Facilitation

When everyone is working hard, but not necessarily together

A principal investigator of a mid-sized lab told me: "I don't lead a team." They were right. And they were wrong.

Research groups are unusual teams. Most researchers are working towards a qualification, a publication record or their next position. Their contracts are often temporary and their individual goals matter enormously. Others provide continuity: technicians, research software engineers, lab managers, veterinarians and administrators may work alongside successive generations of researchers. And the PI carries responsibility for the scientific direction, funding and functioning of the group.

These people do not necessarily have the same goals or the same relationship to the group. Yet they depend on each other. They share knowledge, infrastructure and resources. They supervise and support each other, coordinate experiments and projects, make decisions and solve problems together.

A research group needs enough “team” to do its collective work well without pretending that everybody has the same goals.

What a facilitator does

Facilitation is the deliberate design of how a group works on something together.

As a facilitator, I take responsibility for the process so that you can concentrate on the substance. That might mean helping a group make sense of a complex situation, surface different perspectives, make decisions or establish how people want to work together.

I don't need to be the expert on the scientific question. The expertise is already in the room. My job is to create a process that allows you to use it well.

This includes paying attention to what can easily get lost in academic settings: differences in status and experience, disciplinary languages, competing priorities, unclear responsibilities and the fact that not everyone has the same stake in the outcome.

Your Situation

When facilitation can help

A new lab, research group, consortium or leadership constellation is forming. This is a good moment to clarify expectations, roles and ways of working before habits become entrenched.

  • Who decides what?

  • What does good supervision look like?

  • How will you communicate?

  • What do people need from each other to do their work well?

Start

Something significant has changed or is about to.

A group grows rapidly. A new leader arrives. Funding changes. Two groups need to work together. Conflict has become difficult to navigate. A major programme ends, or people need to prepare for a future that looks substantially different from the past.

Facilitation can help the group take stock of what is changing, identify what needs to be retained or done differently, clarify new roles and expectations, and agree on how to work together under the new conditions.

Change

Something significant has changed or is about to.

A group grows rapidly. A new leader arrives. Funding changes. Two groups need to work together. Conflict has become difficult to navigate. A major programme ends, or people need to prepare for a future that looks substantially different from the past.

Facilitation can help the group take stock of what is changing, identify what needs to be retained or done differently, clarify new roles and expectations, and agree on how to work together under the new conditions.

Change

Your group basically works, but some of its routines don't.

Meetings without a clear purpose accumulate in the calendar. Decisions are made but not understood in the same way. Responsibilities have evolved without ever being clarified. Always the same people get stuck with the invisible academic housekeeping chores and care work. Or the group has simply outgrown ways of working that once made sense.

Facilitation can help examine these patterns and develop more workable alternatives without turning ordinary organisational friction into a major “team problem”.

Work

Institutes, university self-governing bodies and task forces bring together people who need to develop a strategy, set priorities or translate an agreed plan into action.

Facilitation can help them examine the situation from different perspectives, develop and compare options, work through competing priorities and make choices.

When a strategy has already been agreed, it can help people connect it to their own work, identify dependencies across the organisation and decide what needs to happen next.

Strategy

Institutes, university self-governing bodies and task forces bring together people who need to develop a strategy, set priorities or translate an agreed plan into action.

Facilitation can help them examine the situation from different perspectives, develop and compare options, work through competing priorities and make choices.

When a strategy has already been agreed, it can help people connect it to their own work, identify dependencies across the organisation and decide what needs to happen next.

Strategy

A new lab, research group, consortium or leadership constellation is forming. This is a good moment to clarify expectations, roles and ways of working before habits become entrenched.

  • Who decides what?

  • What does good supervision look like?

  • How will you communicate?

  • What do people need from each other to do their work well?

Start

Your group basically works, but some of its routines don't.

Meetings without a clear purpose accumulate in the calendar. Decisions are made but not understood in the same way. Responsibilities have evolved without ever being clarified. Always the same people get stuck with the invisible academic housekeeping chores and care work. Or the group has simply outgrown ways of working that once made sense.

Facilitation can help examine these patterns and develop more workable alternatives without turning ordinary organisational friction into a major “team problem”.

Work

Something significant has changed or is about to.

A group grows rapidly. A new leader arrives. Funding changes. Two groups need to work together. Conflict has become difficult to navigate. A major programme ends, or people need to prepare for a future that looks substantially different from the past.

Facilitation can help the group take stock of what is changing, identify what needs to be retained or done differently, clarify new roles and expectations, and agree on how to work together under the new conditions.

Change

Institutes, university self-governing bodies and task forces bring together people who need to develop a strategy, set priorities or translate an agreed plan into action.

Facilitation can help them examine the situation from different perspectives, develop and compare options, work through competing priorities and make choices.

When a strategy has already been agreed, it can help people connect it to their own work, identify dependencies across the organisation and decide what needs to happen next.

Strategy

Dr. Raffael Himmelsbach is listening to a team who stands around a table discussing strategy
Dr. Raffael Himmelsbach is listening to a team who stands around a table discussing strategy

Let's talk about what you're facing.

Tell me a little about where you work and what issues you face. I read every message myself.

Get in touch

Let's talk about what you're facing.

Tell me a little about where you work and what issues you face. I read every message myself.

Get in touch