Oh how happy I was to come upon this on Sandy Schuman’s blog. I have long struggled with the perspective that facilitation must/should be neutral. I struggle with the fact that it is HARD as a human being to be neutral. In fact, I can’t pin down the range of practices required to be and stay neutral, especially when facilitating. Neutrality has long been preached by the International Association of Facilitators.
I came to the conclusion then, that I was either a bad or a renegade facilitator. For me, it was about being AWARE of my influence, power, position and opinions and not letting them distract me from serving the group. And at times, yes, using my opinion, with clarity and transparency (I call it “taking off my facilitator hat and putting on my citizen/subject matter expert/Nancy hat!) Take a look…
And thanks, Sandy. I knew I have been right to admire and learn from you all these years!
via IAFNA2012 Fast Talk Sandy Schuman Facilitators should not be Neutral.mov – YouTube.
At last … I have been saying for years that Facilitators are not and cannot be truly neutral. Brilliant!
I know that facilitators generally bring an opinion to the conversation. However, being so influential brings conflict and misdirection. I see this as being the challenge more for the student rather than the facilitator. Having the audacity to use your personal choice to gain and utilize the knowledge for their own gain and not to simply satisfy the course demands.