An exploration of developing skilled facilitation within transformational practice development in healthcare
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2018
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Facilitation is key to engaging people in transformational change and facilitators require considerable skill. However, a thorough understanding of the nature of facilitation and how people develop as facilitators remains elusive. This research investigated the experiences of practice development (PD) facilitators regarding their understanding of transformational facilitation and becoming skilled.
The research was situated within the Constructivist paradigm and used Naturalistic Inquiry as the guiding methodology. The study was a two-stage in-depth exploration of the topic. The first stage incorporated 15 interviews with PD facilitators in Australia/New Zealand to gain their understanding of transformational facilitation and their practice as a facilitator. The second stage allowed for deeper understanding, and elaboration, of the themes identified in stage 1. This stage explored transformational facilitation internationally through interviews with seven leading PD facilitators from four European countries.
Seven overlapping and interacting themes were identified that formed three distinct clusters. Within each theme there was evidence of a continuum of development. Inexperienced facilitators were at one end of the continuum with those who were highly skilled at the other end. The continuum reflected the increasing sophistication of facilitatorsโ thinking and management of situations as they gained expertise.
Cluster 1: Internal to the facilitator identified elements that related to the way a facilitator thinks (๐๐ฃ๐จ๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ค๐ช๐ง ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐๐๐๐), the way they interact with groups, finding the right balance in facilitation to enable people to transform practice and to flourish (๐ฌ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ก๐๐ฃ๐) and how they react to situations and manage their own reactions (๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ข๐).
Cluster 2: External to the facilitator related to facilitatorsโ development. This cluster incorporated the significant learning that was gained from interactions with other facilitators (๐ ๐ก๐๐ฃ๐จ ๐ค๐ฃ ๐๐๐๐๐ก๐๐ฉ๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ฃ) and getting to grips with and using theories to underpin facilitation practice (๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐จ๐๐ฃ๐จ๐ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ค๐ง๐ฎ).
Cluster 3: Enacting transformational facilitation conveyed how facilitators assimilated their learning and experiences to enable them to work effectively with people in diverse settings (๐ช๐ฃ๐๐๐ง๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ค๐ฅ๐ก๐ ๐๐ฃ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ฉ๐๐ญ๐ฉ) and become flexible in their practice (๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ก๐ช๐๐).
This doctoral study provides new insights regarding the nature of skilled facilitation and ways in which facilitators practice and develop themselves. The findings contribute new knowledge about the inner dialogue of facilitators and how they draw together all aspects of their practice to enable transformation in individuals, teams and healthcare cultures. These findings have implications for all facilitators, as well as facilitation practice and ways to support facilitator development.
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