Benefits of Facilitation

July 2013 - The FoCuSeD™ Facilitator eNewsletter

value of facilitation

How Significant is the Value of Facilitation? | Gary Rush Facilitation

This past year, I was on the committee that developed the inaugural IAF Facilitation Impact Awards (FIA) program. I was also one of the evaluators for the submissions. We received 36 submissions and awarded 8 Silver Awards, 17 Gold Awards, and 7 Platinum Awards. First, I want to congratulate all of the award recipients. Award recipients and others familiar with the awards program have asked us, “How significant was the value of facilitation?” The combined financial impact (savings, cost avoidance, increased revenue, and increased outside investment) for these organizations not only was hundreds of millions of dollars, but more importantly, their culture shifted to be more engaged, empowered, and more creative in solving the organization’s problems that contributed to the overall well being of the organization.

In 2012, the IAF initiated an award program, The IAF Facilitation Impact Awards (FIA) honoring excellence in facilitation and its positive impact on organizations around the world. The inaugural awards were presented at the IAFNA 2013 Conference in Orlando, FL on June 6, 2013 covering North America, South America, and the Caribbean. This was a non-competitive inclusive award program. The purpose was to demonstrate the value of facilitation by highlighting and celebrating organizations and Facilitators whose use of facilitation had significant, impact on their organization. Each submission was scored on a scale of 1 to 100 with scores of 91 and above receiving the Platinum award, 81 and above receiving the Gold award, and 71 and above receiving the Silver award.

In this article, I will focus on the Platinum Award recipients.

  • Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) – Connie Morrow – At the Defense Intelligence Agency, Connie Morrow used facilitation to engage employees and resolve unit and departmental issues in addition to making the goal of the organization to have managers and analysts collaboration competent. As a result, facilitation is now used at all levels of the agency, is used to develop the strategic direction of the agency, and, using facilitation to work through workplace issues, has saved the agency $500,000 by avoiding formal resolutions. In addition, facilitation has transformed interagency collaboration between DIA and other intelligence agencies. Over 1000 employees at DIA have been involved in facilitated workshops and to date, DIA has trained over 85 employees in facilitator and facilitation skills.
  • Hydro One – Jim Rankin – At Hydro One, Jim Rankin proposed using a cadre of facilitators to enable change management and engagement of employees, particularly in re-engineering Central Scheduling process. This involved management and union workers along with significant resistance due to concern over job changes. As a result, the organization resolved dozens of issues, engaged hundreds of employees in facilitated workshops, improved scheduling and utilization of equipment resulting in hundreds of dollars per hour in savings, and facilitation is now a core competency of managers at Hydro One.
  • KLA-Tencor Final Wafer Inspection – Ken Wells – At KLA-Tencor, Ken Wells proposed using facilitated workshops to help generate ideas for new products and cross-divisional sharing in the wafer inspection group. Millions of dollars are at stake in product development in this high-tech industry. As a result, technology research was focused, new creative ideas went into research for long term development, computer performance improved over 25%, employee satisfaction improved, management confidence improved, and facilitated workshops are now commonplace.
  • Newport City Renaissance Corporation – Joel Mills – The city of Newport, Vermont, was dealing with a drastic change in demographics, loss of jobs, struggling economy, and limited resources. They hired The American Institute of Architects’, Joel Mills, to host a Regional and Urban Design Assistance Team program to revitalize the city. Using facilitated workshops engaging city officials and the community they completely transformed the city of Newport through neighborhood projects, brought in over $250 million in investments, added 2000 jobs (out of a city of 5000), and built the needed momentum to maintain the engagement.
  • Northwest Territories Department of Finance – Leanne Tait – Northwest Territories is a remote part of Canada with remote residents, limited access, largely indigenous groups, and 11 different official languages. The Minister of Finance engaged Leanne Tait to facilitate dialogues with the territory residents to get input regarding priorities for government investments. Over 140 people from around the territory participated in workshops using mixed media, to assist with different languages and cultures. As a result, residents now understand the complexities of government funding, feel empowered to set priorities, and are engaged in their future.
  • Oxford Properties – Tamara Eberle – At Oxford Properties, one of the largest shopping centers in Canada, a change in management after almost 20 years prompted the new Property Manager to look into ways to improve customer service, improve relations between management and employees, and develop a plan for the future that everyone felt part of. Tamara Eberle was hired to facilitate workshops engaging all employees in workshops to set standards, create a vision for the shopping center, generate recommendations from employees for motivation and professional development, and break down barriers between management and employees. As a result, employee grievances dropped by 50%, 13 employees were promoted, 79 new recognition awards were given, and customer satisfaction has improved 5 times. Intangible benefits include commitment, change in attitude, improved collaboration, and improved morale.
  • UIL Holdings, Inc. – Safety – Dorothea Brennan – At UIL Holdings, safety is critical and involves both management and union. UIL asked Dorothea Brennan to facilitate workshops involving both management and union to develop ways to improve safety while improving the relations between the parties. As a result, safety incidents dropped by almost 80%, the company has implemented a Safety Strategic Plan with commitment and ownership by all parties involved, all levels of the company are involved in workshops, Joint Problem Solving is now a core process, and facilitated After Action Reviews are commonplace.

