What we are facilitating is a person's connection to the group, to the space, and to the project. We're also facilitating a person's connection to the ideas in their own bodies, and what it feels like to be welcome in a space as a thinker, as a be-er, as a knower, as a meaning maker. Facilitation is what completely shapes a person's experience in the project. 

— Eve Tuck

When thinking about the role and responsibilities of facilitators, we encourage you to think about the following principles and practices. These emerged through the work in the Tkaronto CIRCLE Lab when we reflected on our values and the principles that shape our facilitation practices.  

Facilitation Principles & Practices

• Be as Consistent as Possible

  • When we say something is going to happen, we do our best to ensure it happens. For example, if it’s said that we will return to a conversation or activity in the following session, plan to do so.

  • As co-facilitators, do not interrupt one another and try not to contradict one another. Contradiction creates confusion.

  • If you are the lead facilitator, it's fine to interrupt yourself in order to check in with other people to get some support about which direction to go in a given moment or to narrate a necessary shift or adjustment from the session plan. If you are constantly pausing to check-in, however, it may be distracting for the group or can feel like you're reluctant to make decisions on your own.

• Offer Clear Instructions & Pay Attention to Energy

  • Ensure the instructions you're offering as a facilitator are clear. Clarity of instruction is a learned skill and an important one. Facilitators should have a sense of what participants should be doing and the steps it will take for them to do it.

  • Ask participants to respond in ways that show they understand your instructions. You can ask them to repeat instructions in different ways, or to tell you what they heard you say. Check in during activities to see if clarification is needed

  • Pay attention to the energy around certain activities and discussions. This will require being flexible and making decisions about what parts can be moved through more quickly and what parts would benefit from more time and reflection.

• Allow Space for Silence & Assess What That Silence Means 

  • Give participants time to think, and don’t move quickly to the next thing to avoid silence. 

  • If it’s unclear to you what the silence means, facilitators can ask participants if their silence is due to a lack of clarity around what is being asked or if they are thinking. Both are learning processes. 

  • Assure participants that it’s okay to think quietly.

  • This might sound like: “it's okay if it's quiet for a little while, as you're thinking about this. I'm totally comfortable with having stretches of silence. I know that you're thinking so let's just try this on.”

• Co-Facilitating is an Active & Supportive Role

  • Part of agreeing to be a co-facilitator in a session is agreeing to help show what it looks like to be present. The focus always needs to be on what is happening with the facilitation. Pay close attention and be responsive to one another.

  • Be flexible to plans shifting. Trust one another well enough to go with the new flow and, if necessary, wait for a transition time to ask about the new plan, eg. when people are going into small groups.

  • Co-facilitators often keep track of things in the activity so the lead facilitator of any given activity can be present and focused on facilitating, eg. co-facilitators can be taking notes or changing slides, etc.

• Facilitation is a Practice & Does Not Have to be Perfect 

  • Facilitation is a skill that is learned; a deliberate practice done with intention. It improves with time and repeated experience. The more facilitation you do, the more you’ll develop a sense of how to make on-the-spot decisions, how to offer instruction, and how to gauge clarity from co-facilitators and participants.

  • It’s okay to show the seams of your facilitation. You can narrate your decision making in real time and describe choices you are making as you facilitate. 

  • This might sound like: “I'm looking at the time and thinking about whether we should stay with this a little bit longer and try to do what we had planned next time. Yes, let's stay with this a little bit longer, because it seems like people are really into it, and we'll do this other piece of it at another time.” (and then make sure to do that piece another time)

  • It’s always okay to have notes to guide your facilitation. Facilitators do not need to memorize what they want to say.

• Create a Welcoming Space & Actively Work Against Harm

  • Facilitation is a practice of care. From start to finish, the facilitator and co-facilitators’ work is to help people feel welcome and help them feel like it's a place where they can fully participate and all of their thoughts are welcome.

  • It’s the role of the facilitator to create a space that works against harm. When a person says something that is racist, homophobic, fatphobic, or harmful in some way, it is important to address it right as it happens. If the main facilitator does not do so, it is acceptable for a co-facilitator to interrupt to do so. 

    This might sound like: “I want to stop and remind everybody that this kind of body is totally fine and welcome.”; or “I'm going to remind you that there's lots of queer people here, and we're not gonna speak in that way.” 

  • Emphasize we are in a learning space where participants are encouraged to share ideas in process and to try on new ideas. Cue to participants that they don’t need to have perfect responses in activities or discussions. 

    This might sound like: “Let's see how many ideas we can generate. Let’s just get as many words/ideas up here in front of us as possible.”

  • We rarely ask participants to speak to something they’ve had a chance to think all the way through. We're asking for initial responses. Use words that remind people that we're not seeking perfection, but lots of perspectives. This can also mean letting people know that it’s okay if the conversation changes their first thoughts.

    This might also sound like: “Who wants to be courageous and get us started?”; “Who is ready to think out loud about this?”; or “This might not be something you’ve thought about before and that’s okay. Let’s try thinking about it together out loud.” 

• Discourage “Devil’s Advocate”

  • One key practice in facilitating a youth project is to take away the energy of offering 'devil's advocate' perspectives or contradictory opinions that are raised just to trouble conversations, provoke debate, or test the strength of arguments. Focus your time and energy on the things you care about. Everyone is welcome to speak from a viewpoint they truly believe in, but to raise criticism simply to offer "the other side" is often unproductive.