When to Use an Internal Facilitator

In many organizations, facilitators are considered such an important resource as to warrant the development of a full-time in-house cadre. These are paid organization development consultants who are available to help any team needing assistance.

Some organizations that are unable to maintain full-time facilitators maintain a group of part-time volunteer facilitators. These are employees who are interested in developing their group process expertise and who voluntarily take on facilitation assignments in other parts of their organization.

Whether they’re full-time professionals or part of a volunteer group, internal facilitators enjoy several advantages over external ones, such as:

• they understand the organization’s history and culture