Stage: All Stages
What About Facilitation Makes a Good Leader?
In our Technology of Participation courses, we always start out talking about styles of leadership. There are hierarchical styles and facilitation styles. Neither one is better than the other but in my profession of facilitation, we are obviously focused on the facilitative leader framework. In this blog we’ll talk about some of the key ways…
Becoming a ToP Facilitation Trainer and Other Questions About ToP Methods
Recently we ran a Technology of Participation (ToP) training for a school district. It was really wonderful to work with principals, consultants and department staff together on an issue of importance to them. We were asked a few questions about Technology of Participation training. This blog answers a few general questions they asked plus tells…
Finding Your Passion – Two Intuitive Tools to Launch Your 2019 Plan
This blog will focus on two intuitive tools to assist you in thinking about your big picture planning for 2019. These are great tools to use with yourself, coaching others, and facilitating any groups who would benefit from having a clear vision and purpose. The first is a brand new one that our son, Gabriel,…
No Tent Poles, Too Many Flies, Low on TP and Facilitator Adaptability
Remember I told you I was going on a canoe trip this summer? It was my first adaptability test of the summer. My second one was experiencing two super typhoons in Japan and Hong Kong in September. I’ll tell you about that experience in another blog. The canoe trip reminded me what we take for granted as…
Facilitation Can Change the World – An Interview with Barbara MacKay
Joshua Voon, of our International Facilitation Cohort (2018-2019) interviewed me in July 2018 with what he calls meta questions. I thought his questions were wonderful and would perhaps be of interest to those who have or are starting a facilitation practice. Here are his questions and my answers. Q: What got you interested in facilitation?…
Got 10 minutes? The Power of Reflection
I started to write my blog today and part way through it I felt like throwing it out the window – it was sooooooo boring! I felt I had said the same things a million times. So instead I’m just talking to you from the heart today – it is something I have wanted to…
Facilitating When You Are Sick
I haven’t been feeling well for a few days. I can feel a cold coming on. Usually I get pretty worried about getting sick. The worry comes from not being able to perform my so called duties. When I actually think about just the getting sick part, it brings up an amazing feeling of just…
Four Lessons from 22 Years of Facilitation Practice
Next year is my 23rd anniversary for being in business as North Star Facilitators. That’s a relatively big piece of history for me. As I reflect on my own journey, it’s sometimes hard to notice my successes. Likely many of us tend to focus on where we have struggled. I am no exception. In this…
Eight Ways to Process a Tragedy
Note: I am making a few changes to this blog as more accurate news emerges and I gain more perspective from wise colleagues. A terrorist, racist hate crime happened in my city just before the long Memorial day weekend, and at the start of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting and reflection for Muslims around…
Are Learning Styles Really Going Out of Style?
It all started when I read an article re-posted by my Australian colleague that was titled, “The concept of different “learning styles” is one of the greatest neuroscience myths”. Like many of my colleagues, I have been a proponent of using a variety of participation formats in all my meetings. And, I have no doubt…