None of the organizations participated through a few selected members. Every organization engaged many, if not all, of the management and employees in facilitated workshops and most involved cross-functional areas as well. Numerous people within the organizations were trained in facilitation skills to help sustain the momentum and broaden the reach of the program. Creative tools, such as Lego towers to help indigenous people communicate, helped engagement, communication, and ideation. In every case, facilitation was used not as a quick fix to a problem but as a new way to approach problem solving and business in general moving forward. Facilitated workshops became a cultural change.

What is the real significance? Facilitated workshops have now been proven to deliver significant value to organizations. The millions of dollars saved by the Platinum Award recipients is small when you look at the overall savings achieved by all of the recipients combined. It proves that when organizations engage everyone and they learn to collaborate, the organizations thrive and grow.

The use of facilitated workshops has engaged, empowered, and motivated all levels of the organizations. Creative new ideas have been developed and significant financial savings have been realized. Most importantly, the cultures of the organizations have changed to become collaborative.

After reading what the award recipients gained, I can’t help but wonder why every organization doesn’t make facilitator and facilitation skills a core competency for every employee of their organization. logo

March 2015 - The FoCuSeD™ Facilitator eNewsletter

gary rush facilitation

Organizations lose out when they don't train "People Skills" | Gary Rush Facilitation

I have been reading posts in LinkedIn and articles from various sources and have come to the belief that organizations ignore training “People Skills” – that is a mistake. When I read comments to the post, “The Paradox of Facilitation and Presentation Skills,” dated February 25, 2015, I was taken by the fact that not one comment mentioned training the Facilitators. Most had been “thrust” into the role and learned while doing. That concerns me because performing without proper training not only demeans the skills developed by those who, through proper training, spend a great deal of time and effort learning their skills but can also make the improperly-trained Facilitators feel inept.

Why?

Organizations would never put someone into a technical job without training and expect them to perform effectively yet daily they put people into leader or facilitator roles, without training, and expect them to perform effectively. People are the most important asset an organization has; yet people skills are undervalued and under-trained.

What amazes me is the wealth of research and articles siting business financial losses due to poor people skills. IT projects fail 50% of the time due to poor project management – lack of people skills. Poorly run meetings are sited as a frustration costing organizations tens of millions of dollars a year in wasted wages – poor people skills. If the biggest costs and greatest losses are due to poor people skills, why doesn’t every organization make “people skills” a core competency for every employee of their organization?

Is it our Fault?

Perhaps it’s the fault of effective Facilitators and Collaborative Leaders. We make what we do look easy – it isn’t. But that’s true of any skill, when it’s done well. With people skills, organizations assume it comes naturally. Perhaps that’s why they often refer to these skills as “soft skills.” People skills aren’t soft – they are pretty hard. Organizations take for granted that people know “how to” guide a group to make a decision, resolve conflict, organize thoughts to create a usable outcome, or synthesize what 20 people are saying and pull out a nugget of brilliance. These are trainable people skills that contribute to the overall well being of the organization.

When you are “thrust” in front of a group of people to facilitate or lead them, how many of you naturally know how to deal with a disruptive person? Know when and how to use appropriate humor? Know how to reply to make a point without offending? Know how a group is performing and know what to do to enable them to perform as a team? Know how to enable communication between people by truly actively listening? These are trainable people skills that contribute to the overall well being of the organization.

“How To” – Train People Skills

“I learned on the job” (unstructured) is very different from “on the job training” (structured). The former lacks any obvious principles of organization while the latter is a purposeful approach. Training must be structured. Well-structured Facilitator or Collaborative Leadership training covers people skills, through theory “the why” and through doing “the how.” It needs to be structured so that we don’t perpetuate the same mistakes of the past and it is consistent and repeatable. It needs to cover people skills such as “how to” actively listen, understand group dynamics, manage conflict, effectively confront, effectively communicate, effectively present, “how to” form teams, harness the wisdom of the group, and “how to” set an example. It requires practice and feedback for improvement.

Return on Training Investment

Organizations will save money, make the work environment effective, generate more innovation, create job satisfaction, and avoid costly mistakes, just by training in people skills. The return on investment is significant. When I train someone to be a Facilitator or Collaborative Leader, the cost of their training is returned, with additional profit, from the first workshop they facilitate or the first meeting they lead. Add to that, the higher quality of decisions or outcomes – it’s been proven that well facilitated or well lead collaborative decisions and outcomes are far better than those developed in a poorly led meeting or poorly facilitated workshop.

What Next?

The training needs to be taken seriously. It cannot be, “I learned on the job.” Stop putting people into leadership and facilitator roles without giving them effective training. You are demeaning the importance of proper training, wasting the organization’s money, and hurting the organization. Take proper training seriously – it needs to be structured to avoid a hit or miss inconsistent method that perpetuates mistakes. These people skills, properly taught, will help the organization thrive and grow. logo