{"id":4680,"date":"2024-12-10T19:56:41","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T19:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/?p=4680"},"modified":"2024-12-11T20:01:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T20:01:39","slug":"the-deliberative-facilitator-the-importance-of-neutrality-being-neutral-and-asking-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/blogposts\/the-deliberative-facilitator-the-importance-of-neutrality-being-neutral-and-asking-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Deliberative Facilitator: The Importance of\u00a0Asking Good Questions\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This was the moment: After all the training, mock deliberations, and facilitations within the Fellows group, it was finally time to conduct my own D-Team. I had reviewed my facilitator\u2019s guide and toolkit before arriving to make sure I was fully prepared.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About an hour into the meeting, there was a lull in the conversation, so I chose to ask a prompting question that would hopefully encourage more discussion. As I thought about what to say, though, I realized that one thing I hadn\u2019t really thought about was how to ask a question neutrally without accidentally saying something that would show a preference for either side. Though I did eventually find something to say that was down the middle of the discussion, it led me to think about how the wording of questions can influence a discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This topic doesn\u2019t just apply to DCI\u2019s deliberative teams or forums; we see the challenge of neutrally asking questions everywhere, from court cases to presidential debates. The problem with asking questions with a bias is that it can put people on the defensive, close down the conversation, or cause someone to go on the attack. When it feels like the facilitator is favoring one perspective over another, it can also leave participants feeling shut out of the conversation, which is the opposite of what a good deliberation should do.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can also escalate a conversation from a discussion to a debate when it feels like the moderator is purposely trying to challenge your principles or values. For example, on the topic of the DCI\u2019s forum on economic inequality, a question beginning with the statement, \u201cIf we all agree that equal opportunity is a good place to start\u2026 \u201d may shut some out of the discussion when not all members of the group have agreed on that assumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to furthering a discussion, questions can also be used to understand participants\u2019 beliefs. Because an important part of deliberation, in addition to being a neutral ground to discuss ideas, is to listen to other people\u2019s perspectives and what motivates their values, asking questions of participants to hear more of their opinion is very important as well.\u00a0\u00a0If a participant expresses a viewpoint that has yet been unsaid in the group, the facilitator should not be afraid to ask about\u00a0why they hold this view, as long as they do so in a\u00a0non-confrontational and non-targeting way.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another important way questions can be used by a facilitator is to bring out perspectives that are not included at the table. Sometimes D -Teams can hold more homogeneous viewpoints. In these cases, asking a question from someone else\u2019s perspective can help to broaden the group\u2019s area of discussion. To prevent the participants from believing that this is the facilitator\u2019s viewpoint, the facilitator should always make sure to clarify when they are playing \u201cdevil\u2019s advocate\u201d or choosing to bring a new idea into the deliberation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a new facilitator, I\u2019ve realized that there are many skills I\u2019ve developed\u00a0as I\u2019ve gained\u00a0more experience, such as when to step into a conversation or when to leave the floor more open. Additionally, I\u2019ve been figuring out how to ask questions that are unbiased while still guiding the group farther into a discussion. Despite starting this post with a situation that may not apply to everyone, learning how to further a conversation with a neutral tone could be helpful in lots of different contexts. For example, when dealing with an argument with a friend, learning how to say what you want without attacking their thoughts could be very important to preserving that relationship. In addition, as deliberation becomes more and more important and\u00a0hopefully\u00a0widespread, the ability to ask unbiased questions\u00a0can help moderators everywhere\u00a0keep their conversations on track,\u00a0framed in a neutral manner, and\u00a0moving\u00a0forward towards greater mutual understanding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was the moment: After all the training, mock deliberations, and facilitations within the Fellows group, it was finally time to conduct my own D-Team. I had reviewed my facilitator\u2019s guide and toolkit before arriving to make sure I was fully prepared.\u00a0 About an hour into the meeting, there was a lull in the conversation, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1232,"featured_media":4709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-blogposts","category-fellows","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Madeline-Blog-Post-Image_Final.png","rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Madeline-Blog-Post-Image_Final.png",1600,900,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Madeline-Blog-Post-Image_Final.png",1600,900,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Madeline-Blog-Post-Image_Final.png",1600,900,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Madeline-Blog-Post-Image_Final-180x180.png",180,180,true],"medium":["https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Madeline-Blog-Post-Image_Final-300x169.png",300,169,true],"large":["https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Madeline-Blog-Post-Image_Final-1024x576.png",1024,576,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Madeline-Blog-Post-Image_Final-1536x864.png",1536,864,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Madeline-Blog-Post-Image_Final.png",1600,900,false],"mini-thumbnail":["https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Madeline-Blog-Post-Image_Final-75x75.png",75,75,true],"team-member":["https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Madeline-Blog-Post-Image_Final-600x600.png",600,600,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Madeline Kleiner","author_link":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/author\/madelinekleiner\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Blog Posts<\/a> Fellow Posts<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"This was the moment: After all the training, mock deliberations, and facilitations within the Fellows group, it was finally time to conduct my own D-Team. I had reviewed my facilitator\u2019s guide and toolkit before arriving to make sure I was fully prepared.\u00a0 About an hour into the meeting, there was a lull in the conversation,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4680"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4723,"href":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4680\/revisions\/4723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deliberativecitizenship.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}