What is Dynamic Facilitation?
Dynamic Facilitation is a natural way of facilitating that works well with people addressing difficult issues about which they care deeply. Rather than asking them to limit themselves — to hold back their emotions, to stay on the agenda, or to follow the process — the dynamic facilitator frames the conversation so that all comments are helpful and productive. He or she establishes a “zone” of thinking and talking known as “choice-creating,” where shifts, insights and breakthroughs are frequent. The process allows ordinary, untrained people to address difficult issues and reach consensus solutions that are better, faster and which have more support than traditional means of "consensus-building.".
Dynamic Facilitation works best when people care about the issue they are addressing. People pull together to overcome it in a way that is similar to what can happen in a crisis. "Choice-creating" is like a combination of dialogue and deliberation. It is transformational like dialogue, yet it also yields joint decisions like deliberation.
The dynamic facilitator starts by helping people determine an issue they really care about, whether it seems solvable or not. Then he or she helps them to say what is on their minds and hearts. To do this she uses four flip charts for creating lists of: Solutions, Problem-statements, Data, and Concerns. A fifth chart of Decisions is added as group conclusions emerge.
Sometimes the results take the form of new ideas; other times they bring a new sense of what the “real problem” is; and other times yet, there is a change of heart.
How is it different?
The best and fastest way for a group of people to solve a tough problem or to reach consensus is to have a breakthrough. When this happens, the results are exceptional and each person feels involved, knows what to do, and is committed to the group’s result. The process builds individual skills, empowerment, trust, and the spirit of community.
Most meeting facilitation processes limit this possibility. Traditional facilitation, for instance, asks people to work only on issues that are possible to solve or that are in their area of responsibility, to mute their passion in favor of rationality, to break big problems into smaller ones, and to proceed step by step down a logical path. It depends on extrinsic factors like goals, objectives, agendas, and guidelines of behavior to preserve order and make progress.
Dynamic Facilitation is more oriented toward intrinsic factors, like how much people care about the issue, or how excited they are about a particular idea. It proceeds dynamically, going with the flow rather than trying to manage group energy.
Dynamic Facilitation is well suited to the Wisdom Council where participants represent no one but themselves, where they care deeply about issues that may seem overwhelming, yet where conclusions are needed. It is the facilitator’s role to assure that each comment is heard and appreciated, that the group achieves the “zone of choice-creating" and that all feel involved in developing the results.
Resources on Dynamic Facilitation
• Dynamic Facilitation was developed by consultant Jim Rough in the early 1980’s, with mill workers in Northern California. Jim Rough and Associates, Inc., offers consulting for organizations and regular seminars in Dynamic Facilitation Skills.
•Dynamic Facilitation: Manual and Reader by Rosa Zubizarreta and Jim Rough is available through the Center for Wise Democracy.
•The Co-Intelligence Institute has a number of articles and comparisons to other methods. (See "Dynamic Facilitation" by Tom Atlee.)
•Introduction to Dynamic Facilitation by Rosa Zubizarreta.