Barbara MacKay

Brown Bears, Rice Krispie Treats and Co-facilitation!

What has playful brown bears from Alaska, a healthy and yummy rice krispie treat recipe and co-facilitation have to do with each other?   Only I could probably make all three work  🙂 but read this blog to find out the relationship between these three things.  And yes, I do provide you with the Rice Krispie…

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Space: The Final Frontier of Facilitation

Highlights from the International Association of Facilitator’s Conference Do you know what I’m talking about if I say I have a little ache in my heart because I’m missing being with my IAF friends?  I returned home to Portland, Oregon in Northwestern USA from spending 5 days in Orlando, Florida (southeastern USA) being with many…

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One Small Change = HUGE Improvement in Meeting Dynamics

You’re in a meeting. You have a lot of items to cover. You are in charge of the meeting. You ask a lot of questions like: Do you all agree with this? Is this acceptable to you?  Do you like this idea? You like to be in control of what happens. People seem to be…

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There is No Magic in Being a GREAT Facilitator – Stories to Inspire You

I have been hearing a lot lately about people starting out their own facilitation businesses.  Those of us who have been facilitation business owners for many years know it is a profound journey that really invites you to look deeply into your own life.  It is a privilege to meet and connect with anyone on…

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Facilitation Saves The Day (AGAIN!) Five Steps to Easing Tension and Conflict in Groups

How does conflict show up in groups? I’d like to share three short stories about my own facilitated events that went wrong and then either turned out great, OK or failed miserably. These stories illustrate how conflict shows up differently in groups. Then we’ll share some tips, tools and a five step process to ease…

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Be Known For Your Razor Sharp Meeting Principles

So you’re running a lot of meetings, and you never have time to prepare for them, and you’re not sure if they are very effective, and you really don’t have time to think about making them better! Sound familiar?  Ok – help is here! Here is your short guide to six common principles for effective…

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“A Hero’s Journey” – A Model to Help Groups Through Big Change

Recently, I had the pleasure of being reminded of a model that I think serves facilitators and their groups well.  It is Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”.    I was co-facilitating a plenary session with my dear ICA colleague, Jo Nelson who works with ICA Canada.  She had the idea of using the theme of the Hero’s…

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Unflappable Holy Cows – Lessons Learned

I’ve been back from India for 10 days.  I went there to take a course called Ayurveda Mandala.  This is partly out of sheer personal interest for continuing to develop my health and wellness practices but also largely staying curious about the work I’ve been co-creating on The 5 Elements of Facilitation Design.  What keeps…

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My Top Ten (Joys of Virtual Facilitation)

(Updated April 2020) In January of 2013, I naively set out to offer my first virtual facilitation training.  How hard can it be? Lots seem to be doing it.  What I did not realize is that many are offering teleseminars and webinars and these are NOT the same as virtual interactive trainings.  You see, webinars…

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What About Having Culturally Competent Meetings that Rock?

In April we started our first in a three part series of free webinars called “Meetings That Rock”.  I realized that in the promotional video that I made some cultural competency mistakes.  A colleague talked about this with me and it was embarrassing that after all my cultural competency training and quest to be a…

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