10 Mitigating Facilitation Challenges

When Discussion is Not “Working”

 There are many reasons for discussion not flowing as smoothly as you hope. Try to identify reasons for the stalled conversation, while remaining calm and confident. Every group will have a different dynamic. One key to being a good facilitator is navigating these challenges as they arise and understanding that it is impossible to foresee and prevent all possible issues beforehand.

The following sections describe common challenges that we have experienced and tactics for addressing them if they arise. Additionally, the following general tactics may be useful when discussion isn’t going as planned. They are drawn from Facilitating Discussion and Engagement by Lauren Davidson and Noelle Lopez.

• Warm Call: Give one participant a heads up that you’ll be asking them to contribute or respond to a question in a little bit.
• Area Call: Call on an area of the room rather than a single person. You can also warm call an area. (For example, you could say, “PhD students,” or “science students,” according to your group’s make-up.)
• Freeze Frame: Pause the discussion and ask participants to reflect on what was just said or how the discussion has progressed thus far.

Issue: participants think there’s nothing new to discuss or it’s all already been covered

• This most commonly arises when participants are already familiar with the core issue in the scene or in latter sessions when hosting a series of sessions.
• Often participants are reducing the entire scene to one central, surface level issue despite each scene having a range of more subtle dynamics that can be explored.
  • For each scene we’ve provided a brief list of less obvious dynamics that you can draw attention to and discuss (e.g., a deeper dive into the EDI issues presented or less obvious power differences present)
  • Likewise, you can try complicating the scene by posing slight, hypothetical modifications.
  • You could also invite participants to pan out from the specific scene and inquire about broader causes for these issues.
• If participants are focusing exclusively on one character’s perspective, you may prompt them to consider the issue from another perspective in the scene or a hypothetical perspective.
  • Participants often forget about the staff role and perspective, especially in scenes that don’t explicitly depict staff. Raising questions related to what role staff could play in resolving or preventing issues depicted in the scene can prompt productive conversations.

Issue: participants address everything to the facilitator instead of each other

• This is normal and fine at the beginning, but we want to move towards participant discussion interconnected with each other after the warmup questions. This is especially important as it encourages a deeper discussion rather than staying at a more superficial level.
• Try to model a communication style that builds on or connects participant comments from the beginning.
• You might explicitly ask participants what they think of someone’s comment or ask a participant to discuss how their comment connects to a point raised earlier.
• It’s important to also be comfortable with silence as a facilitator. These questions are designed to prompt reflection in participants, and they may need a minute to think through their response before speaking.
• If none of the participants are following up on a comment, it’s easy to reply with your own response. Instead, try acknowledging the comment as a good point that we might need a minute to reflect on, then ask the group for their thoughts.

Issue: presumption that it would be a standard training session

• The best way to avoid this issue is to ensure that expectations and session goals are clearly and explicitly communicated to participants when they sign up for the session and at the start of the session.
• Emphasize that there are no universal solutions for these issues and trying to apply a universal solution often leads to worse outcomes.
• Instead, sessions are designed to give participants skills to navigate these issues in a way that is sensitive to the particular context in which they arise.

Issue: participants unsure what I’m getting out of this

• In some cases, this arises as a result of the previous issue: the presumption that the session would be a standard training session.
• In other cases, this may arise when a substantial portion of the participants have extensive lived experience of the issues portrayed.
  • Acknowledge the expertise that already exists in the room but ensure that participants with lived experience don’t feel obligated to share their personal experiences or educate other participants.
  • It may help to draw the discussion to a different dynamic in the scene or to step back from the specific scene and discuss these issues at a broader level.

Issue: stark difference between participant knowledge of these issues or relevant lived experience

• Similar to the previous issue, acknowledge the depth of knowledge that exists already.
• Encourage participants to continue discussing the issues through the lens of the scene and characters in the scene. Rather than trying to imply that their experiences aren’t relevant or valuable, make it clear that we encourage them to do so to avoid them feeling as if they need to disclose their own personal experiences. Likewise, it is impossible to foresee how personal disclosures may impact the way others view and interact with the participant making the disclosure, especially given that those impacts may be subtle or unconscious.
• Consider asking participants how extensive their experience with these issues is when they sign up for a session or at the start of the session. It may be worth using this information to shape the small group composition.

Issue: over disclosure of personal details or experiences from one participant

• It’s important to address this early as it often has a snowballing effect and may make other participants feel pressured into sharing their own experiences as well.
• Remind participants to discuss the issues through the lens of the scene and characters or hypotheticals instead. Assure the participants that we don’t mean to imply that their experiences are not valuable or important.
• It may also be helpful to shift the discussion away from the specific scene or individual experiences to a broader discussion of the relevant issues.

Issue: participants may come to feel helpless or that there’s nothing to be done if these issues are so widespread and caused by systemic factors

One goal of emphasizing the systemic factors that contribute to these issues is precisely to shift the blame for the issues they may be experiencing away from individuals. Likewise, the impetus for solving these issues do not come down to the actions of a single individual.

• Emphasize that individual participants shouldn’t feel as if they are responsible for solving entire system-level issues to have a positive, meaningful impact.
• Brainstorm small, microlevel actions that participants can focus on that are still impactful and can help shift the relevant dynamics and culture.