Facilitating Participatory Modeling

Facilitate: “To help (something) run more smoothly and effectively” [Webster Online http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/facilitate]

Like many practices in life, there is an art and a science to facilitation.  Certainly, best practices in facilitating processes within participatory modeling mirror many of those practices highlighted in guides to other participatory approaches.  It is of critical importance that the expectations around the word “effective”, as taken from the definition above, are identified and negotiated. How can an individual or team of individuals help the process if expectations are unmatched? 

Given that resources exist to encourage facilitation, the question that I struggle with is how is participatory modeling different?  What does the addition of a model (i.e., an abstract representation) mean for facilitating participation?  I argue that the benefits of using a model as a boundary object (i.e., a static representation that is jointly created but differently interpreted) about which stakeholders can discuss, are many-fold.

To read more go to: http://i2insights.org/2016/03/17/facilitating-participatory-modeling/

  • : Rebecca Jordan