Facilitation vs Chairing

Big thanks to Lucy Chambers, who invited Manal Sayid, MBA and myself onto her fascinating podcast, Edges of Facilitation, to dig right into this!

Off the top, it sounds like a small distinction, but in teasing it apart, and really listening to my colleagues, knowing what lane you're in is really important.

It shapes everything about how groups make decisions, build trust, and move forward together.

Chairing, at its heart, is about deploying and guiding formal authority and structure. Chairs are entrusted with responsibility over time (stewarding boards, committees, teams) and they tend to enact procedure, creating room when clarity is needed, and holding accountability for the outcomes. It’s usually more decisive, rule-bound, and rooted in trust that’s built over the long haul. (Especially if they are fiduciaries.)

Facilitation, by contrast, is about inclusion, emergence, and neutrality. Facilitators step in as independent guides. Not owning the group’s decisions, but designing the process, encouraging participation, and focussing on the health of the relationships in the room.

Both roles matter!

Chairs bring order and finality when decisions must be made. Facilitators create safety and openness so new thinking can emerge.