Convening Conversational Space - The CS Facilitation Framework

This is a supplementary piece of writing in relation to other articles I've published on conversational spaces. In this one I take one of the newer iterations of the Conversational Spaces Framework (as highlighted in the graphic above) and adjust it slightly so as it can be used as a facilitation framework when working with groups. The rest of the piece then explores each of the elements of the framework and suggests some accompanying questions that can be used when working with groups around their topic of inquiry and what matters most.

This article in particular explores the framework as an approach to working intentionally with a group to support their capacity to move forward in relation to what matters most in their work. However, from experience, the framework can also be used as a set of systemic, contextual, relational and dialogic orienting principles, inquiry points and areas of focus when the facilitator's role is more around helping teams or groups explore stuck patterns, difficult experiences and what might need to be included and attended to in relation to some of the systemic and contextual factors that affect peoples' ability to truly move forward in their work.

What Matters Most - The Core Question for Holding a Sense of Purpose

The notion of ‘What Matters Most’ lies at the heart of the CS Facilitation Approach - it speaks to the core of the work people are involved in, answering the question ‘why do I do this work in the first place?’

Agreeing a Core Question in relation to what matters most provides the energy, intention and purpose for your inquiry - it is what you consistently orient back to as things proceed. This initial inquiry can be done with the group as a whole as an integral aspect of the overall inquiry process - with a concomitant willingness to accept some messiness before a sense of coherence emerges - or, prior to the inquiry with an initial core group, generating potential questions and areas of focus that can then be tested with a wider group of those participating for sense of 'fitness' in relation to what people feel to be most important in their work.

Facilitator Questions for Exploring What Matters Most and agreeing a Core Question:  

• In relation to what matters most, what is the question (or questions) we most need to be asking at this time? 
• What is at the heart of the work we do? In relation to that, what can we usefully explore together to bring out the very best of our potential and possibilities for doing more of what matters most?
• What do we want to be most remembered for in years to come? 
• If we could, what would be the very best we could do with all of the resources, skills and abilities at hand?

Element 2 - Conversational Spaces - Acknowledging, Experiencing, Moving Forward

In relation to the core question and to what matters most, Acknowledging is characterised by making space to notice, name and attend to ‘what is' as is. 

We begin by acknowledging and attending to current reality and what that brings us into contact with as we take time to sit with what this invites into awareness. This is a space for bringing regard and bearing witness to what is evoked when we support people to properly attend to what matters most and to the core questions at the heart of doing important work; this is a space that enables people to name and recognise their achievements, recognise what it has taken to get this far, reflect on what this signifies, and map out current assets, abilities and potential. 

Some Example Facilitator Questions for Acknowledging:  

• In relation to what matters most, what do we need to take time to acknowledge and attend to? 
• What do we want to include and make space for in relation to our inquiry together and what matters most? 
• What has been most valuable, resourcing, resourceful, meaningful and energising about our (shared) work to date?

In relation to the core question and to what matters most, Experiencing is characterised by inquiry, sense-making and experimenting with our understanding and experience of ‘what is’ and ‘what can be’

A space for exploring, trying ideas out and ‘on for fit’, and for finding a sense of 'what can be' as it arises from (or alongside) 'what currently is'. Here we are invited to deepen into the shared inquiry and bring our willingness to listen so as to seek to understand the ideas, perspectives and differences of others in the group - to more fully make room for diverse and divergent possibilities as an essential part of taking steps to moving forward together. 

Some Example Facilitator Questions for Experiencing:  

• In relation to what matters most and what is, what’s our sense of ‘what can be’ too? 
• What conversations, ideas and experiments would help us better explore into our sense of ‘what can be’ (as connected to ‘what is’)? 
• Together, how do we understand what our conversations are helping give rise to? 
• What is our work together revealing in terms of new ways of understanding what matters most, new ways of moving forward and of a shared sense of direction?

In relation to the core question and to what matters most, Moving Forward is characterised by recognising readiness (for change), agreeing next wise moves and enacting ‘what can be’.

A space that supports us to more fully and pragmatically connect the past and present (what is) to an experience of movement and momentum in the future (what can be), and that seeks to link what’s available to what’s potential and possible. Taking time to explore what people are ready to do here and now as a precursor to individually and collectively sensing into next wise moves is a crucial part of moving forward coherently.

