The untapped potential of the facilitator

An ordinary day-in-the-life of a Danish organization: 

The HR manager, Henrik (Let's call him that), says to his co-worker Mikkel:

”We have an extremely important decision-making meeting in an hour. Can you facilitate the participants, so we reach the right decision by the end of this short meeting?”
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Mikkel fumbles for the right facial expression, ending up somewhere between a smile and a hidden worry, because he genuinely wants to help Henrik. But which approach should he use? And what if the participants can’t agree along the way? Mikkel can feel a bit of sweat forming on his brow.
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For most people, Mikkel's assignment sounds familiar, and for many, it is also a part of their everyday work life.

I see far too often that the skill of facilitation, just like in Mikkel’s case, is taken for granted in organizations. It ends up on the same shelf of expectations as the ability to pick up printer paper or turning on the meeting room screen.

Facilitation skills are not innate

Companies across the country invest large sums in further education and upskilling of their employees. Let’s be honest: in HR departments, this often translates into courses in project management, sales, or people management.
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To put it bluntly, facilitation is often treated as something that simply “happens.” If you can write an email, surely you can run a workshop, right?
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At a minimum, these training programs should include elements focusing on facilitation as a competence — not just as an expectation that facilitation is innately present or automatically becomes fully developed if you attend a 7-day leadership course (which, by the way, may not have mentioned facilitation even once when you signed up).
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I see far too often that facilitation skills, as in Mikkel’s case, are taken for granted and therefore end up on the same shelf of expectations as being able to pick up printer paper or turning on the screen in the meeting room.

The widespread assumption that employees—regardless of their (often very long) job titles—naturally possess the ability to facilitate, and therefore don’t need to train or maintain this skill throughout their careers, needs to be challenged if we want more effective meetings and workshops, better and more carefully considered decisions, and genuine value creation from the thousands of hours we collectively spend in meeting rooms every year.

Or to put it another way:

Our inability to hold effective and fruitful meetings and workshops costs organizations dearly every single day, both in Denmark and internationally!

Imagine, if facilitation made it into HR's training catalog

Let’s start a thought experiment:

What if facilitation was added to HR’s training catalog on equal footing with project management, sales, and leadership development? Then we could move from viewing facilitation as an innate, “nice-to-have” skill that everyone is just assumed to possess, to seeing it as an essential competence.

A competence that could elevate collaboration and strengthen our ability to create workplaces where meetings and workshops deliver real value for participants—because a skilled facilitator has the right approaches and tools to handle everything from impromptu gatherings to planned meetings.

For the skilled facilitator, the right approaches might, for example, be to:

• Help meeting participants maintain focus, ensure discussions stay constructive, and see that decisions are made quickly and clearly
• Play a key role in navigating complexity, helping to break down silos, and creating better results
• Help leverage and highlight different perspectives so decisions are well-considered rather than based on assumptions
• Reduce wasted time and ensure meeting time is used productively
• Involve all participants actively in the process, increasing engagement and fostering ownership

Imagine if Mikkel had access to a real toolbox and didn’t have to resort to the classic nod-and-say-”Let’s park that for now.”

Back to reality (and the missing of skills)

Mikkel is about to start the decision-making meeting Henrik requested. He steps briefly into the spotlight, which turns out to be the bright, slightly flickering projector light in the room.
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At least the meeting has begun, and it quickly becomes clear to several participants that Gitte from Team Alpha has a strong, dominating opinion about which decision is best. Mikkel barely makes it past slide three on the agenda before Gitte has set her own agenda for the meeting.

Mikkel is unsure how to highlight other perspectives and rein in Gitte so they can reach a collective decision. The sweat appears on his brow once again.

Imagine if Mikkel had access to a real toolbow and didn't have to resort to the classic nod-and-say "Let's park that for now." 

A good facilitator would be aware of Gitte’s influence and actively give each participant the opportunity to share their perspective—ensuring a more carefully considered decision because all viewpoints have been thoroughly evaluated along the way.

So let’s upgrade facilitation together—from an implicit expectation to a strategic priority. It’s an investment that pays off – in time, results, and employee satisfaction.

Facilitation as a strategic priority

If we give employees like Mikkel the chance to develop and maintain their facilitation skills, I’m confident you won’t regret it. Facilitation skills are critical for your organization because they involve much more than just steering a conversation and pressing the right arrow key in a PowerPoint presentation.

It’s about creating the right environment where employees and participants can collaborate more effectively, exchange ideas, and arrive at decisions that provide value for both themselves and the organization they’re part of.

So let's upgrade facilitation together – from an implicit expectation to a strategic priority. It’s an investment that will pays off —in time, results, and employee satisfaction.

Are you ready to take the leap and invest in facilitation as a core competence? Or, put another way: Can you really afford not to?

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