Workplace Facilitation
There are occasions where the use of full Mediation may not be required. This is where Facilitation can help.
What is Facilitation?
Facilitation will assist those involved in identifying what the issues are and promote shared responsibility to identify inclusive solutions that have a strong basis for future action. Facilitation can be particularly helpful when dealing with problems between groups of people.
What is the Faciliator’s role?
The facilitator helps groups and organisations understand and acknowledge any disagreements that exist.
The facilitator achieves this by taking a non-judgemental approach, instead encouraging full participation of the group members in a non-blaming forward thinking environment. This makes it easier for the group to arrive at its own answers and decisions.
By enabling the group to develop their own solutions it is highly likely to achieve sustainable agreements.
In the event that consensus cannot be reached then the facilitator will assist the group in understanding the differences that divide them.
When can Facilitation be useful?
- Conflict is causing unproductive communications in a group environment
- Members of the group are unclear of what direction to take
- Divisions have formed about why the group was formed and what their group is there to do
- Difficult to make decisions and close debate
- Members losing commitment to the group
The above is not an exhaustive list if your uncertain of whether your case is suitable for facilitation, feel free to give us a call for a no-obligations chat.
Another use for Facilitation: Restoring effective working relationships
Facilitation can also be used to assist organisations and teams to restore effective communications following on from a breakdown in working relationships. This could be as a result of major change, untimely communication or perhaps the fallout from a subsequent bullying, harassment or discrimination case which was dealt with via other more formal dispute resolution methods e.g. in house investigations.
Generally the failure of such process is caused by the fact that the parties’ expectations of the outcome of an investigation are often not met. In many cases the issue that prompted the complaint still remains even after the investigation is finished.
In some instances the aftermath from a formal investigation has brought about further breakdown of working relationships between the main parties and often reluctant witnesses that have been drawn in as part of the investigation. This can leave parties angry, disappointed and deflated.
If you'd like to discuss your situation, or would like to find out more, please get in touch: