pursuit of depth has come to face a technological limit whereby a single technology cannot solve all the problems in the world and therefore interdisciplinary cooperation with other fields has become inevitable."
Kee-Sam Jeong et, al. (as cited by Eliza Yingzi Du et, al. 2013, p184) in respect to Biotechnologies. Read more >>
To succeed in the 21st century, we need to do more than just cooperate or even coordinate, we need to COLLABORATE. The team, if selected correctly, already have all the technical expertise required. The facilitator’s technical expertise may be useful for asking the right questions to prompt the collaboration process but, not provide the answers for them. In this respect it is very much the same process concept as applied in Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), a form of psychotherapy that focuses on the process in order to help people ‘RESOLVE’ their own problems. It is commonly used as mind skills for self-help therapy, but because of these characteristics and the communication skills it embodies, it is also excellent for helping others.
It is because of this and our background and training in NLP that we at SeTs Ryu prefer to use the acronym (RESOLVE) for our workshop process than the original design sprint or AJ&Smart 4 C’s framework of: Collect > Choose > Create > Commit. That being said, the RESOLVE model does obviously include the 4 C’s and during the last year (2024), I have noticed that AJ&Smart themselves have started tacking on extra equivalents to make their workshop processes more complete and, effective.
Benefits of Running a Workshop
The Collaboration Paradigm
A key concept underpinning the effectiveness of facilitated workshops is: ‘DIVERSITY; EQUITY & INCLUSION’, a policy fondly known as DEI by the elite in some countries -more about that later 😉. Workshops break down silos, and bridge the gaps between knowledge systems, people and cultures. They encourage cross-functional communication and cultivate a sense of shared purpose. By harnessing the collective intelligence of participants, workshops can lead to innovative breakthroughs that may not have been possible in individual settings.
Collaboration should not be confused with cooperation and coordination. These three words may seem to be the same thing, but they are not. Cooperation is about helping each other where we can even though we may be working on different projects. Coordination is when we are working on the same project but, have completely different and separate tasks which need to be coordinated with each other. Collaboration, however, is when we put our heads and resources together on the same project and tasks.
The key word here is ‘DIVERSITY
Problem-Solving Hub
Workshops provide a structured environment for addressing challenges, brainstorming solutions, and developing actionable strategies. They offer a platform for teams to analyse problems from multiple perspectives and devise effective ways to overcome obstacles.
However, we do not want to get stuck with paralysis by analysis. . Analysis merely identifies a current state or phase, not necessarily a medical condition. Just as with music, mental processes involve both phases and intervals, the latter being the path along which we move between stages/states as part of a mental process. Just as one of the NLP founders said in his criticisms of the mainstream psychotherapy fraternity, it’s no good just analysing the problem and not actually solving it. Just prescribing yet more drugs just treats the symptoms, it does not cure the cause and solve the problem. Whilst NLP is modelled on and derived from the best of the best practitioners of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), the rest of his comments were a lot less diplomatic leading to a rather adverse and abrasive reaction that did nothing for future collaboration.
The key word here is ‘EQUITY’
Enhanced Project Management
Through workshops, project teams can align their objectives, define roles and responsibilities, and establish clear timelines. This proactive approach to project management ensures that tasks are executed efficiently, and deliverables are met on schedule.
The issue here is not that these things should not or are not done with normal project management processes. Merely that working with a diverse bunch of participants from both technical and business backgrounds, facilitated workshops tend to provide a much more effective way to bring them together, collaborate and get buy in from the participants. Without this ‘Buy in’, the project will soon start to flounder and lose its way.
The key word here is ‘INCLUSION’
THE ROLE OF A FACILITATOR: GUIDING THE WORKSHOP JOURNEY
As a CoCreator in developing education course and content, we cooperate and coordinate our efforts, sometimes even collaborate to create content. However, a Workshop Facilitator is not a CoCreator but, could be seen as more of a CoPilot for the purpose of running the workshops and helping the CoCreators to cooperate, coordinate and collaborate effectively. They are not a project leader, but a workshop process manager.
Collaborative Problem-Solving
Workshops leverage the collective intelligence of participants to address complex problems through group working sessions. By fostering open communication and creativity, workshops create an environment where innovative solutions can emerge.
When Do You Need a Facilitator?
While some workshops can be self-guided, complex projects or high-stakes meetings often benefit from the presence of a skilled facilitator. A facilitator acts as a neutral party, guiding discussions, managing conflicts, and ensuring that the workshop stays on track. Their expertise in group dynamics and process facilitation enhances the overall effectiveness of the workshop.
