Cunico, GiovanniZimmermann, NiciVideira, Nuno2024-03-022024-03-0220240160-5682PURE: 84355564PURE UUID: 1f5728f9-341a-470e-9ce8-85825ee559d3Scopus: 85173754329WOS: 001080771900001http://hdl.handle.net/10362/164355Funding Information: We are very grateful to the BEIS team, who accepted to be challenged by this new role in their workshop. We are deeply indebted to Nicole Bernardi, Yekatherina Bobrova, Valerio Cappuccio, Luca Cunico and Juan Pablo Ríos Ocampo for all their precious help along the way. The authors also acknowledge Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands), NOVA University Lisbon (Portugal), University of Bergen (Norway) and University of Palermo (Italy) for supporting this research within the European Master Programme in System Dynamics (EMSD). This work was supported by the UK Government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) [no grant number], by a UCL Public Policy Small Grant [no grant number] and by the EPSRC Platform Grant on ‘Built Environment Systems Thinking’ [EP/P022405/1]. CENSE is financed by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P., Portugal [UID/AMB/04085/2020]. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.To address complex issues, facilitated modelling aims to represent and accommodate plural worldviews from many stakeholders and experts. In these contexts, group homogeneity can become problematic when participants’ plurality of perspectives and information is missing and people attending facilitated sessions have similar problem perceptions and interests. This is a challenge because it can lead to narrow discussion, groupthink and undermine output quality. Despite not being uncommon, effective approaches to deal with homogeneity are hardly reported. This paper presents a new role—the New Devil’s Advocate—in which some facilitators leave their neutrality-oriented stance and act as the missing stakeholders. The paper illustrates a first application to a group model building process aimed at supporting the development of energy efficiency policies in the UK. To evaluate the results, workshop transcripts were coded, participants’ and facilitators’ feedback collected, and the modelling output assessed with respect to the New Devil’s Advocate interventions during the workshop. Although the role performance appears to increase facilitators’ workload and be influenced by role performers’ personality and background, the analysis shows positive results as a promising practice to address homogeneity. Additionally, it offers a practical experience of how facilitation teams may temporarily abandon neutrality and intervene on content.242510920engCommunity ORdecision support systemsgroup decision makingproblem structuringsoft ORsystem dynamicsModelling and SimulationStrategy and ManagementStatistics, Probability and UncertaintyManagement Science and Operations ResearchSDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energyjournal article10.1080/01605682.2023.2263101https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85173754329