Feminist Facilitation – in-depth free facilitation webinar

IAF Feminist FacilitationFriday, 12 May 2023 – 4.00-5:30pm UK time

Thank you again to the 208 who shared their experience and insights so generously at this free facilitation webinar, and to all the 717 who expressed an interest by registering for the session – we are very excited that the topic and the session generated so much interest! 

Thanks also of course for the fabulous co-facilitation of Monica Atim, Natalie Brook & Julia Makin, producer support of Orla Cronin, Megan Evans & Dawn Williams, and to International Association of Facilitators (IAF) for hosting and ICA:UK & We Are Feminist Leaders for partnering.

Scroll down for the recording, and the slides and other outputs…


Following my earlier free facilitation webinar on Feminist Facilitation, as part of the ICA:UK Online Focused Conversation Series in January, I am pleased to offer this longer and more in-depth session hosted by IAF Social Inclusion Facilitators in May.

Join us to connect, share & learn register now.


What does feminism bring to facilitation, and what does feminist facilitation look like? How can I ensure that my own practice as a professional facilitator is more effectively and explicitly feminist, anti-racist and anti-oppressive?

Exploring feminist facilitationThese are the questions that have guided Martin Gilbraith’s exploration of feminist, anti-racist and anti-oppressive facilitation this past couple of years. For more on that, see Exploring feminist facilitation.

As Social Inclusion facilitators, we share the same school of thought and continue to seek understanding and practicality due to the awareness that genuine participation is an essential means to effective group, community, organizational and societal leadership and development. Feminism offers a more realistic and practical application to inclusive facilitation.

Are you practicing or exploring feminist facilitation yourself, or are you interested to do so?

Join us on a journey from a conceptual understanding of feminism, leadership and facilitation to how we can apply these in practice as professional facilitators and as leaders more broadly.

To inform our conversation, please read in advance if you can the SessionLab State of Facilitation survey report and workshop recording & resources Is facilitation a woman’s world?, and Martin’s blog post Exploring feminist facilitation.

This online session is convened by the IAF Social Inclusion Facilitators, and it is free and open to everyone. It has been designed and will be co-facilitated by Monica Atim of the IAF SIF, Natalie Brook of We Are Feminist Leaders and Juia Makin and Martin Gilbraith of ICA:UK.

Join us to connect, share & learn register now.


For recordings and other outputs of previous sessions, see free facilitation webinars.

See also about mehow I workwho I work with and recommendations & case studies, and please contact me about how we might work together.

The State of Facilitation 2023 – how do (ToP) facilitators keep learning?

Thank you to SessionLab for sharing the outcome of their first comprehensive survey on the state of facilitation, 2023 edition, and for the opportunity for me to share my own reflections in the Resources & Communities section on How do facilitators keep learning? – see below.

It is a comprehensive survey indeed, rich with insight and with much food for thought for all of us who are seeking to promote the power of facilitation worldwide. The report is timely, too, as the global Board of the International Association of Facilitators meets in Kuala Lumpur this week.

A further reflection of mine, on reading the whole of the report again, is to wonder how different the results might be if the survey were designed to be read and responded to in multiple languages, and circulated with the support of non-native English speaking facilitation communities such as local chapters of IAF and member ICAs of ICA International. I offer that as a challenge and opportunity for the 2024 edition!

Meanwhile, you are (just!) in time to register for this year’s ToP Network Annual Gathering “The Transforming Fire of Facilitation: Building Belonging & Sparking Innovation”, a 3-day online conference of 150 or so practitioners of ICA’s Technology of Participation from next Thursday 2 March to Saturday 4.

See you there?  Registration closes next Monday 27 February!


How do facilitators keep learning?

I am pleased to see that so many people report here that they are participating actively in numerous communities, as I know from experience how enriching that can be. I am especially pleased to see that so many have access to a community of practice in-house, however, I hope that facilitators who are involved mainly in their in-house communities do get out as well. I say this as an encouragement to take the opportunity to learn with and from others who work in different ways and in different contexts to their own.

I am sorry to see so many participating actively in no communities at all. While there is much to be learned from books, courses, and all the other resources mentioned, I think there is no substitute for active participation when it comes to developing and improving skills in facilitating just that.

