Remaining neutral describes the single most important trait of an effective facilitator.
As a YMCA-certified SCUBA diver, we heard “take only photographs and leave only bubbles.” Likewise, an effective facilitator should take only participant input and leave only a thorough trail of documentation and rationale. You will find this premise emphasized in the 27th verse of the Wisdom of the Tao written 2,500 years ago. While varying translations and transliterations exist, we’ve borrowed one version of the 27th verse below:
A knower of the truth
travels without leaving a trace,
speaks without causing harm,
gives without keeping an account.
The door that shuts, though having no lock,
will not open.
The knot he ties, though using no cord,
cannot be undone.
“Leave Only Bubbles”
Be wise and help all being impartially,
abandoning none.
Waste no opportunities.
This is called following the light.
What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher?
What is a bad man but a good man’s job?
If the teacher is not respected
and the student is not cared for,
confusion will arise, however clever one is.
This is the great secret.
The Role of Remaining a Neutral and Contextual Master
The role of facilitator is captured by both the knower and the teacher, of context. The shut door represents preventing scope creep. The tied knot represents connection and consensus. Meaning, not one’s “favorite” necessarily, but at a high enough standard that participants will support it professionally and not lose any sleep over it personally. Helping all suggests the innovative potential that exists by embracing heterogeneity. Wasting no opportunities implies thorough listening and documentation.
Above all, to be wise is to be impartial—this is the great secret.
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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities every day during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.
Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)
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Terrence Metz, MBA, CSM, CSPF, PSP01, HTTO1, is the Managing Director of MG RUSH Facilitation Leadership, Training, and Meeting Design, an acknowledged leader in structured facilitation training, and author of “Meetings That Get Results – A Facilitator’s Guide to Building Better Meetings.” His FAST Facilitation Best Practices blog features nearly 300 articles on facilitation skills and tools aimed at helping others lead meetings that produce clear and actionable results. His clients include Agilists, Scrum teams, program and project managers, senior officers, and the business analyst community among numerous private and public companies and global corporations. As an undergraduate of Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and an MBA graduate from NWU’s Kellogg School of Management, his professional experience has focused on process improvement and product development. He continually aspires to make it easier for others to succeed.
