Facilitating Breakthrough

1. Transformative facilitation breaks through constraints by cycling between vertical and horizontal approaches

Transformative facilitation cycles between two poles to get the best of both and avoid the worst.

Vertical vs. horizontal. Vertical facilitation focuses on the good of the whole group, relying on hierarchy and expertise to push change from the top down. It provides coordination and cohesion but can lead to rigidity and domination. Horizontal facilitation emphasizes individual autonomy and equality, allowing each participant to choose their own actions. This provides variety but can result in fragmentation and gridlock.

Cycling between approaches. Transformative facilitation transcends these limitations by cycling fluidly between vertical and horizontal moves. This allows groups to harness the strengths of both approaches while avoiding their downsides. The facilitator makes five pairs of moves:

• Advocating and inquiring
• Concluding and advancing
• Mapping and discovering
• Directing and accompanying
• Standing outside and inside

By cycling between these moves, the facilitator helps the group stay on a middle path that enables breakthrough and transformation.

2. Facilitators must pay attention and adapt to enable breakthrough

The facilitator knows what move to make next by paying attention.

Attentiveness is key. To cycle effectively between vertical and horizontal moves, facilitators must be fully present and attentive to what is happening in the group moment-to-moment. This requires overcoming both external distractions (e.g. phones) and internal ones (e.g. ego, insecurity). Facilitators must continually bring their attention back to the present, just as in meditation.

Five inner shifts. In addition to the outer moves, transformative facilitation involves five inner shifts that allow facilitators to cycle fluidly:

• Opening
• Discerning
• Adapting
• Serving
• Partnering

These shifts enable the facilitator to sense what move is needed next. With practice, master facilitators can make these shifts unconsciously and fluidly, like an experienced sailor adjusting to changing winds.

3. Removing obstacles to contribution, connection, and equity is key to transformative facilitation

Transformative facilitation enables progress by removing the obstacles to love, power, and justice.

Three key ingredients. Transformative facilitation focuses on removing obstacles to:

• Contribution - allowing all participants to offer their diverse ideas and resources
• Connection - enabling participants to build relationships and understanding across differences
• Equity - ensuring fair and inclusive participation

Creating breakthrough. By systematically removing structural obstacles to these three elements, transformative facilitation enables groups to break through from stuckness to flow. This allows them to collaborate effectively even across deep divides.

Examples of removing obstacles:

• Using rounds so all voices are heard
• Mixing up small groups to build new connections
• Creating ground rules for respectful dialogue
• Using physical and online spaces flexibly

4. Cycling between advocating and inquiring allows groups to see their situation clearly

The facilitator moves back and forth between advocating for a particular process—forthrightly presenting their perspective on what is happening in the group and what the group needs to do about this—and inquiring as to the perspectives of the participants on these matters.

Balancing perspectives. Advocating involves confidently putting forward one's view, while inquiring means openly exploring others' perspectives. Cycling between these allows groups to harness both expert knowledge and diverse viewpoints.

Opening up. The key inner shift is "opening" - being willing to consider multiple perspectives. Techniques for opening up include:

• Suspending judgment and "hanging" thoughts in front of oneself
• Redirecting attention to see from others' viewpoints
• Letting go of preconceived ideas to allow new insights to emerge

By cycling between advocating and inquiring, groups can develop a clearer, shared understanding of their situation and what needs to be done.

5. Balancing concluding and advancing helps groups define success and make progress

Sometimes, as in the Food Lab workshop, a group finds it more important to advance than to agree. Other times the opposite is true, and an agreement is needed.

Discerning timing. The key inner shift is discerning - knowing when to push for agreement and when to keep moving without full consensus. Effective facilitators sense when the group needs to slow down to align, and when forward momentum is more important.

Iterative process. Groups often cycle through:

1. Diverging - gathering diverse ideas and perspectives
2. Emerging - allowing new possibilities to arise
3. Converging - drawing conclusions and making agreements

This process repeats at different scales throughout a collaboration. By balancing concluding and advancing, groups can make steady progress while remaining open to new insights and possibilities.

6. Mapping and discovering enables groups to find their way forward

Walker, there is no path. The path is made by walking.

Adapting is crucial. The key inner shift is adapting - being willing to adjust plans based on what emerges. While planning is valuable, facilitators and groups must be ready to pivot when things unfold differently than expected.

Experimenting and learning. Effective progress often involves:

• Trying small experiments before big ones
• Getting rapid feedback and adjusting quickly
• Being willing to fail and learn
• Maintaining a playful, creative spirit

By cycling between mapping out plans and discovering through action, groups can navigate complex, unpredictable situations more effectively.

7. Directing and accompanying allows facilitators to coordinate group actions

A facilitator isn't only an earnest, energetic professional in a windowless conference room or in a window in a video conference. It isn't only someone who runs training or strategic planning exercises. It isn't only a referee or timekeeper. It is anyone who helps people work together to transform their situation.

Balancing coordination and autonomy. Directing involves providing clear guidance and structure, while accompanying means supporting participants as they take their own initiative. Cycling between these allows facilitators to enable coordinated action without stifling individual agency.

Serving is key. The inner shift of serving - focusing on genuinely supporting the group's work - allows facilitators to direct without dominating and accompany without abdicating responsibility. When participants trust the facilitator's intentions, they are more willing to follow direction or take initiative as needed.

8. Standing both outside and inside the situation enhances facilitator effectiveness

To emphasize the basics: transformative facilitation is facilitated by a facilitator.

Dual perspective. Standing outside allows facilitators to see the big picture objectively. Standing inside acknowledges their role in and responsibility for the situation. Cycling between these perspectives enhances understanding and influence.

Partnering as foundation. The key inner shift is partnering - seeing oneself as both apart from and a part of the group and situation. This allows facilitators to contribute their expertise while remaining open to learning from participants.

Benefits of this dual stance:

• Provides both distance and empathy
• Allows both analysis and engagement
• Enables both guidance and participation

9. Love, power, and justice are fundamental drives that transformative facilitation engages

Transformative facilitation enables the threefold transformative potential of love, power, and justice.

Three key drives. Transformative facilitation engages:

• Love - the drive toward unity and connection
• Power - the drive toward self-realization and contribution
• Justice - the structure enabling equitable love and power

Balancing all three. Effective facilitation requires engaging all of these drives in creative tension. Overemphasizing any one at the expense of the others limits transformation.

Creating a better world. By removing obstacles to love, power, and justice, transformative facilitation offers a way to escape imposition and fragmentation. It provides a path for diverse groups to move forward together, creating positive change in organizations and societies.

Last updated: April 25, 2025