Facilitation is a discussion method that aims to bring collective knowledge together. Rather than styles of discourse characteristic of teaching, leadership, or debate, all of which are more individualistic and based on a single main “knower,” facilitation looks to “grease the wheels” of everyone else’s knowledge. Facilitation addresses how different people in the room are more or less likely to speak, be heard, or be interrupted, and works to address those disparities. Facilitation is not intuitive. It’s a skill, and it has to be trained. We highly recommend that lab PIs take formal facilitation training.
Here are two excellent resources on how to do facilitation:
* Aorta Collective Anti-Oppressive Facilitation Guide (Creative Commons license) archive 
* USAID Facilitation Skills Training Manual pdf
One of the simple facilitation techniques we use every meeting is a round robin. We go around to everyone at the table, in order, and they have a chance to speak or weigh in on the topic. Anyone can “pass” and choose not to speak, but it also means the junior researchers, introverts, women, people of colour, new recruits, and others that may not otherwise speak have a chance to share their insights. We often do one of these at the end of the meeting to see how everyone is doing/what their main take away was. (Note: This is not a talking circle, which is a specific and sacred healing ceremony. This is just taking turns.)
# See also
What Is Facilitation, Anyway?
Facilitation ensures that the group is empowered as a whole. Effective facilitation: * Ensures that everyone gets to participate and share ideas in a meeting, not just those who feel most comfortable speaking up and making cases for their ideas or proposals. * Helps prevent or interrupt any (conscious or unconscious) attempts by individuals or groups to overpower the group as a whole. * Mitigates and interrupts social power dynamics. Points out and addresses discrepancies in who is talking/whose voices are being heard. * Helps the group come to the decisions that are best for the organization/whole group. Helps people keep an eye on what’s best for the group, rather than their personal preference. * Ensures the group follows it’s own agreed-upon process and meeting agreements.
The facilitator keeps an eye on time, and juggles it with the (ever present) need for more time.
* Offers periodic time checks where needed. * Helps keep the group conversation on topic and relevant. Prevents ramblings and tangents. * Makes process suggestions to help the group along. * Summarizes discussion, synthesizes people’s comments when helpful, and notes key areas of agreement, to help move the group forward.
Some things facilitators don’t do:
* Dominate the speaking space. * Comment on people’s ideas. * Let individuals take the group off-topic and off-task.
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YOUTUBE Livqp-_bNYM Facilitation
> What I wanted was some hands-on development experience.
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