How facilitation can help

Lags in productivity are often due to internal issues, such as “obstructed or opposing work-flows.” Facilitated discussions improve productivity by identifying problematic work-flows before they become obstructions and / or addressing obstructed work-flows before they get to the acute stage.

A typical symptom of “obstructed or opposing work-flows” is when certain individuals are no longer willing to deal directly with the person responsible for a certain task. This reduces productivity and undermines teamwork, and often such situations are mistakenly viewed as personality conflicts.

When these work-flow or structural issues are left unaddressed the friction between individuals can become entrenched. In these cases, mediation is the answer and workplace mediation compliments workplace facilitation because it keeps the decision-making power in the hands of the participants.

So how does facilitation work?