Note: This guest post is from Annie Winkler of Real Pickles Cooperative. Thanks, Annie!

We all have many ways we can think about who we are. There are:

• Identities based in our families of origin: sibling, child, parent.

• Labels based in communities we belong to: gay, Indigenous, physically-abled, poor, cis-gendered, white.

• Ways we identify based on what we do for work. These are rooted in our knowledge, skills, and attitudes.

For the sake of simplicity, let’s call those identities hats. When you’re facilitating a group, leading a workshop, or making decisions, which hats are you wearing?

In this post, we’ll discuss the different ways you might notice your hats, and the benefits you get when you do.

Is “objective facilitation” a good thing? Not really

When it comes to facilitation, teaching, and presenting information, there are those who suggest that a facilitator can be objective, neutral, or non-biased.

That’s neither realistic nor helpful. In White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo says that the concept of “objectivity” suggests that it’s possible to be free of all bias. When we’re swimming in culture filled with bias, she writes, we’re all full of it as well.

“But I’m unique!” you say.

Me too. Uniqueness doesn’t exempt me from examining my biases. Rather, it gives me the opportunity to say to myself, “I am white and also have experiences outside of the cultural position of power; my gender (non-binary) and sexual identity (queer) are both non-normative. How do those experiences shape me as a white person?”

Instead of assuming that objectivity is possible, let’s examine what identities we bring to any particular situation and how these identities inform our facilitation, decision-making, and communication.

Practicing with your hats

Understanding which factors inform how you think about decisions requires repetition and practice – especially in environments where we use democratic or participatory decision-making.

Think about the people you interact with and the decisions you make together. Which roles do you play in an average week or month? How many hats do you wear?

You might be familiar with the Six Thinking Hats of Edward de Bono. When making decisions, what’s your preferred hat? Are you more likely to use your intuition (red), think positively (yellow), focus on challenges (black), develop creative solutions (green), analyze data trends (white), or really focus on the process of how decision is made (blue)?

When working with groups and making decisions, what’s in your wheelhouse of skills? Are you really good with numbers? Are you good at reading the room? When you’re facing a decision outside of your wheelhouse, what helps you get through it?

Different hats for different roles

When you serve on a board, you may get to try on new hats unrelated to anything you’ve done previously. For some people, looking at an organization from a more global perspective, as board members are encouraged to do, can be challenging.

As a facilitator, you might wear a sneaky hat beneath your normal blue facilitator’s hat – and it’s an identity you aren’t sharing with the group. How might that affect your facilitation?

How hats affect behavior

As I think about myself, I have a big picture thinking hat, a synthesizing hat, a teaching hat, a learning hat, a vibe-watching hat, and the list goes on.

I don’t want to make long term decisions while wearing my teaching hat because, at that moment, I’m not focused on adaptability and risk.

In the same way, if I have a personal history with health insurance or finance that makes me risk averse, I need to be aware of that when discussing expanding employee benefits with my group.

The most important thing is that I hold my history gently and figure out how it might affect my thinking about our decision.

How do you carry your history? How can you use it to inform your work with groups?

Facilitation as a tool to fight oppression

As a facilitator, I deliberately make space for the ideas coming from folks with minoritized identities. This helps to ensure we’re making the best possible decisions.

If some of your identities are minoritized ones – and you’re willing and able to speak up – talk about how your experience with systemic oppression might be influencing your decision making.

When we take the time to notice the hats we are all wearing, we get more information. That helps us make better decisions together. Thank goodness for that.