Trust in the Leader of Collaborative Process Design and Facilitation
SKILL SK-02 | Pre-Development & Early Engagement
Contextual Humility
The practice of recognizing and managing the limits of one own knowledge about a community, and creating space for local knowledge to guide engagement design. It means being genuinely open to being wrong about what a community needs, values, or will accept.
How to Develop It
1. Assumption audit
Before each engagement, write down five assumptions you hold about this community. After the engagement, review them: which were confirmed, which were wrong, which remain untested? Update your approach based on what was revised.
2. Reverse briefing
Ask a community representative to brief you on what they think you need to know before you explain anything about the project. Take notes. Build your next engagement design around what they tell you.
3. Reflection journaling
After each community visit, write one thing you learned that you did not expect, and one assumption you had to revise. Review the journal monthly for patterns in your blind spots.
Why This Skill Matters
Practitioners with strong technical backgrounds often enter new communities confident in their approach. This confidence, when it overrides local knowledge, is one of the most common sources of early trust breakdown in SE-GRM systems.
Observable Behaviors
+ Asks more questions than gives information in early engagements
+ Visibly adjusts approach in response to community feedback
+ Names and acknowledges uncertainty openly rather than projecting false confidence
+ Seeks local knowledge as a primary source, not merely a validation of prior decisions
+ Thanks and credits community members who correct or inform their approach
Self-Assessment
Read each Reflective Question below and honestly consider how consistently you demonstrate this in your actual fieldwork, not how you think you should behave, but how you do behave. Then assign a score from 1 (lowest) to 4 (highest):
(1) Not yet developed: Rarely demonstrated in practice
(2) Emerging: Demonstrated sometimes, but inconsistently or only under favorable conditions
(3) Established: Demonstrated reliably in most situations, including moderately challenging ones
(4) Adaptive: Demonstrated reliably even in high-pressure situations, and practitioner actively helps
Common Gaps & Pitfalls
! Confusing contextual humility with lack of confidence - it is about curiosity, not self-doubt
! Performing humility while continuing to follow a pre-set agenda regardless of what is heard
! Treating community feedback as input to note but not act on
Connections
SK-01: Landscape Awareness
SK-06: Trust Building
SK-26: Reflective Practice
Reflective Questions Score from 1 (lowest) to 4 (highest):
I regularly audit my own assumptions about communities before engaging
I visibly adapt my approach when community members tell me something is not working
I seek local knowledge as a primary input, not just a validation of my existing plan
I am comfortable naming uncertainty openly in front of community stakeholders
Th shared to the public for free courtesy of the
THE CONFLICT RESOLUTION GROUP FOUNDATION
www.coregroup.org.ph * info@coregroup.org.ph
in partnership with SustainABILITIES Lab
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