Steps to Being Mindful as a Facilitator

In an excerpt from my 2020 book, The SAGA Facilitation Model, I explore how you can improve your ability to be mindful when planning and participating in a facilitated meeting, workshop, or training

One of the many ways to practice allyship is to be mindful of our dominant identities. In the workplace, we are often unaware of how these identities show up when leading others formally or informally. This happens especially during training workshops, which is a privilege in itself.

During workshops where I was asked to self-explore my identities, I often focused on when my subordinate identities made me feel left out or isolated during professional interactions. Admittedly, I rarely used that time to look at myself and my own dominant-identity behaviors.

I had no problem asking for allies to change their behavior; I struggled with practicing it in my own life.

One of the catalysts for exploring these identities occurred during the Black Lives Matter uprisings taking place in 2020. As a gay Latino, I could lend a perspective to any conversation that involved power and privilege. But I wasn’t always able to recognize how my middle-class life separated me from those impacted the most by policing in the US. Or how my cisgender male identity couldn’t inform me about how trans folks were sometimes targeted…