Stage 6: Warrior
How to Facilitate a Community River Clean-up (when you are not a facilitator)
In our 2023 year end blog, we look at how a leader without facilitation training can help a community do an important sustainability project. I admit it would be easier and likely more efficient, if you can get a facilitator to help you do this. But imagine, you are a leader who uses your skills…
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…
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…
Using ORID to Make a Positive Difference During COVID
Sometimes you want to have complex conversations with people you don’t know. Facilitators become masters at this. We help groups have engaging and fascinating discussions even when they don’t know each other and are talking about something that’s controversial. So, we wanted to show you this using the Focused Conversation Method. We talked with a…
Powerfully Resilient Virtual Teams – Lessons from Global IAF Leaders
Over the last 2.5 years, an international team of 15+ IAF facilitators including graphic/visual practitioners from five continents and 8 time zones have been co-designing a book called The Power of Facilitation. I wanted to share the incredible process that we went through together as an example of facilitators working together as a powerfully resilient…
Will Online Meetings Become a Whole New Offshoot of Facilitation?
All of us have experienced a new norm of online meetings. Like the split tree photo in this banner, I believe online facilitation will become as important and as normal as face-to-face meetings. Maybe even more so. Thus, our mission is to become as skillful facilitating in the online as the in-person environment. And, if…
Celebrating Black Female Facilitators
In the U.S., February is African American history month. It began as a celebration of contributions by African Americans at a time when those contributions were not remotely recognized. This month is meant to be a tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity and oppression in achieving full citizenship in American…
