Today, I had an interesting conversation with a potential client, and it really inspired me. She is a well-experienced facilitator and works with businesses implementing new technology widgets and systems into their business culture and structure. She noticed that by the time she entered the business, the technology had already been developed but was not working within the business culture. She says there is a gap between the IT consultants who developed the system and what the people working on it really needed. We explored the possibility of facilitation skills development as a possible solution.
The biggest issue and limitation she found was that IT consultants are not necessarily trained to gather quality requirements for the user interface from the employees, mainly due to their lack of facilitation skills.
Is that true?
I find that consultants often face the challenge of being expected content experts. If facilitation skills are brought into the workshop, the consultant might be challenged, which is obviously a very vulnerable space.
The ultimate distinction of facilitation is that it is content-neutral. It is a skill that allows the users to bring content forward, which is then implemented as quality data for system development.
The more business employees are engaged in this process, the more meaningful the system that is developed.
So I found a few new target groups today who would benefit from facilitation skills.
My mission is to use facilitation skills in businesses, and I am excited to see where they can be useful.
If you are either an Organisational Change Manager, Business Analyst, Service Designer or UX consultant and would like to know more about facilitation and how it could help your work, get in touch below.