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Healthcare teams are often asked to do difficult work: improve a service, solve a problem, redesign a pathway, or respond to concerns about quality and safety. In these situations, someone needs to help the team work well together through facilitating the team’s work. Facilitation can seem simple to do. In practice, it requires being aware of how groups can work and confidence to guide a group without taking over.

 

A simple structure can help. The acronym D–I–P–L–O–M–A–T defines stages that can guide  the facilitation process.

• Define the task.

• Identify the objectives.

• Plan the strategy and tactics for the work.

• Learn, listen and liaise.

• Organize the arrangements.

• Manage the process.

• Accentuate the accomplishments.

• Test the outcomes against the objectives.

 

In the planning stage, the facilitator helps the team agree what it is trying to achieve and how it will get there. Tools such as stakeholder analysis and force-field analysis can help the team understand who needs to be involved, what support may be needed, and what barriers might get in the way. Planning tactics turns the team’s intention into practical work. Setting a realistic time constraint can help the team stay focused. In learning, listening and liaising, the facilitator needs to understand the situation that led to the team’s work, the motivations of team members, and any vested interests.

 

Ultimately, the test of successful facilitation is if the process helped the team meet its objectives. A facilitator succeeds when the team is clear about its objective and able to work together to deliver what the team set out to achieve.