Posts
The Power of Generosity in Facilitation
What does it mean to be generous? This short blog offers ways to practice generosity both in your personal life and as a group process facilitator. First, let’s just think about the concept generally. Most of us try to be generous yet there are so many nuanced ways of being generous that we may not…
So you’ve been feeling consciously incompetent lately?
I don’t know if you’re aware of the term “conscious incompetence”. It actually comes with a suite of phrases that begin with 1. unconscious incompetence; then 2. conscious incompetence; 3. unconscious competence; and lastly 4. conscious competence. Noel Burch, an employee with Gordon Training International, developed the Conscious Competence Ladder in the 1970s. I want…
How Do You Decide to Take That Facilitation Job?
Quite a few years ago, I presented a paper at a conference called “When to Take the Job”. I was trying to be more discerning about which client work to take on. This is true more than ever now. I have been passing on almost all the jobs that I have been asked to do…
What’s the Buzz with AI?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming quickly recognized by our field of facilitation. Some of my colleagues have been using one form of AI, ChatGPT to get good answers to facilitation design questions. They are also using it to learn how to use different facilitation tools. There are AI applications to draw images of facilitation too….
The Power of Self Reflection
This month’s blog is super short. Let me share with you what our gifts to you are this month. I had the honour of presenting to IAF Indonesia Chapter. Lidia Rusvita, (she just completed her Endorsed Facilitator IAF designation – congratulations Lidia!) took the lead on this and is a member of our Gold Academy…
“Baby, you’re worth it!” Assessing Your Rate to Honour the Field
There is an old song by Fifth Harmony with the lyrics, “baby you’re worth it”. You can find it here. I like the opening lines (not sure of the rest of the song’s lyrics which are pretty suggestive). The title however sums up what I want to talk about today. I think most of us…
When the Stakes Are High – Facilitating Through Important Decision Making
Today’s blog comes from a question that somebody asked us in our Gold Academy membership cohort: What are ways to facilitate groups when the stakes feel high? Let’s define what we mean by this question. When stakes are high, the group has a lot to lose if things are not resolved. Harm could occur to…
Are you respecting your sacred facilitation tools?
I’ve had several conversations with colleagues about how and when to share various facilitation frameworks, techniques and tools. I was deeply moved also by the care and respect that I witnessed recently from an indigenous group of their own tools. For example, they were very intentional about ensuring they were emotionally and mentally aligned with…
Deepening Your Facilitation with Metaphors
As many of you know, I love to use metaphors in my facilitation events, workshops and social media. Recently, I was invited as a guest facilitator to present a workshop with Jorie Wu and Jackie Chang with the CP Yen Foundation, Taiwan on the power of metaphors in facilitation. They summarized nicely the key points…
Designing with Audacity – Focus on Big Picture and Finesse the Details
You probably know this already. Designing a facilitated session requires paying attention to both the bigger mission and vision of the session and paying attention to extremely fine details. Designing is, as many of us say, “an art and a science”. In this blog, we’ll talk briefly about some of the tricks that my colleagues…
