Episode 2 of the Resist + Renew podcast, where we get our nerd on with an overview of facilitation, and why it's important.

'There is no such thing as no design, just bad design. The same is true with facilitation' - Sami

Show notes, links

Other facilitation collectives:

Seeds for Change

Navigate

Tripod

Rhizome

Organising for Change

London Roots

Some facilitation resources:

Facilitation tools hand out

Online facilitation tips (R+R mutual aid session video)

Doing virtual trainings: top tips; a sample online meeting agenda

For the nerds who really want detail: a 50 page online facilitation guide; a 40 page general facilitation guide.

Transcript

Kat: This is Resist + Renew. A UK-based podcast about social movements.

Sami: What we're fighting for, why, and how it all happens.

Ali: The hosts of the show are:

Kat: Me Kat,

Sami: Me, Sami,

Ali: and me, Ali,

Sami: I'm recording this now baby

Ali: Shit it's a podcast.

*Laughter*

Sami: So welcome everybody to the toolbox. This is a podcast where we geek out about different tools in our facilitator toolbox, where they are, when they're useful, and their limitations. But today, for this first one, we are going to do something a little bit different. This chat may be slightly longer than the normal toolbox episodes, because we're not just going to talk about one specific tool, but we're going to talk about facilitation in general. Because this is a podcast about facilitation tools, so probably/ makes sense to start with what is facilitation? So who's going to start? Facilitation? What is it?

Ali: I can start us off. So I guess the first point is facilitation, mostly just about making it easy for a group to do whatever it's set out to do. Facilitation, if you like, etymology comes from the French word “facile”, which is like to make easy. So it's basically just like, a group has an idea of like, what it wants to do. And we're facilitators, like, sets out about making that possible. That's step number one.

What else is it?

Kat: I guess it's also about making space for participation, and thinking about what are the kinds of things we can do that ensure everybody who is in the meeting or in the workshop or in the group can participate as much as they want to. And so in order to do that, we want to think about a few different things. So taking some time at the beginning and throughout the meeting, to build trust, to make people feel safe enough that they can share what they need to share. And so this could include things like doing a go round, where we find out a little bit about each other. So we might share our name, our pronoun, maybe where we've travelled from, maybe how we're feeling that day, maybe something that's happened in our week. I've also been in meetings where people have been asked to share things about like the history of their name. So you get a bit more information about people than just an initial just name check. And can also be really useful to give clear instructions, and so that everybody in the session or in the meeting knows what's being asked of them. And when you have that clarity, it's a lot easier to contribute. And then also asking open ended questions. So a closed ended question would be something that has maybe a yes or no, or a very specific short answer, but an open ended question let’s people just share whatever it is that they want to share in response to that question. And that can be a really good way of getting people talking, especially people that might not talk very much at other times. What else is facilitation good for?

Sami: So I think, as a way of doing things, and what a facilitator will often try and do is make sure that meetings, workshops, etc, are engaging, and by mixing up different activities, and different ways of engaging with different parts of the meeting, or workshop or whatever. So that could be making sure there's different mediums media,