Closely akin to the services of a Mediator, the services of a group Facilitator involves working with groups of persons who have a common goal or interest, such as the survival of an entity, accomplishment of a project and so forth, yet might hold greatly differing thoughts on its accomplishment or execution.
The Group Facilitator’s goal is to create a “safe space” where a group can meet and confer towards recognizing their commonalities, acknowledging the differences and achieving resolutions that better serve the overall Group to accomplish its purpose.
Jerome’s in depth Facilitation training was accomplished through multiple professional programs created and presented by the international Institute of Cultural Affairs (“ICA”), which traces its history back to 1962 when it was known as the Ecumenical Institute.
In the realm of Facilitation the ICA and Jerome hold a similar mission: “To strengthen the capacities of organizations, communities, and individuals to build and implement innovative plans of action that draw upon assets and social capital in a collaborative manner.” Commonality of interests concurrent with a challenge of methods, routes and implementation – fallow ground for the services of a Facilitator.
Examples of groups benefitting from Facilitation of conflicts are
- For-profit and non-profit professional and commercial entities (e.g. Boards of Directors; Shareholder and Member ownership groups with conflicts regarding direction, acquisitions, capital expenditures, etc.).
- Employer and employee challenges; conflict between corporate executives and line-staff; Industry and government representatives (e.g. establishing proposed government regulations); Medical partnerships (e.g. medical doctor/partners experiencing severe conflict threatening the survival of the practice).
- Professional groups (e.g. annual national two day healthcare conferences with attendees exceeding 80 medical doctors, osteopaths, hospital administrators and healthcare professionals, goaled with creation of “White Papers” for the President’s Medical Council, the Departments of Medicare and Medicaid and specific Congressional and Senate offices.).
- Public and governmental entities and citizen groups;
- Government departments and intergovernmental entities;
- Church groups (e.g. Church Board of Trustees and Congregation conflict threatening the continued existence of the Church).
- Construction and development projects for team building (e.g. owner, contractor and sub-contractor interrelationships, communication skills and establishment of dispute resolution pathways and agreements);
- Construction Dispute Review Boards (“DRB”) generally established prior to construction to be ready to facilitate resolution of conflict during construction).
