We have been getting a lot of questions about facilitation. In this blog, which is the second in a series on facilitation, we discuss how to find and work with a Big-F facilitator. In future blogs, we’ll provide insight into how to become a facilitator, showcase lessons learned from our facilitation efforts, and address other common questions we get related to facilitation.
Are you looking for a small-f facilitator or a Big-F facilitator?
Before you start working with a facilitator, it’s important to first get clear about whether you need a “small-f facilitator” or a “Big-F facilitator.”
As we describe in more depth in our prior blog “What is a facilitator and what do they do?”:
- A small-f facilitator is someone who helps meetings and group work be more efficient and effective. This includes things such as developing work plans, creating meeting agendas, establishing a clear code of conduct for the group, and delineating roles and responsibilities among individuals.
- A Big-F facilitator is a professional, third-party collaborative process designer. The role of a Big-F facilitator is to design and facilitate a process that helps involved parties productively work through conflict to create mutual gains outcomes. In addition to having all of the skills and responsibilities of a small-f facilitator, a Big-F facilitator also needs to have expertise in situation assessment, conflict resolution, interest-based negotiation, consensus building, and mediation.
Both types of facilitation are important, but they serve different purposes. Before you start looking for a facilitator, you want to be clear about what kind of facilitation support you need.
Since our area of expertise is in Big-F facilitation, and the questions we get are typically about Big-F facilitation, here’s some guidance for how to find and work with a Big-F facilitator.
What to keep in mind if you’re interested in working with a Big-F facilitator
A Big-F facilitator’s job is to design and facilitate a process that helps parties work through their conflict to create mutual gains outcomes. In order to do this effectively, the Big-F facilitator needs to be involved and to guide the process from the very beginning. Therefore, if you are going to work with a Big-F facilitator, it is important to bring this person onboard early in the process—before you convene parties or even decide who needs to be involved. One of the main issues we run into with conveners is they reach out to us right before their first big meeting, or midway through a process, which is not a recipe for success.
A Big-F facilitator will want to start the process by conducting a situation assessment to explore whether the situation is ripe for collaboration and, if it is, to inform the design of the collaborative process (including who needs to be involved and how). A situation assessment is a recommended best practice first step in exploring the potential for collaborative solutions to an issue of mutual concern—i.e., a shared problem, challenge, or opportunity. Assessments typically consist of background research and in-depth confidential interviews with a diverse range of key stakeholders. Depending on the complexity of the situation, an assessment may take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, and depending on the type and expertise of the organization conducting the situation assessment, it may cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to upwards of $20,000.
While this may seem like a big up front cost, it is well worth it to ensure that the process is set up for success and to avoid wasting time, energy, resources, and political capital on an ineffective process. Situation assessments are the epitome of “go slow to go fast”—through making the up-front investment in an assessment, you can ensure collaborative efforts are efficient and effective, and you save yourself money, time, and headaches down the line.
When we take on collaborative process design work, we scope the situation assessment as an independent first phase of work for a few reasons. First, the scope of all future phases of work (and related costs and timelines) depends on the outcomes of the situation assessment. Additionally, sometimes the situation assessment indicates that the situation isn’t ready for a collaborative solution, or that something else is needed (such as getting clarity on legal concerns or trust-building with certain parties) before a collaborative process is likely to be effective. The whole idea of a situation assessment is to understand what the situation needs so that interventions can be set up for success. Therefore, we strongly encourage anyone hiring a Big-F facilitator to set up their scopes of work and contracts to allow the findings of the situation assessment to inform the scope of work for the rest of the project.
We also recommend creating a partnership agreement with your facilitator that clearly lays out expectations, including roles and responsibilities and who will do what and when. In our partnership agreements, we make clear what support we need from conveners—e.g.., working with us to make sure the purpose and goals for the project are clear and agreed upon, providing contact information for situation assessment interviewees, encouraging interviewees to participate in interviews, encouraging people to attend meetings, and providing food for meetings. We also make clear what they can expect from us—e.g., we make the ultimate decisions about who needs to be interviewed for situation assessments, we will serve as an independent “mirror” on the situation (meaning they do not get to control what we include in our situation assessment report or how we design meetings, although we will consult with them to make sure we are setting things up for success). While we firmly believe conflict is an opportunity, we also know that confusion about roles and responsibilities is not productive conflict. It can be largely avoided by creating a clear partnership agreement and talking through concerns proactively.
In terms of finding the “right” Big-F facilitator for the job, we recommend asking potential facilitators about their approaches, techniques, and values, as well as what projects they have been involved with in the past, how those were structured, and how they went. It is also a good idea to talk to some of their prior clients and/or individuals who were involved in processes they facilitated. Not every Big-F facilitator has the right skills, temperament, or style for each job, and it is important to get a sense of the facilitator’s style, how they work, and whether they seem like a good fit for the project and situation.
How do you find a Big-F facilitator?
While there are many organizations and individuals that do small-f facilitation, there are not that many that do Big-F facilitation, especially not in the Mountain West.
The Wallace Stegner Center Environmental Dispute Resolution (EDR) program is one group that does Big-F facilitation work; we take on a few high-impact projects each year and provide collaboration assistance and advising.
To help you find a Big-F facilitator, here is a list of some other groups and organizations that do this kind of work, particularly around environmental and public policy issues. A brief description of their work, pulled from their website, is included for reference.
Disclaimer: This list is not all-inclusive, and the information provided here is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an endorsement, recommendation, or guarantee of any specific organization, product, or service. If you have suggestions for additional organizations to include in this list, please contact us.
