Ground
rules for disrupting the consensus process (Delphi Technique) —
when facilitators want to steer a group in a specific direction.
Always
Be Charming. Smile, be pleasant, be courteous, moderate your voice
so as not to come across as belligerent or aggressive.
Stay
Focused. If at all possible, write your question down to help you
stay focused. Facilitators, when asked questions they don't want to
answer, often digress from the issue raised and try to work the
conversation around to where they can make the individual asking the
question look foolish, feel foolish, appear belligerent or
aggressive. The goal is to put the one asking the question on the
defensive. Do not fall for this tactic. Always be charming, thus
deflecting any insinuation, innuendo, etc, that may be thrown at you
in their attempt to put you on the defensive, but bring them back to
the question you asked. If they rephrase your question into an
accusatory statement (a favorite tactic) simply state, "that is
not what I stated, what I asked was… (repeat your question)."
Stay focused on your question.
Be
Persistent. If putting you on the defensive doesn't work,
facilitators often resort to long drawn out dissertations on some
off-the-wall and usually unrelated, or vaguely related, subject that
drags on for several minutes – during which time the crowd or
group usually loses focus on the question asked (which is the
intent). Let them finish with their dissertation/expose, then
nicely, with focus and persistence, state, "but you didn't
answer my question. My question was… (repeat your question)."
Remember…
always be charming, stay focused, and be persistent.
Never,
under any circumstance, become angry. Anger directed at the
facilitator will immediately make the facilitator "the victim."
This defeats the purpose which is to make you the victim. The goal
of the facilitator is to make those they are facilitating like them,
alienating anyone who might pose a threat to the realization of their
agenda. [People with fixed belief systems, who know what they
believe and stand on what they believe, are obvious threats.] If the
participant becomes the victim, the facilitator loses face and favor
with the crowd. This is why crowds are broken up into groups of
seven or eight, why objections are written on cards, not voiced aloud
where they are open to public discussion and public debate. It's
called crowd control. It is always good to have someone else, or two
or three others who know the Delphi Technique dispersed through the
crowd; who, when the facilitator digresses from the question, will
stand up and say nicely, "but you didn't answer that
lady's/gentleman's question." The facilitator, even if
suspecting you are together, certainly will not want to alienate the
crowd by making that accusation. Sometimes it only takes one
occurrence of this type for the crowd to figure out what's going on,
sometimes it takes more than one.
If
you have an organized group, meet before the meeting to strategize.
Everyone should know their part. Meet after the meeting to analyze
what went right, what went wrong and why, and what needs to happen
the next time around. Never meet during the meeting. One of the
favorite tactics of the facilitator, if the meeting is not going the
way he/she wants, if he/she is meeting measurable resistance, is to
call a recess. During the recess, the facilitator and his/her
"spotters" (people who wander the room during the course of
the meeting, watching the crowd) watch the crowd to see who
congregates where, especially those who have offered measurable
resistance. If the "resistors" congregate in one place, a
"spotter" will usually gravitate to that group to "join
in the conversation" and will report back to the facilitator.
When the meeting resumes, the facilitator will steer clear of those
who are "resistors." Do not congregate. Hang loose and
work the crowd. Move to where the facilitator or "spotters"
are, listen to what they have to say, but do not gravitate to where
another member of your team is.
This
strategy also works in a face to face, one on one, meeting with
anyone who has been trained in how to use the Delphi Technique.
With
thanks to Sandy Vanderberg, Peg Luksik and others
©March
1996; Lynn M Stuter