Dynamic Facilitation

This approach to facilitation has been taught by Jim Rough and Associates, Inc. since 1990. There are numerous training sessions available through this consulting firm; however, a detailed explanation of the approach is available on their website (click here for access).

In Dynamic Facilitation, rather than seeking to manage change, the facilitator elicits, sustains, and enhances the self-organising dynamic of change. He or she helps people to figure out what they want and to get it themselves.

The Dynamic Facilitator works more completely with self-organising change than the traditional facilitator. The traditional facilitator elicits self-organising change in the realm of what people think, talk and decide about, but uses the methods of control to manage how they think, talk and decide. For instance, they are oriented to breaking big problems into smaller ones, following an agenda or logical steps, and tracking progress toward predetermined goals. It is an approach that potentially minimises what might go wrong.

The Dynamic Facilitator attempts to assure a self-organising dynamic both in what people talk about and how they talk. He or she follows group energy as being more important than any preset agenda, expecting progress to happen in "shifts" of insight, feeling and awareness. This often leads to a creative thinking process known as "choice-creating" instead of "decision-making." This approach maximises what might go right instead of minimising what might go wrong.

(Click here for a chart comparing traditional and Dynamic Facilitation.)