Vincent & Associates, Ltd.
Innovation Management Services
innovations that work®
(415) 387-1270
When Innovating: Moderate, Expedite, or Facilitate?
People often confuse the roles of a moderator, expeditor and facilitator. This is partly because the
roles share some similarities and partly because their definitions overlap; however, their use
contexts tend to be quite distinct.
•
Moderators tend to show up leading focus groups or hosting panel discussions. This fits the
definition of moderate which means “to avoid excess or extremes” and maintain evenness or
balance.
•
Expediters function in operating contexts where outcomes are as crisp and clear as the
obstacles in the way. The definition of expedite is to “execute promptly,” partly by clearing
away the difficulties.
•
Facilitators are found in contexts where development is the task at hand. Not to be confused
with growth, development is an “increase in competence, and competence increases by
learning,”1 while growth is an increase in size or number. Teachers enable learning and often
think of themselves as facilitators.
Innovating is a particular form of development, a challenging one at that. Facilitate means to
“make easier, help forward,” coming from the same word as facile and the Latin root meaning
“to make or do.” Skilled innovation facilitators provide the way without getting in the way. As a
facilitator for over 30 years in innovating and R&D contexts, I often find myself doing a little
moderating, expediting, and even mediating, to be sure, but it is always in the context of enabling
something that is developing.
The semantic confusion can be symptomatic of a more substantive one: the well-intentioned but
misguided application of operating methods, measures and models to innovating efforts. In other
words, the mistaken notion that what is sufficient for addressing operating issues is appropriate
to innovating challenges. For example, look at the methods of communication and interaction.
An operating team—by the nature of the tasks they tackle—is more able to communicate and
interact through media and from dispersed locations, even from different time zones and
asynchronously. This works in an operating context when there are comparatively fewer
uncertainties and clearer specifications. However, when this environment for communication and
interaction is used in early phases of innovating it often proves to be difficult and decelerating, at
best.
There is more forming of hypotheses and concepts than “norming” of routines and standard
protocols early in an innovation’s development. Nuances, tacit-to-tacit knowledge exchanges,
and synchronous dialogue among project team members are necessary conditions for productive,
1
Ackoff, Russell. Differences That Make a Difference. Triarchy Press. 2010. Page 33.
1
creative work. If the interactions and communication are “mediated” electronically a very
important enabling condition is absent. Increasingly, companies with overly lean staffing policies
end up with innovators working efficiently but sacrificing effectiveness. Expediting gets
confused with facilitating and incremental improvements end up being the poor substitute for
value-creating innovations.
Michael Kennedy in his book Product Development for the Lean Enterprise (2003) described the
dangers and waste that result from confusing efficiency with effectiveness in the process of
innovating. A major implication of this study of Toyota’s Development System is to shift
attention, energy and effort to the “front end” or early phases of innovating. This requires a
healthy dose of in-person, synchronous and unmediated working sessions among innovators to
be effective.
Working sessions don’t always require a facilitator. However, when a few well-timed working
sessions are planned, designed and conducted with the assistance of a skilled facilitator, projects
progress both faster and more effectively, and the project gets more from the collaborators
involved. Without a facilitator the interactions and communication environments become the
burden of project leaders. When project leaders worry about interaction and communication
issues—for example, are the project’s collaborators fully present, fully engaged, and giving their
all—leaders take their minds and eyes off the critical path of content development.
As the late management and system thinker Russell Ackoff was fond of saying, “It’s better to do
the right thing wrong than the wrong thing righter.” A skilled facilitator in innovating can help
project leaders “make and do” the right thing and avoid doing what turns out to be the wrong
thing righter.
Please see the companion piece “When to use a facilitator in innovating contexts (and why)”
available at www.innovationsthatwork.com
2
Vincent & Associates, Ltd. has over 30 years of experience facilitating innovating efforts in
a variety of established companies, especially those with significant investments in R&D.
Often it makes good economic sense for clients to have their own skilled facilitative capability
for innovating. As a result, Vincent & Associates, Ltd. develops in-house innovation facilitators
in our client companies. We help select, educate, and coach candidates by co-facilitating
segments of current innovating efforts. Frequently clients with this capability will call upon
Vincent & Associates, Ltd. from time to time to assist them with special situations where greater
objectivity, neutrality or facilitation mastery is required.
Please contact [email protected] or call (415) 387-1270.
3