What is facilitation again?

I’m not a huge fan of definitions, I think we all carry different meanings and who is to say one is superior or more correct than another?  This was evident when I posted my latest definition (yeah, sometimes I fall into my own trap) of facilitation on the Facilitating With Confidence LinkedIn Group. It generated a lot of comments, which just goes to show that everyone has a different take.

I think having a shared understanding of what we mean is useful. I was once in a heated conversation with another journalist (way back when I was doing some journalism) about the merits of organic agriculture. Something didn’t quite make sense and I finally asked him what he understood organic agriculture to be. He was talking about what I understood to be biodynamic agriculture – a whole different, if somewhat related, beast. No wonder we were at loggerheads!

But really, this whole post is simply an excuse to share one of Hugh MacLeod’s cartoons. I admire the way cartoonists can cut through all the noise and nail it. Just change ‘business’ to ‘facilitation’. Hugh writes, in part:

“If I hear “Business is about relationships” one more time, I think I’m going to barf.

Then again, business IS all about relationships, barf or no barf.

And relationships are more powerful, when you think of them in terms of what you can do for other people, rather than vice versa. Most successful people i know seem far more concerned about the good they create for others, and how, than what the world can do for them.

That’s what this cartoon is about. What can YOU do about not only your journey, but the journeys of others.

The latter seems more interesting, somehow…