I saw a post on LinkedIn the other day which read, “Building a diverse and inclusive workplace is hard. Do it anyway.” The post was from someone who works as a recruiter, and I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I wish all recruiters kept this mantra in mind as they scouted for talent.

At the same time, I know that this is only the start. If you want to really build a diverse and inclusive workplace, you need to think about what is happening once you have that diverse talent in the room. How are you making sure that everyone has an equal voice, is sitting at the most important table, and will be promoted/included/kept around for the long run?

There are endless responses to these questions, and many companies and institutions are doing great work to ensure that not only is diversity being brought in, but that it is fully included, valued, and promoted as part of the fabric of the organization. Their examples are setting the bar high, and I love it.

This is where Transformational Facilitation has something invaluable to offer: At the heart of Transformational Facilitation is the value that not only is diversity and inclusion important, but that it is THE thing that is important. You cannot say you champion equity if you are not actively striving to make everyone in the room equal in the way you facilitate the space everyone is inhabiting: enforcing equal airtime, decision-making power, lauding divergent opinions, etc. That is really what this blog is attempting to encourage – strategies that create this environment.

When running workshops, this can be especially tricky. Ostensibly, a facilitator is brought in to share their expertise. For example, last week I was running a workshop on how to include fun and engaging literacy activities in afterschool programs. You’re probably guessing that I have some super-knowledge about this topic that I was bringing to the group; a veritable sage ready to dispense my superior skills to a room full of novices. But that isn’t at all true.

In fact, I operate on the assumption that the knowledge is already in the room. Because it is. Rather than spend our time together showing a million ways to include literacy activities, (which anyone with access to Pinterest could do equally well), I offer a few examples, and then ask participants to share with each other all of the ways they are already doing it. In effect, I am setting participants up to be the teachers, giving them space to revisit what they already know and allowing them to build on each other’s ideas. I am not an expert in anything other than creating the conditions in which people can access their own wisdom and share it with others.

Here’s an even more concrete example, if a participant raises a question at any point during the workshop, rather than answering myself, I turn the question back to the group. The responses they offer are always better than anything I would have thought of on my own, and the spirit of helping each other sets everyone up as both an expert and a learner. As with all Transformational Facilitation techniques, the hierarchy is erased and we are all on equal footing in our quest to learn something new and useful.

So here is my challenge for this post: Operate on the assumption that the knowledge is already in the room and that your sole job is to help people find that wisdom within themselves and each other. That’s it. Create the conditions. As you think about your agenda, focus on the methods, not on the content. You will be amazed at how much people learn, are able to use and put into action, and take away from the experience.

If you’re not sure where to start, read through some of my earlier posts. For example, try this activity, or this one, or this one. Be mindful of how much space you are occupying in the agenda, and replace “your time” with time for participants to discuss, learn, and create with each other.

Because facilitating an engagement where everyone has equal voice is hard, but if we are serious about the ideals of equity, it needs to be done anyway.