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Designing with the ActivoGraph

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I’m sure you’ve designed or used activities for your trainings and workshops that just seem to work out great every time. Then occasionally, with others, perhaps you’ve run into trouble. Sometime back, while facilitating one of our Journey of Facilitation & Collaboration workshops, I was frustrated by this one activity that never seemed to work […]

Be an Innovative Facilitator

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You know what they say about tree planting. The best time to plant one was years ago, the next best time is today. Do you need to innovate how you facilitate? Do you need to redesign your classic workshops or sessions or integrate new activities, tools, or techniques after learning more about your audience, often […]

Polish or Deflate the Elephant?

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In this week’s article we include a description of a challenge sent in by one of our readers along with my response. While this particular issue is around conflict in the workplace, the framing of question speaks to the opportunity we have as facilitators to invite groups to refine any unhealthy or unproductive process that […]

Revisit Your Roots

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As life long learners, our field can get pretty complicated with all the models, strategies, philosophies, and approaches within which we tend to immerse ourselves. Considering this, it’s probably a good idea once in awhile to reflect on those core attitudes, skills, and perspectives that form the foundation of all the strategies and interventions we […]

Core Values of the Integral Facilitator

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I view Self-Awareness as foundational to effective group leadership. As I review the primary drivers for facilitators—their core values—I’ve been exploring some kind of framework upon which these values might arise. To do this, I begin with the basic premise that right here and now we are all gifted with a most precious faculty:  Awareness. […]

Using Quaker Dialogue

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You are facilitating a group of twelve stakeholders working to build an agreement about a long-term conservation plan. The group is made up of local elected officials, land owners, and members of local land trusts as well as professional conservationists. Your experience is that some people talk easily and often, while others rarely speak. What participation tool can I use to […]

Facilitate Yourself First

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I believe that the most important person you need to facilitate to be the most effective is…yourself. Self-Facilitation is a necessary skill requiring you to practice conscious and mindful action in each and every moment, which is made all the more challenging in the presence of a dynamic, sometimes dysfunctional group, expecting you to lead them! A lot […]

Find a Mirror

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I was once invited to deliver a half-day basic facilitation workshop for a group of program managers within a large corporation. My sponsor, also the group leader, was a big fan of facilitation and his primary goal for the session was to increase his team’s interest in the subject. To tailor the training, I had […]

Groups Are Annoying

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I find it ironic sometimes that while I strongly believe in the importance of facilitation and very much enjoy doing it, there are certain elements of being a member of a group that I dislike. In fact, I’m anything but a joiner. I tend to move away from any long term involvement with groups. Why […]

Is Thinking Overrated?

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Most facilitators spend a good deal of time thinking through and designing processes that we hope will be effective for our customer’s unique needs. This is simply good and responsible planning. But how many times have you felt uneasy about being prepared enough, or found that you had to significantly deviate from your plan? I […]