Maintaining neutrality when you’ve got skin in the game
One of the biggest questions I get asked in facilitation training is: How do I facilitate when I’ve got skin in the game?
The perceived wisdom is that facilitators should remain neutral. And there’s good reason for that. People need to trust the process, and they need to know that the facilitator isn’t quietly steering the group towards their own preferred outcome.
But in practice, many people need to be able to facilitate discussions in organisations and groups they’re part of.
For me, there’s a useful distinction between content neutrality and process neutrality. Being neutral doesn’t mean being passive about the process, power or participation. It means not steering the group towards the outcome you personally want.
Having facilitated in this way for years when I worked in-house these are my three top tips for facilitating when you have skin in the game:
Ask someone else to facilitate: Sometimes the focus of a meeting is too important to your work, or you have valuable expertise to contribute, and you need to be able to participate fully. If so, see if a colleague can facilitate so you can be fully present as a participant.
Brief someone else on your input: Sometimes you want your ideas to be part of the mix, but don’t need to participate fully, or it’s simply not possible for someone else to facilitate. In that case, brief a colleague and ask them to raise your points on your behalf.
Be clear when you change hats: Sometimes, for whatever reason, you need to contribute on the content. Be clear when you’re doing this. I often say, “I’m going to take my facilitator hat off for a moment”, make my contribution, and then put my facilitator hat back on.
When we’re working in campaigning and civil society, we’re often facilitating conversations about things we care deeply about. Pretending otherwise isn’t necessarily helpful. What matters is being intentional about where you are coming from, what role you are playing, and when those two things change. You can have skin in the game and still facilitate a good process. You just need to be honest with yourself, and with the group, about when you’re facilitating and when you’re participating.