Facilitated Conversations

fa·cil·i·tate: make (an action or process) easy or easier, help bring about

In this context, facilitation refers to helping people work through a process that will bring about their goals for an important conversation. This may apply to an important conversation between two people, a group/family conversation, a planning/strategizing meeting, an annual general meeting, town hall, or neighbourhood discussions. Any situation where a conversation needs to happen, and it would be helpful to have a skilled person from outside of the situation help to guide the process. With a skilled facilitator guiding your conversation, the people involved can focus their attention on their own contribution without worrying about “how it’s going”.

Facilitation Is…

• Helping you towards your own goals
• Identifying what’s getting in the way
• Implementing a productive structure
• Ensuring all voices are heard
• Noticing themes and values
• Focussing the discussion
• Checking for relevance of topic
• Helping you decide what you need to discuss
• Watching the time
• Confidential

Facilitation Is Not…

• Making decisions for you
• Taking sides
• Approving or disapproving your ideas
• Being a “referee”
• Providing motivation

Faciliation Requires

Confidentiality

The details which are shared in facilitation are confidential except when disclosure is required by law. For instance, the law states that everyone has a duty to report a reason to believe that a child is in need of protection as defined by the Child, Family and Community Service Act. For a full description of the scope of confidentiality, refer to Mediate BC’s Standards of Conduct. 

Cooperation

You want to work together with the other people in your situation towards your common goals. Even if the first step may be deciding what your common goals are, you want the involvement and cooperation of all participants. It’s important to you that you do this together.

Participation

All of the people in your group are important, and the input of all of you is important. The way you each see the situation matters for your conversation and decision-making. Each person needs to be free and willing to express their perspective and concerns as you work together towards your goals.

Good Faith

You each come to the discussion being transparent about your intentions. You are not holding any thoughts, preferences or intentions back, as this could undermine the integrity of the final outcome of the conversation.

Safety

Sharing your honest thoughts and feelings needs to be safe from coercion and manipulation, without repercussions of backlash outside of the facilitated environment. If there are concerns about this dynamic in your situation, be sure to discuss those with me before beginning any facilitation process.

The Process

Make contact

Reach out to me through this website, your own email account, or by phone. We’ll chat for a few minutes to get a good sense of whether facilitation is a good fit for your particular situation. There is no charge for this initial conversation.

Planning Session

In preparation for your facilitated conversation, there will be an initial meeting to map out the scope of your discussion. Once the focus, goals and time frame have been decided on, a contract for facilitation services will be signed. This contract also addresses payment of fees.

Facilitation

Those involved in the discussion meet together with the facilitator at an appointed time and place for a set duration of time to work through the process the facilitator has engineered specifically for your situation. If the time frame initially decided on is not adequate, more time can be discussed at the end of the session.

Fees

$125 per hour spent working directly with clients.