Facilitation Technology

It is inevitable that we apply technology to the art of facilitation. But, as a people process, how can we apply the appropriate (and amount) of technology to our facilitation?

Facilitation technology can enhance the contribution of our groups, and of facilitators. We are increasingly tolerant, if not dependent, upon technology for expression, listening, analysis, storage, and discovery of information. We integrate technology into our decision-making.

It may be that facilitation technology improves, as well as makes more efficient, our thinking (processing). Appropriately used, facilitation technology can retrieve, assemble, transform, present, digest, process, transmit, share, and archive information more efficiently, accurately, and in indigenous form, than ever possible.

There is no question that facilitation technology is increasingly popular.

But, does it make our facilitation better?

Participation

Facilitation technology democratizes decision-making. Facilitation technology improves the accessibility of information, analysis, participation, and decision-making to the lay worker. No longer does it require the CFO, president, senior business analyst, or professor to bring information (and all of its related analysis, debate, and conclusions) to the participant. Whether the participant is a student, business process owner, analyst, or factory worker, facilitation technology elevates their participation to new levels of involvement. Better decisions are the result.

Innovation

Broadening the accessibility of information results in increased innovation. When well guided, the use of facilitation technology spurs faster information gathering, analysis, and decision-making. Arising from the accessibility is the ability to solve for more localized problems. More solutions means greater organizational health. Greater health funds increased resources for development and innovation. Problems are solved faster, more efficiently, and more completely with the proper use of facilitation technology.

Accessibility (not Automation)

Facilitation technology is an aid to human thought. Facilitation technology is not a substitute for thought.

Whether in hospitals, factories, universities, or government, facilitation technology can make accessible the information that was previously only available through, and available to, a select few.

The accessibility of information changes the work- and learning-place. Whereas, workers and students were fed rote tasks or information for rote memorization, the can now digest, and participate in higher-level decision-making.

We need our workers to make decisions, not simply execute decisions made for them by way of the design of their machinery. We need our students to make decisions (and as importantly, analyze) information. We expect our workers and workers-to-be to do more associative processing, and thereby make better decisions.