Co-facilitation helps facilitators to manage themselves

To facilitate, facilitators need to be able to manage themselves.

Facilitators need to be relatively mentally healthy so that they are clear as to who and where they are, able to differentiate between their own experience and someone else’s experience, manage strong emotions and hold themselves together in the face of disagreement and groups fragmenting. They need to be open to new ideas, advice, challenges and suggestions. They need to be optimistic, believing that solutions can and will be found. They need to use humour lightly, inclusively and carefully to ‘lubricate the group’s work’ rather than ‘clog the mechanism’ (Christine Hogan 2003, p.54).

Being ‘relatively healthy mentally’ and remaining optimistic are not simple processes. Facilitators are also human beings and have emotional landmines just like anybody else. Something that a participant might say can trigger something that can take a facilitator into a fragile state. Holding tension, supporting the group as they ‘groan’ together and finding a pathway through uncertainty and discomfort are personally and professionally difficult.

Co-facilitation can provide a safety mechanism for the co-facilitators and/or the group. A co-facilitator can step in if they see their co-facilitator experiencing emotional challenges. They can pull up their co-facilitator if they behave more emotionally or callously than they think is appropriate.

Co-facilitation can help facilitators learn to be self-aware, if they are open to new ideas, advice, challenges and suggestions.

Co-facilitators can help facilitators detach from the emotion of the group or the facilitated event through clear reflective practices, such as encouraging facilitators during or after a group session to write down what they saw going on in the group, what other people said, and what it meant to them.

Co-facilitation can support facilitators to analyse their situation and change pessimism to optimism.

Co-facilitation can also support facilitators when they are not feeling 100%.

Co-facilitators can share responsibility for the content and process, share good times and bad times, and have fun together.

Co-facilitation also carries additional weight. The presence of a skilled peer who requires empathy and honesty, shares responsibility for the group process and outcomes, and who may require support or confrontation, requires co-facilitators to manage themselves in relation to the group, but also to manage themselves in relation to another facilitator.

Co-facilitators need to be able to accept criticism, tolerate differences of opinion, and cope with someone else changing the direction of the group intervention.

Co-facilitators also need to consider the perspectives of their co-facilitator rather than acting unilaterally, finding ways of communicating with the other co-facilitator while at the same time meeting identified needs of the group.

What are your experiences of co-facilitation? Would you like to improve your co-facilitation skills? Call Marie to book a workshop or series of workshops to support you and your team to develop skills in co-facilitation. See brochure here.