HOW WORKSHOPS OPERATE
Use Cases
In IT industry one of the most common use cases is Ux Design sprints which can condense months of work into a few days of intense collaboration. By following a structured process of ideation, prototyping, and testing, design sprints allow teams to rapidly iterate solutions and validate ideas. Whilst the foremost methodology developed at Google was developed for IT development purposes, it is just as easily adapted to other fields of business activity, including marketing, management and strategy meetings, product and services innovation and strategies, and even education development and training programmes, such as the AARM course provided by SeTs Ryu. Like the AARM course and self-defence training in general, which removes the fear of falling by practicing balance/stability and. learning how to fall safely and get back up again, so Facilitated Workshops help remove the fear of making mistakes or sounding silly when trying to generate ideas in a brainstorming session. To learn more see the blog article: Empower Yourself: Mastering Personal Safety and Resilience with the AARM course
The following are the generic use cases or purposes for which workshop facilitation is highly useful:
Project Planning and Scope Definition:
o Workshops help stakeholders align on project goals, define scope, and establish clear timelines. This ensures everyone is on the same page from the outset.
Requirements Gathering:
o Facilitated sessions are highly effective for eliciting and documenting detailed requirements from various stakeholders. This leads to more accurate and complete project specifications.
Problem Solving and Decision Making:
o Workshops provide a structured environment for teams to analyse complex problems, brainstorm solutions, and make informed decisions.
Innovation and Ideation:
o Facilitated workshops encourage creative thinking and collaboration, leading to the generation of innovative ideas and solutions. Design thinking workshops are a prime example of this.
Team Alignment and Communication:
o Workshops improve communication and collaboration among team members, fostering a shared understanding of goals and enhancing team alignment.
Key takeaways regarding the use of facilitated workshops in business:
They enhance communication and decision-making.
They provide a structured environment for problem-solving.
They are effective for gathering requirements and defining project scope.
They foster innovation and ideation.
Despite all the potential benefits of facilitated workshops, a State of Facilitation Survey in 2023 found that:
42.2% of facilitators delivered sessions lasting 1 or 2 hours at least monthly [4].
32.8% of respondents delivered very short, less-than-one-hour sessions at least weekly [4].
One-quarter of respondents had not delivered a single session longer than a day in the past year [4].
Sessions have become shorter, and longer workshops less frequent [4].
A third of all respondents had not yet delivered any hybrid workshop in 2022 [4].
These low utilisation results are quite surprising given the constant work-life refrains about endless, boring and fruitless meetings, and the effects of COVID19 pandemic which forced many people to work remotely from home. It also flies in the face of research about the potential impact of effective facilitation on organizational success.
THE IMPACT OF EFFECTIVE FACILITATION
Research has shown that facilitated workshops can have a significant impact on organizational success. According to a study by MGR Consulting, using facilitated workshops can result in a 20% to 40% reduction in effort required to gather requirements [1].
This translates to substantial time and cost savings for businesses.
Moreover, facilitated workshops have been proven to:
In financial terms, the benefits are equally impressive. For a $1 million IT project, using facilitated workshops to gather requirements can save almost $250,000 - that's one-fourth of the project cost just for the requirements phase! [1]
WHY HIRE INDEPENDENT FACILITATORS?
Expertise in facilitation can make all the difference in workshop outcomes. Independent facilitators bring:
1. Objectivity and neutrality to discussions
2. Specialized techniques to engage all participants
3. Skills to manage group dynamics and conflicts
4. Ability to keep the workshop focused and productive
BUILDING SUPPORTIVE COMMUNITIES
Facilitated Workshops are built on a set of philosophies, policies based on principles of:
Subject Matter Independent & Flexible Modular Process
Discussions are Sequenced (Timing, Focus, Analytical Brainstorming & Development)
Time Boxing (Regulated time slots and schedules for completing the tasks)
Make it Visual (Mind Mapping, Post-it Notes, Trello)
Working Alone, Together (Group Meeting Management and Pre-Meeting Previews and Canvassing)
Make a Decision (Meeting Close: Decision, Next Steps & Action Points)
Discussions are strictly controlled and often eliminated altogether to avoid the destructive circular open discussions and debates. Decision making is mostly democratic voting process, though weighting of votes is sometimes appropriate in order to get decisions made and promote progress. The essence of the facilitated workshop process and culture lies in building a supportive community / team based on the notions of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. How needed they are and how easy they are to implement may depend on the organizational environment they are to be applied in, for example, Limited Liability / privately owned corporations and companies or, cooperative organizations.
