Dynamic Facilitation

Spec: dynamic-facilitation in the method-specs registry · Licence: CC0-1.0 · Status: draft · Reference runtime: Harmonica

Dynamic Facilitation is a method for a group facing a hard, alive question with no clear path from A to B. Rather than running an agenda toward agreement, the facilitator draws out each contribution in turn, reflects it back until the person feels heard, and charts it onto one of four shared boards. The group diverges fully, moves through the difficulty that follows, and arrives at breakthroughs it could not have reached by negotiation. Jim Rough calls this choice-creating rather than decision-making.

Who it’s for. Facilitators working with a group on a genuinely unresolved question, where creative thinking matters more than speed and the group needs to own the outcome. It suits complex or polarised topics. It is the wrong choice when the options are already known, the path is clear, or time is tight.

The four boards

Every contribution is welcomed and charted onto one of four boards, and the facilitator keeps all four in view throughout:

• Problem statements — how the question itself is being framed and reframed.
• Solutions — proposed answers and possibilities.
• Concerns — objections, doubts, and what could go wrong. Sought out, not suppressed.
• Data — facts, experiences, and background that inform the rest.

The arc

Dynamic Facilitation is emergent, not linear. The facilitator does not march the group through steps; they keep welcoming and reflecting, and the conversation moves on its own. The spec names four movements, but the core activity — welcome, reflect, chart — runs continuously from the first contribution to the last:

1. Open the question — put a real, open question in front of the group, and make clear the question itself is open to challenge.
2. Welcome and reflect — take contributions one at a time, reflect each back until the person feels heard, and chart it to its board. This is the engine of the method.
3. Stay in the groan zone — hold the difficulty when divergence turns to confusion or conflict, without resolving it early.
4. Harvest the shift — notice the breakthrough when it comes, reflect it back, and leave the thinking with the group.

The artifact is a single facilitated conversation, not a multi-session chain.

Provenance

An independent OFL rendering of Dynamic Facilitation, grounded in Jim Rough’s published method (Center for Wise Democracy, wisedemocracy.org) and a real DF session in the OFL benchmark corpus. The prompt wording is ours and is dedicated to the public domain under CC0; the method itself originated with Jim Rough. The spec is draft — it benefits from review by an experienced DF practitioner before promotion to tested. The “groan zone” framing is Sam Kaner’s. Full provenance: SOURCES.md.