A group is more than individual people working together.
When people come together in a group they unconsciously adopt patterns of behaviour and thinking that become the ways in which ‘this group’ behaves or thinks. Anzieu (1984) suggested that this ‘group illusion’ helps individuals within the group to feel safe. Ringer (2002, p.146) maintained that not “everyone in the whole group is expected to be thinking or feeling the same… I am convinced that there are other phenomena that occur in groups that can only be explained by a group-level analysis. These group level phenomena all involve unconscious communication of issues and concerns that form patterns in the group-as-a-whole”.
In my own facilitation, I ‘choreograph’ the group process by thinking of the group as a single entity. I see the group as a mass, as a block.
At the same time, an individual can change my perception of the whole group. For example, when I go into a group expecting to play a game that requires people to stand and move around, there is someone in a wheel chair or who obviously has a physical disability, in that moment I have to say “I can’t play that game”. In that case, that individual has changed the mental construction of the whole group. I don’t for a minute say “that person can sit out” because that defeats the whole purpose. The mental construction of the group is changed by that one person.
Participants in a group act as individuals, not only as members of a group. Facilitators use a plethora of techniques or processes
- to establish trust
- to engage participants
- to support people to monitor their impact on the group
- to help people to feel less defensive
- to manage differences
- to deal with conflict
- to explore fears and resistance
- to manage challenges and confusion
- to manage intense emotion
- to end a session
- to terminate a group and
- to assess outcomes.
Please see the table below for some ideas.
Facilitators make choices about how they relate to a group and respond to individuals in the group and constantly make choices through the whole process. The process is never a template. Every single group is different, and every process is different.
Cofacilitators, like facilitators, need to manage individuals and the group.
Sometimes the techniques and processes used with a group are enhanced by the presence of a skilled peer who can complete sentences, paraphrase, refocus and reinforce key ideas.
Cofacilitation can allow facilitators to model appropriate behaviour, role play situations and share different experiences. Two or more facilitators working from agreement, using positive language, disagreeing agreeably, providing different perspectives to an issue and clearly affirming one another helped the group and its members ‘live’ the messages of active participation and democratic processes. Cofacilitation also encourages the use of inclusive language, with more awareness of the ‘we’ in all activities.
The differences between co-facilitators, including their gender, ethnic background, style, experience with a group and knowledge of facilitation techniques and skills in supporting the group illusion and the individual within the group can offer more opportunities to the group and to the co-facilitators. You bring ‘more to the table’.
Cofacilitators can provide different interpretations and perspectives to that the content of the material connects with the group and individuals understand it.
And having focuses on the group as a whole as well as individuals within it, enables better reflection and evaluation of the effectiveness of the process and the utility of outcomes.
Facilitating Conversations 