I also notice here, as a facilitator with long involvement in ICA and long specializing in its ToP methodology, something very particular that seems to be missing. As many as 53 respondents report in 2.4 that they have ToP facilitation certification, and no less than 115 in 6.1 that they use ToP methods: great that so many ToP facilitation colleagues responded to the survey! Yet, not a single one refers here in 7.2 that ICA or the ToP Network are professional communities that they are actively participating in. I find that very curious, since I know that so many do.

I wonder what we regard as active participation, and what we regard as professional communities/organizations, to affect our responses to such a question. My own conviction, and my own experience from many years of active participation in ICA and IAF in particular, is that there is much more professional development to be gained from actively collaborating with professional peers than there is from passively receiving ‘professional development’ services and resources.

That is why I see volunteering opportunities as one of the greatest benefits a professional association such as IAF can provide its members. And that is why I have always volunteered and encouraged others to do so – so much so, in fact, that my name came to be used when I was Chair of IAF England & Wales as short-hand for the experience of finding oneself to have volunteered unexpectedly for a certain role (to be “Gilbraithed”!). In that spirit, if you haven’t been drawn into a community yet, I hope you will soon!


See also about mehow I workwho I work with and recommendations & case studies, and please contact me about how we might work together.

“Very practical and applicable in a range of contexts” – ToP facilitation training


“How can we have more purposeful & productive conversations, develop creative solutions and build group consensus?”

These are among the questions addressed by Group Facilitation Methods, the most popular course of ICA’s Technology of Participation ‘ToP’ facilitation training.

Are you looking for facilitation training or learning opportunities?

Read on for what recent participants have to say about their experience of ToP training, and check out my online and in-person ToP facilitation training courses, free facilitation coaching and occasional free facilitation webinars.

For public training courses, please register with ICA:UK or another ICA worldwide. To arrange in-house training for your group, please contact me.


Participants on my most recent ToP training in October last year rated the course on average 4.8 out 5, and shared comments including:

  • A very interesting course, very practical and applicable in a range of contexts – there was also a useful reference book which I can continue to refer to for a refresher as needed
  • Martin is a very good trainer, with a feel for pace and content based on the group he is dealing with. The training was relevant and well delivered.
  • Very relevant content, excellent delivery. Pace was good. Trainer was very good
  • The training focused on practical facilitation frameworks and skills and how to apply these in real situations – I found this a good way to learn
  • Martin was a brilliant trainer, gave practical tips, was very engaging: I learned a lot
  • The event was well paced and very informative – it gave me confidence that I could facilitate an event – success!
  • Excellent delivery by the trainer – I learnt from his facilitation skills
  • I found the content really useful and the delivery was excellent
  • The pace, content, relevance and delivery were all excellent

That was in-person Focused Conversation training, comprising day one of the 2-day Group Facilitation Methods course – both available also online.

On an earlier 2.5-hour Introduction to Facilitation Online session, Louise Reeve, Policy and Communications Business Partner at Newcastle City Council, wrote:

“Some training to recommend from Martin Gilbraith! I attended his Introduction to Facilitation Online course. Whatever your experience level, you should find something in this training which can make your online sessions just that bit better and more enjoyable”


See also about mehow I workwho I work with and recommendations & case studies, and please contact me about how we might work together.

Beyond COP26: The Conversations – facilitation case study

Communicate Beyond COP26 - the conversations

“How can we bring together 90 diverse stakeholders in a series of six online conversations in a day, to tackle complex environmental topics and have strong outputs – avoiding a ‘talking shop’”?

These were among the questions that led NHC Director Savita Wilmott to approach me in December 2021 to design and lead “Beyond COP26: The Conversations”. Savita was familiar with me, and with ICA:UK and ICA’s Technology of Participation (ToP), and knew that ICA’s ToP Focused Conversation method could be part of the answer.

Context

The Natural History Consortium (NHC) is a charitable collaboration of 14 organisations working together on a shared mission: to develop, test and disseminate best practice to engage everyone with the environment and natural world.

Communicate is the UK’s conference for environmental communicators, attracting around 200 attendees to previous in-person events and over 600 to the 2021 online conference ‘Communicate beyond COP26’. ‘The Conversations’ were the final phase of this 3-part online conference, following earlier sessions in June & September 2021.

Six round table Conversations of 90 minutes each were scheduled for one day in January 2022. Each were to have up to 16 different people attending – communication professionals from across the country, invited and/or nominated by NHC members, who may or may not have attended previous sessions in the series.

