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Do you feel communicating difficult in your work or home?

Meta-facilitation is a communication method focusing problem solving based on facts, and it can improve your communication skill.

A Japanese expert provided training to 12 dairy farmers on this "Meta-facilitation" under JICA Milk Project.

The selected 12 farmers from Chuy region of Kyrgyzstan are expected to disseminate gained knowledge and experience to other farmers. It means a kind of peer-to-peer trainings on milk production improvement will be held by the farmers and it requires a good facilitating capacity.

Meta-facilitation focuses on confirming "facts" in communication. For example, you should avoid asking "why" questions since this question word asks subjective opinion of respondents. "Why" also pressures respondents to justify their actions or at least to provide a reasonable answer, which is sometimes not true. By keep focusing on "facts", the respondents will build up objective facts in the dialog and realize by themselves how to solve their problems. This method was developed and proven in field practices in many countries.

According to the feedback of training participants, the seminar helped them to build a better communication not only in working groups but also in their families.

"When I was invited to participate in the training, I was not sure what it was about. However, I decided to participate anyway. After the training, we can use the method to interact with others to make our lives better. Previously, I used to introduce the information about dairy farming to other farmers in unilateral way even if they were not interested. Now, I don't push something to them from my side if they are not interested. If they have a question, I answer. Meta-facilitation was the most necessary lesson for me. Now I feel more comfortable talking with my workmates, family and children."