How do you facilitate societal engagement?
Facilitation of societal engagement activities requires a wide diversity of skills, most importantly the knowledge and ability to establish a climate of trust, empathy and collaboration. Facilitation skills combine a set of techniques that need to be deployed in particular contexts, but it also demands significant experience in facilitating these encounters. This experience is of utmost importance for dealing with a diversity of participants and in situations where things do not go as planned. Facilitation requires both being able to plan to use relevant methods and activities, and to have the flexibility to know when and how to steer unexpected situations into the right direction when new opportunities arise during an activity. Facilitation experience is necessary to successfully realise societal engagement activities, and further project management skills are required to undertake the planning and organisation of the overall event.
The role of the facilitator
The facilitator has to:
- design activities that allow participants to brainstorm about tangible, potential day-to-day scenarios involving innovative technologies in order to stimulate active engagement and brings about new insights.
It is not about dissemination of specialised technology to inform participants, because this makes engagement more difficult. - ensure that a diverse range of perspectives is heard, allowing space for all participants to actively engage, and to focus on nurturing long-term relationships and initiatives.
It is important to remember that facilitators are not completely neutral, and therefore need to be open to reflect on their own assumptions and expectations, and to be challenged by the participants’ points of view. - ensure not only individual, but also collective learning in order to challenge underlying conflicts of interests and redirect these towards a common, long-term goal.
There are two options regarding facilitation: through in-house facilitation or by outsourcing facilitation to professional facilitators. We highly recommend getting professional facilitators on board, if resources are available, because you can be sure of getting clear outcomes. The choice of in-house/outsourced facilitation also depends on the cultural and economic context, as there are large differences between European countries in how people view facilitation. In some countries facilitation is a relatively cheap service and few companies have in- house experience, whereas in other countries there is more of a culture of facilitating events and external services are costly.
Outsourcing Facilitation
If you wish to use the services of a professional facilitator, you can try finding a local expert through a professional network of facilitators. For example, the International Association of Facilitators is a worldwide community of certified facilitators with members all over the world. Other national networks might exist in your country. Different consultancies and companies might also provide facilitation services.
In-house Facilitation
If you wish to undertake in-house facilitation, this guide provides several easy methods and suggestions for tools and materials. In-house facilitation requires a person with people skills, rather than specialised tech expertise. Involving too much technological expertise might prevent participants from being engaged. In order to minimize barriers, it is critical to reflect on ways to design the societal engagement process in such a way that technological knowledge is not a precondition of participation; thus, helping a wider range of societal actors to be engaged.
It is crucial to check expectations with all parties involved in the organising of the societal engagement, for example defining clear roles and responsibilities, the goal and desired outcomes. The focus on the goal is different than on specific outcomes: on a business level, all involved parties need to be aligned on the overall vision—e.g. why are we doing this in the first place? Setting a clear goal will help your company to work towards a shared vision with citizens, and potentially create a shared mission together. You can start developing this goal by downloading the PDF Guidebook to fill out the questions.
Example of how to consider societal engagement within your team
When designing and carrying out societal engagement activities, it is important to keep reflecting on the process. A good example of this is seen in the project case of our partners in Serbia, led by the Centre for the Promotion of Science (CPN), that focused on the challenges identified around the use of advanced technologies in the healthcare sector, especially on introducing an online medical system in the country. To examine the challenges, they held three workshops with three different objectives. During the process, they asked relevant questions about what they would get out of societal engagement and how to do it. These questions helped in defining a clear goal for societal engagement, to be aware of their available resources and to plan their activities.
Questions which were raised:
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What are the potential obstacles in carrying out this activity and how to overcome them?
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Which stakeholders could participate in the implementation of the activity and why would it be in their interest?
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In what specific ways, in cooperation with your organisation, would the stakeholders contribute to the implementation of this activity?
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List the resources within your organisation that would contribute to the implementation of this activity.
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How much time do you think it takes to carry out this activity in the planned way, and why?
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What are your expectations regarding the results of the implementation of this activity and what would be your next steps?
Throughout, this guide raises similar questions for you to consider, but it is always good to check if you can formulate your own further questions that are specifically relevant for your entrepreneurship and context.
Questions to consider
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Which (new) skills do you need to facilitate an activity and engage with citizens? -
Which additional resources do you need to organise societal engagement activities?
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What kind of support do you need from your colleagues?
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What expectations do you have about the desired outcomes in doing more societal engagement?
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What do these expectations tell you about certain values and assumptions you hold towards technology?
The Guide towards Responsible Tech Innovation using Societal Engagement has been created as part of the EU funded SocKETs project, which aims to align innovative technologies with citizens’ needs and values through societal engagement.
This 3-year project has been managed by 10 partners from 8 European countries.
This guide and its contents reflect only their authors' view. The Research Executive Agency and the European Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.
The SocKETs project (Societal Engagement with Key Enabling Technologies) has received funding from the European Union´s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under grant agreement no.958277.
The Tech Industry’s Guide has been created as part of the EU-funded SocKETs project, which aims to align innovative technologies with citizens’ needs and values through societal engagement.
This 3-year project has been managed by 10 partners from 8 European countries.
This guide and its contents reflect only their authors' view. The Research Executive Agency and the European Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.
The SocKETs project (Societal Engagement with Key Enabling Technologies) has received funding from the European Union´s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under grant agreement no.958277.