Facilitating Is The Easiest Job In The World
But being an expert in someone else’s life is the most difficult job in the world. In fact, it’s impossible.
So why is facilitating easy?
Because You Don’t Have To Be An Expert to Facilitate
Facilitating The Work of Byron Katie is like running a meeting.
Your job as a meeting organizer is to bring the people together, to give time for the experts to talk, and to hold everyone to the agenda.
That’s all. You don’t have to know anything about the subject matter of the meeting to run the meeting. Being an expert is nowhere in the job description.
And The Same Is True About Facilitation
You don’t have to know anything about psychology or spirituality to be a facilitator. You don’t have to understand anything. You just have to run a meeting.
A meeting between the stuck part of the client and the wise part of the client–you could say “the expert” part. The client has enough wisdom to get himself or herself unstuck.
The only role of the facilitator is to give time for “the expert” part of the client to talk, and to hold both parties to the agenda.
It Couldn’t Be Simpler
As long as I know my role, I don’t ever have to be wise myself. I just support my client to find the wisdom that can set them free.
And if they don’t, that’s OK too. I did my job. If things didn’t get resolved in that meeting, I simply suggest another meeting.
When I got this, I stopped being nervous presenting The Work in public. And I stopped pressuring myself to be a “good facilitator.” It’s not about me.
I’ve come to see facilitating as a very simple job, like driving a bus. It’s always the same every day. Just run through the four questions and turnarounds, hold clients to finding examples of the turnarounds, and bring them back whenever they wander off into story.
And because my job is so simple, I’m free to enjoy my view sitting in the best seat in the house where I get to witness the wisdom of my clients do its work.
Have a great week,
Todd
“I agree to know that each person who comes to me is wise, and will find their own answers, the ones that are true for them.” Byron Katie, “Principles for Facilitators”
