Sam Kaner and his colleagues at Community At Work in San Francisco wrote Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making. It describes a person who runs a meeting without taking a side on its content. “The facilitator’s job is to support everyone to do their best thinking and practice. To do this, the facilitator encourages full participation, promotes mutual understanding and cultivates shared responsibility.”
The International Association of Facilitators “was founded in 1994 to provide a home for a growing profession.” One of its core competencies for facilitators is “Guide the group toward useful outcomes.”