How history shapes the next chapter
I was recently asked to facilitate a meeting that brought together a collective of organisations who’ve been working side by side for quite a few years.
It’s a network that’s achieved a lot, built on trust, goodwill and a shared purpose, even though each organisation is its own legal entity with its own board, priorities and challenges.
Like any collective that’s been around for a while, the people involved haven’t been constant. Some were there right from the beginning, others have joined more recently. The next layer down is the same. A mix of those who’ve seen the story unfold from day one and others who are still piecing it together.
The mix of history, perspective and capability can influence how the group evolves.
Now and then, it makes sense to pause, not because something’s gone wrong, but because it’s healthy to ask, Are we still working as well together as we could be? I think of it as a health check.
When you do that, it’s important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. It takes an enormous amount of effort, goodwill and patience to get something like this established in the first place. The last thing you want to do is undermine the very trust that made it possible.
Why intentional facilitation matters
That’s where careful, intentional facilitation matters, the kind that creates space for everyone to participate rather than having some people trying to juggle multiple roles at once. It’s about setting up the conversation so that all voices can be heard, the process has shape, and goodwill is strengthened in the process, not frayed by it.
Sometimes what prompts a conversation like this isn’t disagreement so much as drift. Ways of working that were documented a while ago don’t always hold up as new pressures emerge and different players come to the table. What was intended can become impractical over time.
Left unattended, those quiet drifts can turn into undercurrents. People begin to talk around issues instead of through them. And the shared understanding that once carried the collaboration no longer does.
Intentional facilitation creates the structure and space to identify what has changed, what’s getting in the way, and how to overcome it without assigning blame. Done well, it protects the goodwill that has been built over time while making room for truth-telling and renewal.
“Facilitation is like walking into a dark room with a group of people you don’t know, and you don’t know where the light switch is.
But you have faith that, together, you’ll find it.”
— Meg Wheatley
When the currents start to shift
Effective facilitation is not about leading people to your light, but helping them to create that light together.
Working across multiple groups is a bit like being part of an archipelago, a collection of islands separated by choppy seas. Each island has its own ecosystem, its own weather, its own priorities. If the tides change, navigating between them can get tricky.
Careful facilitation helps identify the shared interests, values and priorities that make it easier to travel between the islands. Once you find them, the journey becomes smoother and the water less turbulent.
If you sense your collective conversations aren’t flowing as well as they used to, take a breath and check in on what’s happening before pushing forward. Focus on what’s working, and leverage the North Star that’s guiding you, the shared purpose you’re all orienting around.
Start by making sure everyone is clear on what the North Star is.
Then look at the different interests that are at play, where they align and where they diverge, and make sure people understand why. It’s rarely because someone is being difficult. It’s the reality that when you’ve got separate entities and groups coming together, the collective is rarely homogenous.
If you’re genuinely committed to getting to that North Star, you can’t ignore what’s going on for the people who are an essential part of getting there.
Next, focus on what’s working well so you have something positive to build from.
Then, rather than jumping to fixing what’s broken, start exploring where the tension is, the pain points that are getting in the way of what should work on paper.
Invite each other in, help one another understand what’s really going on. When you do that, the solutions, or at least the next right steps, start to emerge naturally from the conversation.
And this isn’t only about networks or multi-organisation collectives. The same principles apply within a single organisation, especially where different teams, each with their own challenges and pressures, are trying to work towards a shared outcome.
Because when setting, space and structure come together, people discover their rhythm, and the collective can find its light switch together.
If you think catalyst facilitation could help you re-energise your own collective or team, don’t hesitate to reach out. Sometimes a conversation is all it takes to start seeing where the light switch might be.