The overall theme was “What will we learn from COP26, and how will the UK’s environmental communication community translate international declarations into local action, and national programmes?” and in particular ‘has the landscape changed?’ The six Conversation topics were:

  1. Putting nature at the heart of climate change communication
  2. Learning from COP26 about better partnerships with young people
  3. Engaging people with trees, woodlands and deforestation
  4. Transparency, accountability, and avoiding greenwashing
  5. Breakthrough communication techniques and campaigns from COP
  6. From international declarations to local action.

Two people were lined up to give a 5 minute ‘provocation’ at the beginning of each Conversation, and then stay on to participate. Key insights were to be captured and shared with the Communicate community in a series of bite-size reflection papers, audio resources and tool kits.

The Conversations were to be held in Zoom to avoid ‘new platform fatigue’, with the plenary time recorded to support preparation of the ‘insight papers’ by the NHC team but the breakout spaces not recorded in order to encourage candid conversation. The six Conversations will be led separately from each other, however it was felt that it would add value to have a simple asynchronous digital place to which participants from across the conversations can contribute before, during and after the conversations.

Aims

In conversation with Savita, the aims of the Conversations were agreed to be broadly as follows:

  • To share learning and expertise about the topic between those present, to cross-fertilize ideas across the environmental communication sector after COP26
  • To generate insights that can be shared with the wider sector through NHC’s marketing channels
  • For participants to feel like they have had a satisfactory opportunity to share their experiences in a well-structured and safe environment
  • For participants to feel connected to the Communicate community, and more likely to engage in future events or be active in the network.

Approach

I had arranged for fellow ICA:UK Associate Megan Evans to work with me as co-facilitator, and with our ICA:UK colleague Alice Blackwell and David Linskey to work with us online session producers. I led three conversations in series with Alice, while Megan led the other three with David.

Our approach was to draw on the methods of ICA’s Technology of Participation (ToP), and the ToP Focused Conversation method in particular. Pioneered and refined by ICA in over 50 years of experience worldwide, ToP is a proven system of methods and tools that can be adapted and applied to help all sorts of groups accomplish a wide variety of tasks together. The core values of the ToP approach, which inform all of my work, are inclusive participation, teamwork and collaboration, individual and group creativity, ownership and action, reflection and learning.

The ToP Focused Conversation method provides a structured, four-level process for effective communication which ensures that everyone in a group has the opportunity to participate.

I proposed that we use this method to structure a series of questions for each conversation, tailored in collaboration with the NHC team to meet the above aims in respect of each topic. For examples of this approach in action we shared the ICA:UK Online Focused Conversation Series 2020 to which Megan, Alice and I had all contributed, and my own Free facilitation webinars.

Tools

For a simple asynchronous digital place to which participants from across the conversations could contribute before, during and after Conversations, I proposed that consider one of the following – depending on whether only brainstorming or also interaction may be helpful (and likely), and on which (if any) may already be familiar to participants:

We agreed to use EasyRetro for its simplicity of use and in order to easily export the data for editing into the insight papers. We agreed to use mentimeter as well for a simple participant feedback survey.

Pre-session communications to participants included:

To make sure that you will be able to join and participate, participants may need to join this Zoom test meeting in advance and then follow any instructions to download and install the Zoom app and configure your settings as necessary – https://zoom.us/test.

Participants will need a stable broadband internet connection with speed of preferably at least 10 Mbps download / upload. You can test yours at www.speedtest.net.

For greater functionality to maximise everyone’s engagement and learning, please use a laptop rather than a phone or tablet and join via the Zoom app not a browser. It is helpful to update your Zoom app to the latest version – see Zoom app upgrade.

Please use your own laptop (one per person), with headphones and a microphone, and join the session on your own from a quiet and well-lit place so that you can be seen and heard without distractions for yourself or others.

To use Easyretro on the same device as Zoom you will need to have a large screen and/or to navigate from one window to another and back again. It is not essential but can be helpful to have a second device or screen, in order to use one for zoom and one for the other tool.

Process

We applied the ToP Focused Conversation method to craft a series of nine ‘ORID’ questions that could be used across all six 90-minute Conversation sessions, for consistency of outputs.

