The 21st Century Facilitator at “Listening to the City”: Applying a Real-Time Model of Facilitation Planning and Rapid Rapport-Building

Keywords: Active Listening, AmericaSpeaks™, Applied Behavioral Modeling, Citizen Summit, City Planner, Communication, facilitation, Facilitation Planning, Facilitator, Facilitator Credibility, Listening to the City, Lower Manhattan, New York, Orientation, Planni

Keywords:

Abstract:

This article describes how the 21st century facilitator conquers the immense challenge of planning and facilitating largescale, one day public meetings characterized by short, pre-event planning windows and compressed discussion timeframes. Through the use of a corresponding real-time set of highly effective rapport-building tools and a new 6 step Facilitator Planning Methodology, a facilitator can understand and evaluate a facilitation's design and pitfalls in real-time during a short pre-event orientation and then rapidly build group cohesion in a one day facilitation which allows no margin for error. This paper provides an overview of the "Listening to the City" town hall meeting used to test this methodology. Then, a facilitator toolkit of rapid rapport-building techniques is presented. This toolkit is comprised of Active Listening tools, Applied Behavioral Modeling tools, and a multi-faceted view of conversation called "the Three Streams of communication". These tools are highly effective in developing rapport quickly between the facilitator and the group and among group participants. A 6 step Facilitator Planning Methodology is described in detail; this planning mechanism aids facilitators in identifying potential design problems before these problems impact the facilitation and rapport-building process and prevent or limit the quick summarization and capture of discussion data. The methodology also emphasizes the importance of establishing facilitator credibility at the beginning of and throughout a facilitation. Finally, the article provides a summary discussing the
challenges and tasks facing facilitators planning to lead real-time public citizen summits occurring in compressed timeframes.