The Facilitator’s Mindset

Diverse communities, and others with the representation of systematically marginalized identities, need safe and thriving communities of care in which they can hold and be held through joy, strife, learning, and growing together. Research points to the additive negative impact on an individual’s wellness as a result of navigating subtle or overt racism and other implicit and explicit biases acted upon by individuals or represented in systems. Facilitation requires a mindset that trusts in the mathematics of positive sum game theory. The facilitator enters the field with the belief that we can be stronger together, that we can resolve conflicts by getting creative, and that no one needs to lose when we problem-solve together. Facilitators represent the vanguard accelerating our shift into a new reality where power is fuel, not a weapon.