The Hidden Benefits of Facilitated Dialogue

Abstract

Studies of alternative dispute resolution demonstrate how interest-based tradeoffs contribute to joint gains, yet facilitators do more than just broker deals between adversaries. This paper explores how facilitation supported the development of a regional wastewater plan on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Coded video records unearth the judgments stakeholders and facilitators made as they accounted for spatial scale mismatches between towns and watersheds. The findings demonstrate how facilitators supported the conceptual work of nonexpert stakeholders highlighting several tactics they used to support cross-scale reasoning. The findings allude to a new set of conversational techniques for planners and facilitators in practice.