Barbara MacKay
Four Ways to Introduce Yourself and Your Work as a Facilitator
Often people struggle with best ways to describe what they do as a process facilitator or how to market facilitation as a service to both internal and external clients. Sorry, there are really no easy ways to synthesize the complexity of what you do in the typical elevator speech format. However, let me give you…
A Must Have for Global Teams: >1 Virtual Facilitation Platform
More and more, I am getting requests for facilitation training that happens globally. Or, I participate in virtual team meetings with participants from 6-20 different locations, multiple time zones and cultures. Sometimes we are participating live (i.e, synchronously) or on our own time (i.e., asynchronously). This blog is for you if you have had any…
Ten Tried-and-True Team Building and Trust Building Techniques
The point of having a good synergistic team is so that when times are tough, the team really pulls together and are able to pull themselves out of tremendous challenging situations. Other reasons for having team and trust building activities as a regular part of your meetings and or organizational culture initiatives include: – People…
Neutralize Whining and Complaining Behaviors in Groups!
Why am I talking about the topic of whining and complaining behavior in groups? I realize that many people adopt whining or complaining behavior as a normal course of their day. I do this myself sometimes when I am tired and discouraged. You may have someone at work, in your family or circle of friends…
Avoid Team Gridlock! Move Forward Using Consensus
Today, I am co-training one of my favorite two-day courses called ToP Facilitation methods with my incredibly talented colleagues Judy Weddle and Teresa Lingafelter. We have 23 people from 18 different organizations. And, last week I was teaching this course in Wisconsin with my wonderful colleague, Bev Scow at her workplace, Wise Women Gathering Place….
Groups Want Safety – A Facilitator’s Guide to Creating Safe Space
With a recent event in the US around a mass shooting in a nightclub in Orlando, I grieve once again for the fact that safety is not apparent or a given for many people around the world. I was born and spent most of my life in a country, Canada, where we have not had…
No tools, techniques or theory! Just facilitation theology
You may not know that I was once the director of religious education for a church in the 1980s. I have always been quite fascinated with religion and theology. I do not profess to be a scholar of religion. I have been brought up in, practiced and studied several. But I do know of all…
Recipes for Energizing Your Team Celebrations!
Who doesn’t love to celebrate?! And it’s an important step for our teams and groups as well. I want share with you three meaningful “games” for three different scenarios. These activities are related to celebrating an aspect of the team or organization. I will include the learning theory behind the game, the process for delivering…
Are You “Dropping In” or “Dropping On” Your Group?
I recently passed my 21st anniversary in business and I wanted to share something I’ve been thinking about a long time. This is a concept of dropping in vs. dropping on your client group. This is what I mean by each term: “Dropping on” is the process of creating an agenda and moving from item…
Tips from Trini – What I Learned From an Astrophysicist and More
I know everybody does not get to attend facilitator conferences. Last week I got home from the Trinidad Tobago International Association of Facilitators North America (IAFNA) conference and honestly, my memories are still very soft, precious and almost indescribably delicious. I feel compelled to give you a brief overview of some sessions I attended and…
