Facilitation is one of those skills that only recently has been available as something to learn in a course or workshop.   It used to be something you volunteered to do once, when it seemed you might be helpful to another organization.  Then you got a reputation for being a good facilitator.  And then, you could get paid to be a facilitator. In fact, you can get paid big bucks if people think you're a good facilitator.

I've been fortunate to be one of those people who became a highly-paid facilitator, without it ever being a goal, much less the subject of formal training or professional certification.  Except that, in my experience, nothing is harder than facilitating meetings.  Particularly since organizations don't hire outside facilitators unless they anticipate difficulty in achieving consensus or some broad agreement that can serve as the basis for future action.  In other words, the odds are stacked against success once an outside facilitator is hired. 

Today, I facilitated the second part of a process that started last February, for a municipal non-profit housing corporation.  Faced with the possiblity of reinvesting some money available now that mortgages are finally paid off, the organization knew it had to make some decisions to figure out which of many priorities could and should be met with the funds that are becoming available.  And they knew that the board and the senior staff had competing and numerous agenda items on which money could legitimately be spent.  So, bring in the outside facilitator: that way everyone involved can be vocal about their favourite project. And, at the end of the day (or two days, in this case, spread over six months), the senior staff was to be given direction by the board on how to spend this money.

It's a pleasant and unusual situation: a public organization with money to spend. Like many public organizations, this one had cut its staff, cut its spending, and trimmed more than fat in its lean years.  And now, there is a chance to reinstate some of what was cut, or to meet needs instead of assuming they're unmeetable.   A pleasant challenge, but not an easy one, for the staff and board members, and for this paid facilitator.

We left loose ends; we narrowed the choices; we found the points of consensus, and the points of dissension.  It was a success, by almost any standard. And I'll invoice for big bucks.  But I'm tired.  I'm cranky.  I'm reminded of why I charge the big bucks, and why I try to do this no more than once a month.  And now, I'm going to bed.

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