“Everyone knows that on high altitude oxygen is thin and makes people make stupid decisions.”

The quote is taken from a conversation between colleagues. At a client's company there had been yet another internal reorganization, and the staff was trying to figure why the management had made certain decisions. The staff frustration was obvious... and the blame was solely on the management.

This is most often the case.

The frustrations don’t have anything to do with bad intentions or bad knowledge; it is simply the reaction to bad facilitation. A word that we literary use to little. Facilitation is defined as the act of making something easier or making something happen. Sounds easy enough but it’s a great skill. We tend to believe it’s a common skill. We usually have it written down as one of the bullets in a work description. A general good to have, and expectation but very seldom something we manage. It is something we expect the management to do. But even if it should be a skill of management the pressure on this group is often too high. They are pressured for information and time to facilitate is often not prioritized. They don’t have time to do the important job.

The consequence of this is like the whisper game we all played when we were kids. Someone whispers a sentence, and the person listening is supposed to interpret it and pass it on to the next. And just like that the truth begins to diverge. The information that reaches the Management in the end is far from reality. But still the information that the management makes decisions on is based on facts they believe are right. The employees are not satisfied, and the management doesn’t get the results they need. It’s a never-ending bad circle where both parties get the short end of the stick. The most tragic thing is that the problem is not resolved.

What needs to be done instead is to have a facilitator that makes sure to listen carefully to all needs in the organization. This person needs to understand both the operational, th technical needs and the human element. It is elementary that the person can read between the lines and make sure to facilitate good conversations in order to find out the real pain points in the organization. I order to do this it helps if the person is an outsider but with a great skill of creating trust. And it is for sure a skill.

We at EMCAP understand the skill and we are very careful when it comes to picking out the right person for you! We know who and we know how to do it. And additional to that we know how to make it into a habit!