facilitator skills

ORID Can Light Your Way Through the Next Phase of COVID-19

The Focused Conversation is the mega method underlying all of the Technology of Participation (ToP) methodologies. It helps the facilitator be very clear on what product or understanding you want the group to have as a result of your conversation. This is called the rational aim (RA). And somewhat unique to most methods, it is…

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Sharpening the Focus on Your Meeting Outcomes

The new year seems like a good time to talk about setting goals. However, I’d actually like to talk to you about setting the objectives or aims of all of your different meetings and discussions. In ToP language, we call this the rational and experiential aims. Knowing how to craft very focused aims has been…

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The 9 (Inner) Disciplines of the Facilitator

Last week, at an IAF sponsored workshop, my colleagues Jackie Chang from Taiwan, Kevin Xu from China and myself co-designed and delivered our workshop on the “Being of the Facilitator” in Guangzhou, China. One of the resources that we thought would be helpful was called “The Nine Disciplines of a Facilitator” by Jon and Maureen…

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Clear Flowing Agendas – Designing Using Meta Methods

What is a meta method? It is a framework that can be used over and over in many different circumstances.  It is the foundation behind all other tools and techniques. It works marvelously in most situations that require clear thinking.  Are you designing with meta methods?  I will talk about two in this blog and…

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Three Ideas to Help Your Facilitation Blossom

Facilitation training, certification and attending an International Association of Facilitators (IAF) conference are three of the best ways to make your facilitation profession blossom. In today’s blog, I’ve decided to share photos of my journey to Singapore where I spent four days doing ToP facilitation training, mostly advanced.  Have you considered any of the facilitation…

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Finding the Silver Lining… for that Facilitated Event Gone Wrong!

What do you do when you have a facilitated an event that has gone badly? It might just be one moment in the whole event that you keep dwelling on after the fact. You realize you made a mistake. And you don’t exactly know what you could’ve done differently. This blog is about many stories…

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Facilitation Methods vs. Tools: Making Your Facilitator Journey Easier

Today, at risk of repeating ourselves, we are going to talk a bit more about your journey as a facilitator. It is an amazing journey, a “hero’s journey” (mythologist and author Joseph Campbell came up with this term) of sorts. Each one of us will have a different journey, depending especially if we start it…

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Get More Facilitation Clients and In-House Opportunities

Have you had trouble convincing potential clients why they need a facilitator? Three recent events have led me to choose this topic for our blog today. In these events, everyone wanted the same thing. They were starting a facilitation business and wondering how to sell their services to prospective clients. Or, they were in house…

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Facilitating From the Side – There’s Hope for Bad Meetings

I worry a lot about people who attend meetings. I worry because many tell me how bad they are. I am totally spoiled. I simply don’t attend others’ meetings unless I know they will be well run. Most of the time, I am facilitating them or facilitating from the side without permission. What about those…

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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…

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