Twelve Angry Men: Movie Analysis

According to the B A 321 textbook, facilitation is the set of activities carried out before, during, and after meetings to help a group achieve its own outcomes. A facilitator is someone who performs these activities, helping the team by monitoring and improving its internal process. Twelve Angry Men, a movie about an open-and-shut murder trial in which one juror stands alone in his beliefs, made use of facilitation. When the twelve jurors were sent to deliberate a unanimous verdict, the case was not as clear-cut as they once thought. The jurors were made up of twelve men of diverse backgrounds. Their choice would either send an 18-year-old Hispanic man to death or set him free. When the twelve men were locked in the deliberation room, the jury foreman acted as the facilitator for the group. It was the jury foreman that got everyone focused for the initial vote. It was important get everyone focused because the group was busy discussing their personal life, occupations, and their future plans. They were not discussing the case because they assumed everyone would vote the same. The foreman had …show more content…
Even though many of the jurors still thought the man was guilty. They still engaged in the discussion. The discussion then shifted towards playing out the scenario. It was at this point that, jurors started to change their minds. Hey could have replayed the same scenario over and over again. However, the facilitator called for a vote once they reached their discussion goal. The vote resulted in more jurors changing their mind. The facilitator established a pattern that worked for the group. They would have a group discussion, playout a scenario, discuss the scenario, and then vote. This process proved to be very productive. The end result was a unanimous jury decision. Facilitation allowed the group to stay focused on the task at hand and save an innocent man’s