By Dr Trevor Bentley
Dr Trevor Bentley
Websites:
www.centre4gio.com
www.thespacebetween.com.au
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GENTLE INTERVENTION SUPPORTIVE
PERSUASIVE
DIRECTIVE
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FORCEFUL INTERVENTION
Some of the best interventions that I have made have been largely accidental or unintentional. Sometimes I have unconsciously responded to something with body language, and the result has been quite amazing.
Gentle intervention
Gentle interventions, if they are clear, overcome rigid resistance. If gentleness fails, try yielding, or stepping back altogether, when the leader yields, resistances relax.1
The end of this intervention spectrum is the end that I like to work at most of the time. For me it is the most empowering way to work with a group. The aim is primarily to support the work the group is doing. And I divide these supportive interventions into four types.
Doing nothing means literally what it says: sitting quietly and not reacting in any way to what is happening. In Chapter 18 I explore this more fully. The effect is to leave the group to work things out for themselves without any hint from me as to whether I agree or disagree, or have any particular feelings about what is happening.
Silence is saying nothing. I may move, express thoughts and feelings on my face, or use gesture and posture to influence what is happening. See the next chapter for more on silence.
Support means speaking or acting in a way which supports what is happening. It could be as simple as nodding, or as involved as taking part willingly in some exercise suggested by the group. This is the ‘going with’ the group intervention. It empowers the group and allows me as facilitator to integrate more fully with the group.
Support can be very important in helping individuals to assert themselves in the group process, but when this situation arises it is important to be supporting what is happening, i.e. what the individual is doing rather than the individual themselves.
Questions to clarify provide me with an opportunity to check if what is happening is what people want to be happening. I can phrase my question so as to establish clarity. For example ‘Do you mean that you want to stop doing this?’, or ‘Is it your intention to tell us what we should do?’. The search for clarity in this way may affect the way the group decide to behave, and so has an influence.
Persuasive interventions
Persuasive interventions are intended to influence the group in respect to what actions they may take next. The level of influence depends on how much power and authority the group have invested in the facilitators. If this is significant then even the gentlest persuasion will shift the group’s energy. The more power and authority the group have assumed the more it may need a fairly strong suggestion to have any impact. The range of persuasive interventions goes from fairly gentle to quite strong.
Questions to move the group from where it is can be quite gentle, such as, ‘are you ready to go on now?’, or they could be quite firm, e.g. ‘are you ready to go on yet?’.
Questions on where next are more specific than moving on. They seek to establish the next place the group wants to be. For example, by asking ‘OK: so where do you want to go now?’, the move on is assumed and the emphasis is on where, not whether.
Suggesting choices is halfway along the spectrum and will have a direct impact on what the group decides to do next. By limiting the choices this intervention can become manipulative, so suggestions have to be made with full awareness of the possibilities they open up or close down.
Good leadership consists of motivating people to their highest levels by offering them opportunities not obligations.1
Suggesting paths that the group might follow can affect the whole balance of the work the group is doing. I would only do this if the group had clearly lost their way, and agreed that they would welcome some suggestion on the path to take. In using this intervention I would still try to offer a range of possible paths so that the group could choose which one they wanted to follow.
Sharing ideas may seem to be a gentler form of intervention than where I have placed it in the spectrum. However, it is important to remember that if I share my ideas about what is happening the group may take them as an assessment. As soon, as I say, ‘Well I think’, then the group are almost certain to listen and respond. This again depends upon how much power and authority they have taken to themselves, and on how much or little I have intervened in their process.
Run an honest open group. Your job is to facilitate and illuminate what is happening. Interfere as little as possible. Interference, however brilliant, creates a dependency on the leader.1
Suggesting action is the most persuasive intervention. I use it when the group is completely at a loss for what to do next, or when the group energy is low. I always try to offer at least three options, which gives the group two choices. If I only offer one possibility then the group has no choice at all.
Directive interventions
Too much force will backfire. Constant interactions and instigations will not make a good group. They will spoil a group. The best group process is delicate. It cannot be pushed around.1
Directive interventions are, for me, very much a last resort. When I feel they are necessary I make them firmly. I can be forceful when I have to, but I try to use all other forms of intervention before being directive.
Guiding the group: I guide the group when it asks me to, and/or when it is clear to me that guidance will help the group to move forward effectively and quickly. My first form of guidance is to suggest what I would do if I were in their situation. My second approach is actually to do something, such as write on the flip chart, or rearrange the furniture, etc.
Another form of guidance is to work with a small group within the group and give them ideas on how they can lead the main group forward. This is like leading from within the group.
Choosing for the group: this is a further step from guiding the group. Here I am leading from the front, actually choosing what we will do and where we will go. I rarely do this, but I will if asked by the group, or if I see that the group is heading for a cliff edge. My intervention would probably be something like this: ‘I think it might be useful if we stopped at this point and looked at what is happening. I have a sense that we are heading for problems, and I would like us to reflect for a moment’. This is making a definite choice for the group. What happens next will be the direct result of the choice to stop and reflect. It may be followed by me making a further choice if the group won’t come up with the next step.
Directing the group means telling the group what we are going to do next. This form of intervention is the last resort: when all else has failed, it may be necessary to direct the group’s efforts. Often when this happens it will impact on members of the group in different ways. Some people may be relieved, others may be angry, and yet others may close off and cease to participate. With all these possibilities it is not a form of intervention to use lightly.
Even if harsh instructions succeed brilliantly, there is no cause for celebration. There has been injury. Someone’s process has been violated.1
Of course, the facilitation spectrum is a continuum. The points I have chosen to discuss are my way of looking at where I might be on the continuum. I do move around quite a lot in answer to the group’s needs, but I work mostly towards the gentle intervention end of the scale.
I am mainly concerned with serving the group than being served by the group. I have no axe to grind; no outcome that I am determined on, and no particular view of where the group goes and how it gets there. My choice of intervention is entirely based on what l think will help the group get to where it wants to be.
No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which any one can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.2
References:
- Heider, John (1986), The Tao of Leadership, Aldershot: Wildwood House.
- Miller, Henry (1941), Wisdom of the Heart.
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