How to Choose a Workshop Facilitator

You’ve got a big meeting or workshop coming up. The stakes are high. The issues are complex and emotionally charged. You know you need external expertise to help guide the conversation and navigate the complexities. But how do you find the right person to do it?

Five Tips for Choosing the Right Facilitator

1. Focus on your workshop’s purpose and objectives.

Stephen Covey’s quote, “begin with the end in mind,” applies perfectly well to workshop facilitation. Think about what you really want to get out of the meeting or workshop you’re planning. There are many reasons to hold a workshop or meeting. What’s yours?

• Do you want to create a specific output, like a strategic plan, new agreements for how to work together, or a modified organizational chart?
• Is there particular knowledge, information, or skills you and your colleagues want to learn?
• Are there conversations your colleagues need to have that they haven’t been able to have on their own?
• Do you need someone to guide a group through a formal agenda you have already prepared?
• Do you have an annual retreat on the calendar but don’t know yet how best to use that time?

People use the term “facilitator” to mean very different things. I wouldn’t actually use the term “facilitator” for everything on the list above. Some of these meetings might actually call for a “trainer” or a “master of ceremonies” rather than a true “facilitator.”

To me, “facilitating” means setting up and leading a process where participants can get into – and out of – complex, often fraught conversations that they have been unable to have on their own, with an output or outcome that moves the group forward in a meaningful way. There is both an art and a science to leading such conversations, but I know that that’s what I do best. If you can get clear on what role you’d like your “facilitator” to play, then you have a better chance of finding someone who plays that role best of all.

2. Don’t expect the facilitator to be an expert on what YOU do.

Many clients want to reduce their risk by finding a facilitator who is an expert in their industry or sector. They get referrals from other organizations in their field, and then they ask prospective facilitators questions like, “Can you tell us about a workshop you’ve facilitated for an organization just like ours?”

They probably believe that this approach reduces the chances of having a meeting go sideways because the facilitator can’t figure out what’s relevant and what isn’t. But I think this is a faulty approach, for a few reasons.

First, facilitation is an area of expertise in its own right. A facilitator has to know their own craft; they do not also need to know the client’s. I often joke that if I’m the biggest subject matter expert in the room on the client’s industry, then they’re in a lot of trouble! Certainly, I need to be conversant in the relevant terms and concepts, but I get up to speed on such things ahead of time. In many cases, this has more to do with organizational culture than with comprehension, since different groups use different terms for the same concepts – e.g., “clients” vs. “patients,” or “the unhoused” vs. “people experiencing homelessness.”

Most importantly, a facilitator who is an expert in your field can do more harm than good. What you need most from a facilitator is neutrality. The facilitator must guide the conversation through thorny territory without taking sides. If they worked previously in your industry or if they facilitate mainly for clients in your industry, then they may tend to push their own point of view at the expense of whatever makes the most sense for your group.

As an added benefit, a facilitator who works across many different industries and sectors can bring a broader awareness of trends and ideas that may prove relevant to the challenges that your group is facing.

3. Engage prospective facilitators immediately as partners in solving your problem.

In his business fable, Naked Consulting, Patrick Lencioni advises consultants to “always consult rather than sell,” meaning that a consultant should start consulting from the first contact with a client, even before getting a contract. If the client likes what they’re getting, they’ll sign a contract to get more of it.

In the same way, I advise clients to dive right in when they start talking to prospective facilitators. I’ve been “interviewed” for engagements where a panel of client staff peppers me with questions like, “Tell me about a time when…” But questions like that won’t yield as much information and insight as questions like, “Here’s what’s going on; how can you help us?”

I wrote above that you should “begin with the end in mind,” and you should definitely reach some clarity on the role you want your facilitator to play. But keep your vision for the meeting or workshop loose enough that the facilitator can add their expertise. This can help you achieve an outcome even better than what you had in mind. Begin this dialogue in your first conversations with prospective facilitators. Once you’ve heard how the candidates would approach your particular issues, you can decide which approach feels right to you.

4. Pay for value, not for time.

Many clients request detailed cost proposals from the facilitators they may want to hire. They probably see this as being responsible stewards of their organization’s money. They want to know how many hours the facilitator will spend preparing, facilitating, documenting, etc., and they want to know how much each hour costs.

As with many forms of knowledge work, this approach to pricing doesn’t make much sense for facilitation. My job as a facilitator is to help a group move through what may be an uncomforable experience – what Sam Kaner, in his handbook, Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, calls the “groan zone” – that part of a workshop when all the familiar solutions have been exhausted but creative new options have not yet come into view. The work required to get a group into and out of the “groan zone” cannot be measured in hours. My success in that endeavor hinges less on the number of hours I spend than it does, for example, on a particular insight I might have while driving home from a meeting with the client, or on a particular exercise I might remember – just at the exact moment I need it – from a book I read many years ago.

Don’t worry about calculating your facilitator’s per-hour cost. Don’t stay late at work to review their time sheets. Pay instead for value, and then expect it.

5. Focus on the “fit.”

Different facilitators excel in different situations and for different clients. There is no “one size fits all” option. For example, I know that I do my best work with clients who:

• Think strategically and enjoy exploring and applying complex ideas;
• Are comfortable taking risks when the situation calls for it;
• Are attuned to both the task-oriented and people-oriented aspects of the issue at hand;
• Know that there is no “how-to” guide to life and can tolerate the ambiguity and “not knowing” that is inherent in any meaningful change; and
• Have a gnarly problem that the team or organization they lead needs to solve.

Other facilitators may excel in formal meetings that follow detailed scripts prepared ahead of time and where everything goes according to plan. Still others may do their best work when leading teams through a particular process that they have invented or in which they are certified. These are all valid forms of facilitation that organizations need all the time. The key question for you is: Which facilitator is the best fit for you, for your team, and for your organization?