Brilliant piece on facilitating Dialogue

“There are few facilitation skills more important that the ability to keep quiet. When I teach facilitation I always spend a lot of time on this particular facilitator skill. If you are a manager, trainer, or a leader in your field, there is a good reason why: you enjoy it. You enjoy being in front of a group, orchestrating consensus and creating the magic of teamwork. This is probably how you have fun.

The only problem for you is that facilitating a group to Dialogue means: not leading. It takes great discipline to describe the process, lead a discussion on the escape routes and then abdicate your control to the group. But the discipline of keeping your trap shut will pay off. If you let them, they will come up with better ideas than you ever considered. And those ideas will be their ideas. Groups implement their ideas much more readily that your ideas. This is the hidden power of Dialogue. It is the secret to creating ownership (an over-used term). The reason most leaders can�t do it, is because they can�t stay quiet long enough for their group to rise to the occasion. A good facilitator creates a vacuum of leadership perfectly shaped not for one individual, but for the whole group.”