- The National Roster of Environmental Conflict Resolution Professionals: The National Roster of Environmental Conflict Resolution Professionals is a searchable database of over 300 experienced professionals who resolve environmental disputes and support collaborative solutions to complex public issues.
- University Network for Collaborative Governance: The University Network for Collaborative Governance (UNCG) is an association of academic collaborative centers across the country that provide resources within their respective states and regions. Some UNCG member organizations may also put together rosters of local facilitation service providers and make referrals based on your needs.
- The Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: The Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center (CPRC) supports the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulatory, enforcement, and voluntary programs by providing Environmental Collaboration and Conflict Resolution (ECCR) services to the entire agency.
- Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution of the Bureau of Land Management: The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution (CADR) program manages a facilitation roster with free services for BLM offices and regularly offers facilitation training and mentoring. Additionally, the program offers tools that the BLM and its numerous stakeholders can use to effectively prevent, manage or resolve conflict as they move forward together to manage public lands for multiple use and sustained yield.
- Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution of the U.S. Department of the Interior: The Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution (CADR) serves to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Department of the Interior’s operations, enhance communication, and strengthen relationships within the department and with all constituents. CADR is committed to building and modeling conflict management competencies and integrating the appropriate use of public participation, collaborative problem-solving and alternative dispute resolution processes in all areas of the department’s work.
- Consensus Building Institute: The Consensus Building Institute (CBI) is a nonprofit organization that provides facilitation, mediation, capacity building, citizen engagement, and organizational strategy assistance within and across organizations and stakeholder groups. They believe in giving voice to the ideas and values of people affected by difficult challenges, including those who are excluded from decision-making, in order to achieve wise, fair, and durable outcomes.
- CDR Associates: For over 40 years, CDR Associates has provided stakeholder engagement and facilitation on contentious projects around the world. They bring collaboration to projects in transportation, water resources, and land management.
- Triangle Associates: Triangle Associates provides neutral third-party facilitation and mediation support for decisions that involve hundreds of thousands of people across the western United States each year, and environmental education programs for tens of thousands of school age children and hundreds of schools. Triangle has provided mediation and facilitation on some of the largest built and natural environment decisions of the Pacific Northwest, and their mission is to foster equitable and informed environmental decision-making.
- Kearns and West: Kearns & West is a collaboration and strategic communications firm founded in 1984 that works at the local, regional, and national levels. Whether it is facilitating complex processes for public involvement, providing neutral conflict resolution services to chart viable solutions, or increasing visibility by strategically putting messages in context before the right audiences, Kearns & West offers expertise and a diverse toolset to help their clients achieve their goals.
- Keystone Policy Center: For nearly five decades, Keystone Policy Center has been at the forefront of collaborative policy development, facilitating dialogue and partnerships that drive impact. Their expertise involves policy development and strategic planning, public engagement and outreach, tribal consultations, coalitions and collaboratives, and leadership and capacity building.
- Meridian Consultants: Meridian Consultants is a recognized leader in community, environmental, and natural resource planning, known for its innovative approach to meeting the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). By continually pushing the boundaries of traditional planning, Meridian Consultants is focused on contributing to solutions to planning and environmental issues.
- Resolve: As an independent, nonpartisan, nongovernmental organization, Resolve’s mission is to forge sustainable solutions to critical social, health, and environmental challenges by creating innovative partnerships where they are least likely and most needed. They work with businesses, government, foundations, nongovernmental organizations, and community leaders across sectors, borders, and political lines.
- Southwest Decision Resources: Southwest Decision Resources believes in ongoing learning through collaboration. They work with partners to design ongoing collaboratives, coalitions and networks, collaborative governance structures, strategic plans, active working groups, and much more.
- The Langdon Group: The Langdon Group provides public involvement, facilitation, mediation, conflict management and strategic visioning for clients. They design and conduct processes to help their clients and their communities solve problems and implement solutions.
- International Association of Facilitators: The International Association of Facilitators (IAF) is a participatory organization with members in more than 65 countries that sets internationally accepted industry standards, provides accreditation, supports a community of practice, advocates and educates on the power of facilitation, and embraces the diversity of facilitators. They also have a Find an IAF Certified Professional Facilitator in North America database where you can browse through dozens of certified facilitators.
Another avenue to identify potential facilitators is through word of mouth. We encourage you to talk with people who have worked with Big-F facilitators to get their recommendations on who you might want to work with.
Want to know more about facilitation?
In future blogs, we’ll address additional aspects of facilitation, including how to become a facilitator and lessons we have learned through our Big-F facilitation efforts.
If you have questions about facilitation you would like us to address in future blogs, or are interested in facilitation training for yourself or your organization, contact us.
Danya Rumore, Ph.D., is the director of the Environmental Dispute Resolution program in the Wallace Stegner Center at the University of Utah. She is a research professor in the S.J. Quinney College of Law and a clinical associate professor in the city and metropolitan planning department at the University of Utah. She teaches about, practices, and conducts research on conflict, negotiation, dispute resolution, leadership, and collaborative problem solving. She is also the founder and a co-director of the Gateway and Natural Amenity Region (GNAR) Initiative.
Jordan Katcher, M.S., is the initiatives facilitator for the Environmental Dispute Resolution (EDR) program in the Wallace Stegner Center at the University of Utah. She supports various EDR [rogram activities and projects and leads many of the EDR program’s situation assessments. Jordan is also an adjunct instructor in the University of Utah’s city and metropolitan planning department.
About the EDR blog: Hosted by the Wallace Stegner Center’s Environmental Dispute Resolution (EDR) program, the EDR blog shares ideas, tools, and resources to cultivate a culture of collaboration and help readers be more skillful in working through conflict. Read additional blog posts at edrblog.org.