How can you use facilitation skills to influence and persuade in your industry?
Facilitation skills are not only useful for leading meetings, workshops, or trainings, but also for influencing and persuading others in your industry. Whether you want to pitch an idea, negotiate a deal, or resolve a conflict, facilitation skills can help you communicate effectively, build rapport, and achieve your goals. In this article, you will learn how to use facilitation skills to influence and persuade in your industry.
The first step to influence and persuade is to understand your audience. Who are they? What are their needs, interests, and concerns? What are their motivations, values, and preferences? How do they perceive you and your message? By answering these questions, you can tailor your approach and style to suit your audience and establish trust and credibility. You can use various facilitation techniques, such as surveys, interviews, or focus groups, to gather information and feedback from your audience before, during, or after your interaction.
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In my experience, it's great to spend some time reviewing data around a specific subject that requires facilitation. Facilitation can be applied to a wide array of needs from design to decision making to conflict resolution. In all cases it's important to understand the landscape: who are all the participants and beneficiaries of these designs and decisions? If we are designing a solution for customers we should start by understanding these customers. Their needs and pain points should become the criteria of how we make decisions.
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Entender a tu audiencia implica conocer sus necesidades, deseos, preocupaciones y valores. Al comprender su perspectiva, puedes adaptar tu mensaje y enfoque para resonar con ellos, aumentando así tu capacidad para influir y persuadir de manera efectiva. Esto implica escuchar activamente, hacer preguntas, y estar atento a las señales verbales y no verbales que indican sus preferencias y puntos de vista.
The second step to influence and persuade is to define your purpose and outcome. What do you want to achieve? What are the benefits and risks of your proposal? What are the possible objections or challenges? How will you measure and evaluate your success? By clarifying your purpose and outcome, you can craft a clear and compelling message that addresses your audience's needs and interests, and provides evidence and examples to support your claims. You can use various facilitation tools, such as SMART goals, SWOT analysis, or logic models, to plan and structure your message.
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The way I use facilitation in purpose definition is by ensuring common understanding and ownership of the goal. I use the process called Focus Framing. As a facilitator. I visualize the data that exists on our particular subject. For example, if the purpose of the exploration is growth - I might create a view of the funnel with the metrics that we have from existing channels and initiatives. The team of experts and decision makers reviews this existing data, shares their expert opinions on this existing data and, and then they "vote-and-note" on the exact part of the process that they should focus on in their exploration. Voting and noting is done by putting large stickies that count as a vote where the experts explain their rationale.
The third step to influence and persuade is to engage your audience. How will you capture their attention, interest, and curiosity? How will you involve them in the conversation, discussion, or decision-making? How will you handle questions, comments, or feedback? By engaging your audience, you can create a positive and interactive atmosphere, stimulate their thinking and emotions, and encourage their participation and collaboration. You can use various facilitation methods, such as storytelling, brainstorming, or voting, to engage your audience.
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Pushing on open doors with “keep going” phrases can show your interest and can involve others in their own decision making: “say more about that” / “how so” / “when exactly” / “how come” / “how does that make you feel” are phrases that invite speakers to volunteer up more detail and description. These are gentle, encouraging questions that are not leading or binary; they show you’re listening & these phrases work whether you’re in person or speaking virtually. If you’re asked a question as the facilitator, open it out to the room. E.G. “I have some thoughts on this but before I state these, who else wants to chip in and share what they think?” or “I’m happy to share my thoughts on this, before I do would anyone else like to share theirs?”
The fourth step to influence and persuade is to adapt your style and strategy. How will you adjust your tone, language, and body language to suit your audience and situation? How will you deal with different personalities, perspectives, or conflicts? How will you overcome resistance or objections? By adapting your style and strategy, you can demonstrate flexibility, empathy, and respect, and respond effectively to different scenarios and challenges. You can use various facilitation skills, such as active listening, questioning, or reframing, to adapt your style and strategy.
The fifth step to influence and persuade is to follow up and follow through. How will you summarize and confirm your key points and actions? How will you thank and appreciate your audience? How will you monitor and report your progress and results? By following up and follow through, you can reinforce your message and outcome, show your commitment and accountability, and build long-term relationships and trust. You can use various facilitation practices, such as action plans, feedback forms, or newsletters, to follow up and follow through.
The sixth step to influence and persuade is to learn and improve. How will you reflect and evaluate your performance and impact? How will you identify and address your strengths and weaknesses? How will you seek and apply feedback and learning opportunities? By learning and improving, you can enhance your facilitation skills, increase your confidence and credibility, and achieve better results and outcomes. You can use various facilitation resources, such as books, blogs, or courses, to learn and improve.
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Facilitation can benefit hugely from understanding Dolly Chugh’s Model of Persuasion (and fascinating research). This shows that more effective, historical social change/societal change movements included a combination of persuasive tactics, that Dolly calls: heat & light. Heat is very direct, visceral & (more) confrontational language that forces attention to an issue. Light is educational, descriptive & (more) tolerant language that speaks to shared humanity around an issue. Persuasion that uses comfort AND discomfort* and dials this up/down for the cultural group in question, will capture that target-audience’s attention. *The discomfort of a target audience is effective and necessary when they truly acknowledge a problem’s impacts.
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