Corporate Culture
Limited Liability (LLC) and even Plc companies are in essence private enterprises for profit, primarily the shareholders. Other stakeholders such as employees and their interests are almost incidental to this type of organization. They are supposedly built on the basis of a meritocracy.
The macro environment is one of multi-level stakeholders which leverage each in other in turn to gain increased benefits, which in principle is also the basis of multi-level marketing (MLM) schemes and organizations. The environment is quite competitive as ambitious employees strive to climb the corporate ladder or carve out their own little niche empire within the larger organization. Internal politics is rife and even Nordic culture-based organizations such as Nokia, with traditionally low and flat hierarchies are vulnerable to infighting as people make alliances and network to try and find a way through the glass ceiling.
Nokia is a Finnish company, which is interesting because Finnish Work-Life culture is quite autocratic. I.e. When the boss speaks, the employees jump! This was not so much the case at Nokia where they even employed people to ‘influence’ others to cooperate with the responsible department trying to carry out senior management’s directives. Compare this with other Nordic nations such as Sweden where consensus is the cultural norm for getting anything done. As Chris Spencer remembers:
“When I first moved to Finland I worked as an English Language teacher for a local language firm. One of my clients worked in a similar technical field that I had in my previous jobs in the U.K., which is one reason why he always asked for me whenever he was preparing for a visit to customers in Sweden. As with many Finns and Finnish culture he would not speak hardly a word even in Finnish until I had served him up at least two cups of coffee! We talked about many things, including the consensus culture clash between the countries, which he admitted was extremely frustrating for a Finn... More recently, I asked another customer employee working at a formerly Finnish company in Finland that had just been acquired by Swedish owners, about the cultural aspects. He commented that it was a comfortable and enjoyable working environment, but that things did move somewhat slower now.”
Nokia policy was not to allow anyone to discuss their pay settlement with anyone else to avoid comparative compensation disputes and isolate each employee to negotiate for themselves. Divide & Rule! Everyone was responsible for looking out for themselves. A meritocracy-based system may work well in technical fields, based on expertise and experience, but in order to get better salaries a move into management is usually necessary. This means success was frequently determined by politics and the ability to wield at least one of the four generic forms of: power; authority (responsibility); resource control; expertise; and personal (icon) power.
The power structure is top-down which, is also the basis of the Trickle-Down economic theory.
As the saying goes:
‘Shit Flows Downhill!’
A competitive jungle like this, does not readily foster collaboration. It has its good points, but unbridled it becomes a ‘dog eat dog’ self-destructive organism. Humans are not strong with superpowers like Lions, Tigers and other top predators. Humans survived and prospered because they cooperated and collaborated in groups, just like the pack wolves that we learned from. These organisations need to facilitate collaboration more than anyone in order to counter-balance the macro-environment. However, it can only be done in small groups and teams of people working on smaller clearly defined goals and tasks that they have in common. It is a transactional alliance of convenience only in order to obtain temporal and limited benefits from collaboration, often bearing more resemblance to a patchwork of plasters over wounds, holes and cracks in the organization and system than an integrated part of the process. Meritocracy is preserved to the extent that we select the best and most expert people for the specific role in the workshop. The benefits of collaboration through DEI are achieved through representation from each of the stakeholder departments and professions.
Cooperative Organisation Culture
Cooperative Organizations and Associations however, start from the bottom up, from both a philosophical and policy driven perspective. Their whole ethos is one of a organizational macro-environment based on cooperation, coordination and collaboration. The workers themselves are the shareholders formed for mutual benefit and as a way to get a business off the ground more quickly without having to go through the endless rounds of pitching to investors that LLCs have to do. The managers and other key staff are elected to their positions and employed by the cooperative members. Coops also have their own inherent risks and downsides in the form of potential divergence of interests and fragmentation which may adversely affect social cohesion and the Coop sustainability. As with Swedish culture, consensus-based decision making may slow things down somewhat. Coordination and organizing are likely to be regular headaches with such a diverse and large stakeholder group. Control Freaks need not apply for membership!
There are generally four types of Coops:
Community – Local, Activity or Functionality (Benefit Coops);
Coop Consortium – Key Activities & Resource Collaboration;
Multi-Stakeholder Coop – Variable Relationships with a common interest;
Worker Coop – Employee Owned & managed.
