Inclusive and equitable group spaces need nurturing

Nancy Nuñez on the barriers to inclusion and how to address them

As facilitators, we play a vital role in fostering inclusive environments where all participants feel empowered to contribute in ways that are comfortable and meaningful for them. Inclusion means ensuring that everyone—regardless of their background, ethnicity, identity, sexuality, role, status, or abilities—feels heard, seen, and valued.

And the creation of this begins before we come together in a physical or digital space. We start by ensuring communications leading up to the session are clear and accessible. Asking participants about their needs and how they can be supported to participate before they even enter the room is a solid start.

As people begin to show up, a warm and friendly welcome puts them at ease. Inviting participants to include their pronouns in their name tags is another reassuring gesture.

Facilitating the creation of Group Agreements – asking the simple questions, ‘What’s going to help us work well today? What do you need to fully participate?’ gives people agency and choice in helping to create the kind of culture they want to work in.

Build connection early

Experience shows that when people feel connected, they work more effectively. That’s why it’s important to create opportunities for connection early and consistently throughout the session. This fosters a stronger sense of group cohesion and belonging.

Support different ways of contributing

We all learn, contribute and process information in different ways, I need to talk things through to process, some people prefer space to ponder and reflect. Ensuring there are a variety of ways to participate in our sessions, that include individual reflection time, conversations in pairs, small group work as well as larger group discussions will ensure we meet the different needs of our participants.

Acknowledge contributions & risks

Acknowledging and validating contributions especially when people take a risk is important. In Groupwork we often talk about how the road to ‘groupness’ – that place where people feel they belong and can contribute and do good work  – is paved with risk taking.

Mistakes are gifts

People will take a risk in the group and see how it’s held and if held well they might be willing to take a bigger risk.  When someone feels they’ve made a mistake, we can intervene to frame mistakes as learning opportunities. Now it’s not only safe to make a mistake, it’s also a gift to the whole group.

As facilitators we have to be able to catch those moments and acknowledge them so we can build trust, confidence and encourage further participation.

Inclusion for me is acknowledging that we all have different lived experiences, different views and opinions that are valid and true for us, as facilitators inviting difference into our rooms can create an environment where groups not only become comfortable with differences but perhaps see the strength and gifts that difference can bring to a discussion.

Get a handle on power

For me, a very important part of my role as a facilitator is to equalise power and participation in the spaces where I work and that requires me to be explicit about power and power dynamics.

I bring this into the room early on, in the process of creating group agreements, asking the question:

‘Is there anything we need to say or do about rank and power in this room today?  

This is usually met with silence or a ‘what do you mean?’  So, I explain that the minute you get more than two people in a room there  will be issues of rank and power.

It could be to do with your age, your gender, your ethnicity, your social class, where you structurally sit in the organisation, your title, how long you’ve worked in the organisation etc. Rank and power is always present.

My job as a facilitator is to bring that to light so we can all be more aware that rank and power is present and can influence participation.  We need to be  mindful of how we operate with power so that it doesn’t become a barrier to meaningful participation and get in the way of us working well together.  

At this point participants offer suggestions for agreements such as  ‘sharing space and air time’ or ‘let’s be aware of how much space we’re taking’, A participant a few weeks ago put it beautifully:

‘For the purpose of our time together – not above you, not below you but right beside you.’

Addressing power dynamics in the process of creating agreements doesn’t eliminate them, but it helps surface them so they can be navigated with greater awareness.  As facilitators we still have to be attentive to the ways rank and power show up in our spaces so that we can be a mirror and notice and name it when it gets in the way.

Capture moments

For example, noticing when there are participants dominating a conversation and intervening to actively create space for other voices. ‘I’m noticing we are hearing from only a few voices, I’d like to also create space for those voices we have not heard from yet’ and wait … to me that is like opening a door for those other voices. They may choose to walk through or not but as a facilitator we have to create that space.

So many of the great things that happen in groups often don’t just magically happen – we’ve set up the space and designed the gently unfolding agenda to allow them to occur as naturally as possible.  As facilitators we need to be proactive and explicit, from our planning and session design and in our delivery with our facilitation skills – ensuring we intentionally create inclusive spaces and make an effort to equalise power.

Creating inclusive and equitable spaces is particularly important when working with people of different cultures and or socio-economic backgrounds. If you work in the International Development field, we have an online facilitation training course coming up in May that is specifically targeted to your work. Find out more and register here.