We invited participants to respond to the first three (Objective level) questions in advance of the session in order to familiarise themselves with Easyretro, and then we reviewed and added to those responses at the start of each session. Participants responded to the remaining questions in conversation in small breakout groups, and were able to see the ideas of other groups in EasyRetro as they added their own. That enabled the plenary sessions to focus on discussion rather than reporting.

The three sessions I led started at 9.00, 12.00 and 2.30, and the three led by Megan started at 9.30,12.30 and 3.00. Staggering the start times by half an hour enabled Savita to attend and speak at the opening and closing of all six sessions.

Agenda Discussion questions
Opening & overview
Introductory conversation, building on responses shared on Easyretro in advance 

Objective level questions

1. Please share something about yourself and your work

2. Is there one thing that you hope to learn or gain from this Conversation?

3. What resources or links can you share on this topic?

First breakout groups, followed by plenary feedback & discussion 

Reflective level questions

4. How do you feel that your work or views on environmental communication have been affected by COP26?

5. How do you feel that your organisation or the wider sector is responding to the outcomes of COP26?

Break
Second breakout groups, followed by plenary feedback & discussion – with responses captured in Easyretro

Interpretive & Decisional level questions

6. What are some ways that the environmental communication sector could work together more effectively on this issue?

7. What are some of the barriers that we still need to tackle?

8. What is a key ‘call to action’ that we can share from this room to the wider Communicate community?

9. What are any issues that need more attention or discussion, perhaps at the upcoming Communicate conference in November 2022?

Takeaways & next steps
Evaluation & close

Outputs

Communicate Beyond COP26 - the conversations

The BNHC team wrote up the outputs of the six conversations and published them on their website as an insight paper.

What the participants had to say

BNHC Please-rate-this-session-a-how-far-do-you-agree

BNHC How-are-you-feeling-right-now

Savita Willmott, CEO of the Natural History Consortium, wrote in a recommendation on Jun 24, 2022:

“Martin supported our charity in January 2022 to bring together 90 diverse stakeholders into a series of six online conversations in a single day. We were looking to tackle complex environmental topics, and have strong outputs. His advice and support was invaluable to design an effective programme for the day as well as to expertly facilitate the session alongside another facilitator. We achieved our aim of avoiding a “talking shop” – the outputs of the session are informing our strategic work six months later, and the connections made between organisations are thriving. Martin strikes a brilliant balance between flexibility and attention to detail, and we’d recommend him without hesitation.”


See also about me, how I work, who I work with and recommendations & case studies, and please contact me about how we might work together.

Feminist Facilitation – free facilitation webinar

Online FC series - feminist facilitationMonday, 16 January 2023, 13:00-14:00 UK time

Scroll down for the session recording…


What does feminism bring to facilitation, and what does feminist facilitation look like? How can I ensure that my own practice as a professional facilitator is more effectively and explicitly feminist, anti-racist and anti-oppressive?

Exploring feminist facilitationThese are the questions that have guided my own exploration of feminist, anti-racist and anti-oppressive facilitation this past couple of years.

For more on that, see Exploring feminist facilitation.


Are you practicing or exploring feminist facilitation yourself, or are you interested to do so?

Join us to connect, share & learn on Monday, 16 January 2023, 13:00-14:00 UK time, for this next monthly session in the ICA:UK Online Focused Conversation Series – facilitated by fellow ICA:UK Associate Julia Makin and myself, and produced by ICA:UK ToP Training Co-ordinator Alice Blackwell.

These sessions are free and open for anyone to attend. The session will last 60 minutes and consist of a facilitated conversation using the ToP Focused Conversation (ORID) method, followed by a brief run through of the method used. The sessions are run by different members of the ICA:UK facilitation community, including lead trainers, trainee trainers, and past participants of our courses in their own style, around topics they have chosen.

In addition to participants learning from each other about the topic, the sessions will serve as an introduction to the method for those new to ToP and will be a useful reminder of the method for those who have already attended our popular Group Facilitation Methods course. Participants may opt to go on and take further training (either online or face to face) and/or continue to learn and share as part of a community of people using facilitation.

The session will be recorded, with the recording being publicly available after the session is over. If you do not wish to be identifiable, we will give you the option before we start the recording to turn off your camera and change your screen name.

Join us to connect, share & learn – register now at ICA:UK.


For recordings and other outputs of my own previous online Focused Conversation sessions and other free facilitation webinars, see free facilitation webinars.

See also about mehow I workwho I work with and recommendations & case studies, and please contact me about how we might work together.