They are not communists any more than liberal democrats and other left of centre political parties are. That is just the stuff of paranoia and propaganda by right wing extremists. Coops are formed for the purpose of doing business and making a profit just like LLC’s, it’s just that the way of financing (crowd sourcing), crowd resourcing and managing it are different to help them overcome the particular market hurdles and obstacles they face. Decentralization also provides economies of scale for resources, competences and management, such as cross-functional skills & resources, combined purchasing power, competence centres with education, training & business support services.
Some do though include wider considerations and benefits with a broader sets of values, aims and objectives, including human security, sustainability and community cohesion. These coops are Value Lead for the Greater Good and Collective Alignment (cohesion and sustainability). This encourages voluntary participation and promotes motivation & commitment along with an independent Community that can provide a self-contained socio-economic shelter. This does not mean that there is no competition at all, either within the coop or between the coop and other organizations. It’s just that cooperation and collaboration are general more beneficial and valued than competition. As compared to LLCs, it’s a bit of a Ying – Yang relationship.
All this makes them much closer in structure and purpose with civilized democratic societies than LLC’s are. It also makes them a far more consistent and natural environment for Workshop Facilitation to thrive in as part of the mainstream management process.
Hybrid Cultures & Development Processes
At SeTs Ryu, we believe that workshops are not just about achieving business goals, they're about creating supportive communities that extend beyond the workshop itself. This is entirely consistent with the concepts and principles of Constructivism plus Social Learning pedagogic model, the bedrock of modern science-based learning methods/models. These communities may initially be formed onsite but, are supported online as well and, may even be run completely online when distance is an issue.
The SeTs Ryu facilitation approach includes:
• Fostering a collaborative spirit that continues after the workshop ends
• Encouraging ongoing knowledge sharing and support among participants
• Creating a safe space for open dialogue and innovative thinking
In this way, Facilitated Workshops can help creativity and innovation whilst easing the competitive impingement on collaboration within LLC style corporations. By the same means it can also support community cohesion whilst speeding up the decision-making process in consensus-based cultures such as in Cooperative Societies and other such organizations.
In effect, Workshop Facilitation bridges the gap between the two cultures.
CONCLUSION: ELEVATE YOUR WORKSHOPS WITH INDEPENDENT FACILITATION
Workshops are more than just meetings – they are transformative experiences that empower teams to collaborate, innovate, and solve problems collectively. By enlisting the services of independent facilitators like SeTs Ryu, organizations can empower their workshops and achieve improved results. See our facilitated workshop briefing >>
Whether you're looking to improve project management, solve complex problems, or foster a culture of collaboration, independently facilitated workshops can propel your team towards success. With the potential for significant time and cost savings, improved quality outcomes, and enhanced team dynamics, investing in expert facilitation is a strategic move for any forward-thinking organization.
Ready to unleash the full potential of your team through expertly facilitated workshops?
Contact SeTs Ryu today and take the first step towards transforming your organizational challenges into opportunities for growth and innovation.
Empower your team with the collaborative energy of workshops and watch as innovation unfolds before your eyes!
Do you want to know what you can achieve?
Don't dally, ACT!
Action will define you.
(Thomas Jefferson'ish)
Citations:
APPENDIX 1: A short-list of the pros and cons of organizing facilitated workshops and hiring an independent facilitator:
PROS OF ORGANIZING FACILITATED WORKSHOPS
Enhanced communication and improved decision-making within organizations [3].
Quick and effective means of eliciting information from participants [3].
Brings people together from various business areas, allowing for greater knowledge sharing and broader perspectives [3].
Provides a forum for resolving conflicts, differences of opinion, and averting ambiguity [3].
Increases participant involvement and ownership of outcomes [3].
Can be used throughout the Agile Lifecycle for various purposes, from project initiation to post-project reviews [3].
CONS OF ORGANIZING FACILITATED WORKSHOPS
Requires careful planning and preparation to be effective [3].
Can be time-consuming and potentially costly, especially if not managed efficiently [3].
May face challenges in remote settings, requiring additional tools and considerations [3].
Effectiveness can be compromised if not properly facilitated or if participants are not fully engaged [3].
PROS OF HIRING AN INDEPENDENT FACILITATOR
Objectivity: Independent facilitators can remain neutral and unbiased, breaking through existing barriers and friction [2].
Full participation of leaders: Allows organizational leaders to fully engage in discussions without managing the process [2].
