Challenge Overview
Designers at a non-profit were consistently encountering a significant barrier during facilitation sessions. Participants often lacked understanding of why they were present, the purpose of specific activities, or how these connected to the broader design process. This resulted in facilitators repeatedly pausing to provide explanations, losing valuable time, and struggling to maintain momentum. The root issue was a communication gap between the designers’ deep understanding of the process and participants’ need for contextual framing.
Approach & Process
After observing this pattern across multiple facilitation sessions, I identified that the core issue was not the design process itself but the communication of purpose and context. My approach included:
- Analyzing where communication breakdowns typically occurred in facilitation sessions
- Identifying that participants needed to understand the why behind activities to fully engage
- Recognizing that facilitators needed a structured way to prepare these explanations
- Creating a framework that would help designers articulate purpose in language meaningful to stakeholders
- Developing guided questions that bridged facilitator expertise with participant needs
Using insights from frameworks in learning design, I designed a tool specifically to address this communication gap.
Solution Delivered
The “Sharing the Why” tool provided a structured approach to preparing contextual explanations:
- A comprehensive question framework that guided facilitators through articulating:
- Audience identification and needs
- Current design phase context and importance
- Session objectives and how they connect to stakeholder goals
- Participant activities and their purpose
- Required mindsets for successful engagement
- Expected outputs and their value
- Additional contextual considerations
- Links to existing organizational resources to maintain consistency with established language
- A synthesis section to craft cohesive explanations that could be readily used in sessions
- Flexibility to serve both as a facilitator preparation tool and as a resource for stakeholders to generate internal buy-in
Results & Impact
When tested with education designers in a feedback session, the tool demonstrated significant value:
- Designers immediately recognized how it addressed a persistent pain point in their facilitation
- One designer successfully used AI to synthesize their answers into a polished communication draft
- The tool helped designers proactively address resistance points before they emerged in sessions
- It created a reusable process for consistent explanation of design activities across the organization
- The framework helped designers connect their technical knowledge to stakeholder values more effectively
Key Insights
This project revealed several important lessons about facilitating complex processes:
- The “why” gap is often the biggest barrier to engagement, even more than activity complexity
- Structured preparation for explaining context can significantly improve participant buy-in
- Tailoring explanations to stakeholder values creates stronger alignment than generic rationales
- Facilitators benefit from tools that help them translate their expertise into stakeholder-relevant language
- Even expert facilitators need frameworks to consistently address fundamental communication challenges
- AI can be effectively integrated into the tool’s workflow to refine communication
This case study demonstrates how identifying a specific process pain point and creating a targeted tool can significantly enhance organizational effectiveness without requiring complex technical solutions.
