A facilitator is someone who uses knowledge of group processes to formulate and deliver the needed structure for meeting or learning interactions to be effective.
The facilitator focuses on effective processes (meeting or learning dynamics) allowing the participants to focus on the content or the substance of their work together.
The Facilitator’s role is unique, although no more or less important, since their primary focus is on the meeting or learning processes. Facilitation can involve many different levels of knowledge and skill, can include work on all kinds of problems and challenges, can assist the group in fulfilling its desire, or can include pushing participants to new levels of understanding. Most importantly, however, facilitation includes both an ability to recognize when effective meeting or learning processes are needed and an ability to provide those processes.
Other roles exist for meeting participants besides facilitation. These include scribing, recording, timekeeping and leading discussions.
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