Specialized expertise: Brings structured methodology and a toolkit of proven facilitation techniques [2].
Broader market perspective: Can provide external insights and challenge internal thinking [2].
Efficient use of time and money: Helps accomplish more in less time, reducing the need for multiple meetings [2].
Ability to inspire and engage: Ensures all voices are heard and encourages creative solutions [2].
Fresh perspective: Comes at issues without preconceived notions or internal biases [1].
Easier to command respect: External professionals may find it easier to gain team respect [1].
CONS OF HIRING AN INDEPENDENT FACILITATOR
1. Need to win over the team: External facilitators must earn trust and respect with each new client [1].
2. Client acquisition challenges: Freelance facilitators need to continuously find new clients [1].
3. Time required to familiarize with context: External facilitators need time to understand the organization's specific issues and culture [7].
4. Potential higher cost: Hiring an external professional may be more expensive pro-rata than using internal resources [7].
5. Less insider knowledge: May lack deep understanding of internal dynamics and history [7].
In conclusion, while facilitated workshops can greatly benefit organizations, their success largely depends on effective planning and execution. Hiring an independent facilitator can bring objectivity and specialized skills but may require additional effort in terms of building trust and understanding organizational context.
THE POTENTIAL DRAWBACKS OF USING AN INTERNAL FACILITATOR:
Bias and untested assumptions: Internal facilitators often have preconceived notions or biases about the issues and participants, which can skew outcomes [1] [3].
Perceived lack of neutrality: Team members may believe the internal facilitator is biased for or against certain individuals or decisions, affecting their engagement [1] [3].
Reluctance to challenge: Internal facilitators may hesitate to ask difficult or controversial questions to avoid "rocking the boat" within the organization [1] [3].
Fear of retribution: They might avoid addressing sensitive topics to protect their position within the company [3].
Limited perspective: Internal facilitators may have blind spots that prevent them from seeing the bigger picture or exploring new possibilities [2].
Conflicts of interest: Power dynamics within the organization can hinder the facilitator's objectivity [2].
Reduced capacity and focus: Other responsibilities and commitments may distract the internal facilitator from fully preparing and following up on the facilitation process [2].
Difficulty in full participation: If the facilitator is also a team leader or manager, they may struggle to both facilitate and contribute meaningfully to the discussion [2].
Overlooking critical weaknesses: Familiarity with existing processes may cause internal facilitators to miss important issues [5].
Political bias: Internal facilitators may feel obligated to certain individuals or groups within the organization, affecting their impartiality [6].
Lack of specialized expertise: Internal facilitators may not possess the same level of facilitation skills or methodologies as external professionals [1].
Dual role stress: Balancing the roles of facilitator and group member can be challenging and may affect their effectiveness [3].
About SeTs Ryu
At SeTs Ryu creates & teaches innovative and functional education and training programmes, both online and onsite for vocational subjects, sports and fitness. Vocational subjects include business, security and risk management, such as the Assault Awareness & Risk Management (AARM) courses, Personal Trainer services for fitness and coaching for Parkour, self-defence and other sports. We revel in helping businesses and educational institutions unlock the full potential of co-creation and, in facilitating workshops to help clients succeed in their collaborative projects.
Our experienced educators can collaborate with you to:
• Plan and develop engaging and effective online and offline courses.
• Create high-quality course content, including videos, interactive exercises, and assessments.
• Facilitate collaborative learning experiences that foster innovation and creativity.
• Tutor students on courses & training programmes we have created for ourselves.
If you need more of a Co-Creator than a CoPilot, you can further support and augment your team with SeTs Ryu's content creation services and achieve further innovation and creativity in your projects through cooperation and collaboration.
Either way, by partnering with SeTs Ryu, you can elevate your educational offerings, enhance participant engagement, and achieve your business goals.
SeTs Ryu: Your Partner in Collaboration Facilitation & Co-Creation
Citations 1:
Citations 2:
https://www.sessionlab.com/state-of-facilitation/2024-report/
https://www.sessionlab.com/state-of-facilitation/2023-report/
https://www.sitra.fi/en/publications/futures-frequency-workshop-facilitators-handbook/
https://iqbba.org/techniques-for-business-analysis-workshops-2/
https://www.rescoop.eu/uploads/rescoop/downloads/CE4EUI_WorkshopFacilitationGuide.pdf
Citations 3:
4. https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2023-01/sts_scenarios-workshop_facilitation-guide_508.pdf
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