Facilitation Principles That Help Everyone Do Their Best Thinking
I partnered with a client to design a focus group process that would bring community leaders together to shape a shared long-term vision. These sessions would be led by a team of volunteer facilitators. That meant the design work involved both structuring the conversations and preparing the facilitators to guide them.
Facilitation is both art and a science. It’s about creating the conditions where collective knowledge and wisdom can emerge while skillfully navigating the challenges that might get in the way of this. To support the facilitators in this work, I shared the following core facilitation principles:
Encourage Full Participation
Strong facilitation creates space for all voices while remaining neutral on content. Stay curious about each person's contributions and mirror their language when capturing ideas. A simple "thank you" after each comment shows you value their input. Trust the facilitation structure - it's designed to draw out diverse perspectives and give everyone multiple ways to contribute.*
Promote Mutual Understanding
Rich discussions happen when participants explore and build on one another's ideas. Use open-ended questions to deepen the conversation:
"Can you say more about that?"
"What does that word mean to you?"
"If we started that program, what milestone or outcome might we reach?"
Look for opportunities to connect ideas and experiences across the group:
"I'm hearing some similar themes here. How do you see these ideas relating?"
"Who else has encountered something similar?"
"What different perspectives do others have on this?"
Foster Shared Responsibility
The most powerful outcomes emerge when participants feel ownership of both the process and results. Create conditions where the group can do its best thinking:
Give space for reflection - silence allows people to process.
Welcome uncertainty and differing views - they often lead to deeper insights.
Return questions to the group rather than answering them yourself.
Remember that people support what they help create.
You can apply these same facilitation principles in any setting where people are coming together to make sense of a situation, work more cohesively together, and generate new understanding or ideas. When using these principles as guides, facilitators can support everyone in the group to do their best thinking, both individually and collectively.
* Note: The focus group design included several features that encouraged full participation. One key feature was use of the 1-2-4-All Liberatory Structure, a simple process that encourages broad engagement, contribution, and idea-sharing. You can learn more about it here (link).
