Flipping through The Facilitator’s Fieldbook (Second Edition) I really liked their listing/categorization of the different Types of Process Consultation.  It’s a straighforward breaking apart of the different methods one might use to facilitate an interaction (normal-speak translation: talk to people)

  1. Active Listening: Paying close attention to both what is being said and the processes that are occurring, leading to highlighting clarification, summarizing, and consensus building.
  2. Inquiry: Questions and probes to raise data, focus attention, and/or stimulate diagnostic thinking; surfacing data for the group to look at.
  3. Observation and feedback: Seeing what is going on with an individual or the group and then (a) describing in behavioral terms what they are doing; (b) reflecting their emotional state; and (c) interpreting the underling dynamics of what is going on.
  4. Concretization: Pushing people to be concrete and specific to get beyond generalizations.
  5. Historical reconstruction : Looking back over events to force a reconstruction and review of what was done and how it was done (emphasizing the process dimensions).
  6. Including process focus: Building in process analysis periods, feedback sessions, and process discussions.
  7. Cognitive inputs: Concepts or ideas shared with the group to help members understand something.
  8. Skill building: Interjecting brief learning activities to enhance the capabilities of the group members in some needed competency (e.g., feedback, problem solving).
  9. Counseling/guidance: Helping the group or individuals look at themselves and actively engage in solving their own problems
  10. Designing processes: Designing and managing activities, methods, or exercises to effectively reach desired outcomes.
  11. Structural alternatives: Suggesting options for group membership, subgroups, interaction patterns, work allocation, roles and responsibilities, and so forth.
  12. Content suggestions or recommendations: Providing input or opinions concerning the content the group is working on; recommending what the group should do about some aspect of the group’s content.

The book also breaks out some other dimensions of your interaction:

     
Non-directive <—> Directive
Cognitive <—> Emotional
Reflective (Diagnostic) <—> Active (Doing)
Exploratory <—> Confrontative
Participating alongside the group <—> Participating in the group