Facilitating Participatory Processes, Democratizing Spaces, And Addressing Bias

Manal Sayid, MBA Sayid Consulting

My Islamic beliefs and rituals shape my Facilitation and Consulting. Here's an example of a ritual that demonstrates equity, democratizing spaces, and participatory processes.

My parents are going to Hajj this year.

🕋 Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim must make at least once in their lifetime if they are able; it's the most spiritual event that a Muslim experiences, observing MANY rituals in the most sacred places in the Islamic world! It is a big deal!

🕋 One ritual is that pilgrims wear the same two-piece white garments, as captured in this image. This signifies they are all united and equal in the eyes of God regardless of race, socioeconomic status, job tenure, or previous conflict.

It literally says: leave your title at the door!

 

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH FACILITATION?

🕋 Yesterday I co-facilitated a strategic planning day with a colleague. Participants were a mix of Board Members, Leadership Team, and Strategic Planning Committee, which consisted of members from the community, service users, and staff.

🕋 As we were designing the session, particularly the introductions, my colleague suggested that participants introduce themselves by name... and job title.

Manal had a problem with that.😅

Here's the truth and I'll point out the elephant in the room: we all have biases, and I will be the first to admit it!

"Manal Sayid" gets treated VERY differently than "Manal Sayid, MBA."

I'll let you soak that in.

We don't have to look too far in the LinkedIn world to understand what it means when we flaunt our fancy titles.

🕋 How might it look for an intern in a participatory process when the VP of Finance who has been in an organization for 25 years says they're the VP of Finance who has been in the organization for 25 years?

I hear it all the time, "I've only been here for 6 months," "I'm ONLY an office administrator," or "I'm JUST a volunteer."

Here are some things I want to debunk:

I'm not minimizing the importance of these job titles and roles.

If the facilitator does a good job in ensuring the right people are in the room to have a conversation, then the wisdom that the VP of Finance, who has institutional knowledge of 25 years of being in the organization, WILL come out!

DISCLAIMER: Of course, context is important and some conversations require job titles explicitly said so that folks get an idea of who is in the room to defer to expertise and I do in fact use a different approach in these situations!

Final thoughts:

Biases are neither good or bad, but as a facilitator, it is important to know your own biases and also the biases of participants which can have a drastic effect on participation, engagement, collaboration, and creativity.

So yes, please, leave your title at the door. Respectfully! 😅🙏🏾

This article is reshared with permission; the original LinkedIn article appeared in February 2023.