Small Group Facilitation: Improving Process and Performance in Groups and Teams

Personal Values about Conflict

A facilitator’s personal views and comfort level with conflict might affect the climate of the group, techniques used for decision making and problem solving, and the way in which the facilitator chooses to handle or even acknowledge conflict within a group. As one example, a facilitator who is very uncomfortable with conflict of any kind might keep the group from fully discussing substantive issues that are essential for the group’s success by intervening at the first sign of disagreement and changing the direction of the discussion. Assuming the group allows this misdirection, the decisions made by that group may very well suffer because negative issues were not allowed to surface. Alternatively, a facilitator ...