Using Facilitation to Solve an ICT Problem

This article describes the experience of University of Guelph students and library staff as they attempt to navigate through the complex and changing field of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Librarians and students agreed that creating a web portal would be useful yet the goals were not clearly established and the librarians contended that the portal would be rendered obsolete as the library refined its website technology. According to the authors, this situation created a crisis because of misconceptions and a lack of consistent and clear communication. The process of facilitation described within this article helped remedy the situation.

Two of the biggest challenges, as described by the article, were the continual evolution of technology and services, and the fact that library staff felt left out. The students brought in a facilitator who helped set up a series of steps that helped all the stakeholders visualise each other's views and expectations as well as bring to light some of the weaknesses in communication between the parties. The first steps included visualising the end product, which helped make explicit some of the underlying assumptions.

A key step in the facilitation process was shifting a focus from the original perceived need of an instructional workshop for students to the formation of a focus group on the research challenges experienced by students.

At the end of the process, the authors describe some of the lessons they learned from the process.
They describe "effective communication" as the linchpin to a successful project and that miscommunication is the most common cause of the downfall of collaborative processes. There must be a focus on "creating an enabling environment that fosters effective communication, a project team can gain the trust, commitment and collaborative participation of all stakeholders." The authors describe the importance of recognising shifting assumptions and that defining specific goals may not be as simple as expected.

The author's draw attention to a draft booklet (Capacity.org - issue 20 - January 2004) called 'Institutional Development: Learning by Doing and Sharing' (ECDPM and DGIS: 2004). This booklet describes a process approach which bases its effectiveness on having all relevant stakeholders involved in the entire process, "from the definition of the problem right through to the solution."