Some Example Facilitator Questions for Moving Forward:  

• In relation to all that we have acknowledged and explored together so far, what is our current sense of readiness for change - personally, as a team/group/service, and perhaps more widely as an organisational system?
• What are we actually ready, willing and able to do today, tomorrow, next week, next month to help move things forward?
• How will we enact this change, and how will we know if what we’re doing is moving us in the right direction?
• What coherent ideas do people have for taking next wise steps?

Element 3 - Three Supporting Factors to attend to when Facilitating in Conversational Space

Alongside the core question and the three conversational spaces, it also helps to explore three other elements when working with groups - attending to and making use of diverse perspectives, opening up to available possibilities (out of all that has potential) and working with the pattern of what matters most

Some Example Facilitator Questions for the Three Supporting Factors:  

• What other perspectives can we invite in? Who might see this differently?   
• Out of all that has potential here, what are the possibilities most open to us right here and now for moving things forward (today, tomorrow, next week, next month, etc.)? 
• What patterns of thinking, talking, relating and acting can we try on for size and fit/practice/agree to enact together in support of moving forward with what matters most?  How do we need to think, talk, relate and act together to ensure we have the best chance of realising what matter most? 

Element 4 - Working Live in Relational Space

The elements covered so far take place within the wider relational space of the facilitator and group working together, the generativity of which is connected to: 

• Our sense of presence (how present, connected and attuned we feel in relation to self and others) 
• And to the ways in which the group itself is enabled to work (for the benefit of all present, and in service of what matters most and the system as a whole)

Some Example Facilitator Questions for Working Live in Relational Space:  

• How centred and present am I - in this moment, with this person, with this group, in this activity?     
• How am I helping this person/this group to connect and contribute with equity (Kahane, 2021) for all present? 
• How do I and we work with the generative dimensions (Nations & Holladay, 2013) of identity (who we choose to be), voice (what we choose to say) and power (how we choose to act in relation to/with each other toward what matters most)? 

Element 5 - Attending Thoughtfully to Contextual Space

Finally, all of the elements covered so far are located within a wider contextual space that includes: 

• The particular context within which the work takes place (including its historical, policy, stakeholder, funding and political dimensions, etc.) 
• The interconnecting of race, gender, identity, class, ableness, need, culture, community and any other factors that influence our sense of self, place and choice in relation to others and the world

Some Example Facilitator Questions for Attending Thoughtfully to Contextual Space:  

• What else can we/should we attend to and hold in mind? 
• What facets of context are important to acknowledge and include in relation to the work we are doing? What else also really matters here?
• How do I/we thoughtfully include that which is different to my/our own experience so that it too has place, voice and power to influence, shape and inform our work to the good? 

Whilst the pattern of this article has followed a movement from centre (core question) to periphery (contextual space) I'd want to acknowledge that this is simply a way of structuring the writing around the Conversational Spaces Facilitation Framework. In practice, we are intimately connecting into, attending to (intentionally or unawares), responding to and responding into the contextual and relational spaces that inform, shape, guide and at times contain and constrain the energetic usefulness of the conversational spaces we enter into. Therefore the questions we can hold, inquire into and seek to move forward with which intimately relate to contextual and relational space are always and already present from the start (well, even before the start) of the inquiry itself.

As such, they can be held and referenced as we move from the initial inquiry into what matters most to acknowledging, experiencing, attending to perspective, pattern and possibility, and seeking to move forward. If our inquiries together can sensitively and usefully attend to the relational and contextual aspects of our situations and experiences we might have a better chance of influencing change that is in service of the system as a whole, and thus more likely to offer an experience of generativity, relevance, coherence and 'right fittedness'.

Conclusion

I'm hoping this use of Conversational Spaces as an approach to facilitating groups has value and also provides some interesting ways of attending to dialogue, experimentation and movement in group work processes.

Finally, I'd also want to suggest that Story Space Work can be used as a particular type of organising structure for hosting developmental and exploratory team and group dialogues when working within the wider frame of the Conversational Spaces Facilitation Framework too. This additional level of exploration can support deeply generative team and group working patterns to emerge and then become central to the way a team or group develops together over time, providing a coherent way of working with individual and collective identity, purpose, meaning, interaction, change and outcome achievement.

Gareth

References:

Kahane, A. (2021) Facilitating Breakthrough: How to remove obstacles, bridge differences and move forward together, Oakland: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Nations, M., Holladay, R. (2013) ''Generative Engagement: Beyond cultural sensitivity" in Eoyang, G., Holladay, R. (2013) Adaptive Action: Leveraging uncertainty in your organisation, Stanford: Stanford Business Books