Trust in Facilitation Methods: The Invisibile Pillar of Local Participation

Trust in Facilitation Methods: The Invisible Pillar of Local Participation

A fellow facilitator once shared with me his frustration after returning from a village. He had visited five times and held several meetings, yet he still felt a wall between him and the community. He mentioned that at the end of the last session, he saw a few local group members standing in a corner, whispering to each other. He took this as a sign of distrust and felt like an outsider. He felt as though all his efforts to build trust had hit a dead end.

I told him that maybe his expectations for trust were too high. In the real world, especially in local communities that have often heard empty promises before, you cannot expect people to place full, absolute trust in an outsider right from the start. But is it really necessary for them to trust us as individuals? The most important step is for them to trust our tools and our participatory methods—the very methods that open up space for them to speak, to be heard, and to make decisions.

I asked him what happened when he laid out his tools on the ground and asked the people to prioritize the village’s problems using the cards. He confirmed that they had carefully moved the cards, discussed issues like water and access roads, and finally reached a collective agreement. Those whispered conversations at the end of the meeting weren't necessarily a sign of rejection; they were a sign that his methods were working and had engaged the villagers in talking about their real issues.

I told him not to worry; he had done his job correctly. He didn't need to stress about why the deep, total trust he imagined hadn't formed yet. The fact that the group members had accepted his methods and participated in the exercise meant he had already earned enough trust. Trusting the process is the first and most crucial step; the rest of the path is built bit by bit, over time, under the shadow of these transparent methods.

Finally, I reminded him that facilitation is not a popularity contest. The mere fact that they accepted his tools and used them to speak up means he succeeded in opening a path for them to address their own problems. Let this trust in his methods grow gradually and become the foundation for deeper cooperation. He should lift the heavy burden of "absolute trust" off his shoulders, because this level of trust in the process is enough—and even vital—to begin a great change.