Category Archives: reports

ICAI Board report to the December General Assembly

strategic directionsThis short report to the upcoming  online  meetings of the ICAI General Assembly (GA) on 10 December was prepared to summarise the ICAI Board‘s activity since the last GA in July, relative to the 3 strategic directions of our 2015-16 strategy:

Fostering Global Connections & Collaboration to Support ICAs to Thrive

Support Peer-to-Peer Collaboration & Capacity Building

Facilitate Inclusive Global Communications

  • We have supported the Global Communications team to produce regular issues of Winds & Waves (W&W) magazine and the monthly bulletin the Global Buzz, and amplified distribution on social media
  • We have developed and launched a new website in WordPress and enabled member ICAs to post and update their own ICA Worldwide profiles and news updates – 11 ICA profiles updated to date, and W&W and Buzz updates cross-posted to the website
  • We have grown the ICAI presence on Facebook & Twitter and integrated them with the website
  • We have used the ICA Global channel on Youtube to host weekly online dialogues on development and disability, and  other topics

Gather, Synthesize & Share Info/Data of Value to our Membership

  • We have surveyed the global membership on their ToP facilitation capacity, use and aspirations for the Global ToP working group – 28 responses received to date

Develop & Strengthen Global Partnerships

  • We have agreed in principle to enter into a global partnership with IAF, and invited the Global ToP working group to respond to IAF’s draft Memorandum of Understanding

Boosting ICAI Resilience and Safeguarding the Integrity of our Global Community

Strengthen Organizational Resilience & Sustainability

  • We are developing more robust financial management and reporting systems – for this reason invoicing (and therefore payment) of member’s dues has been delayed, however all are now invoiced
  • We have received the investments that were left to ICAI as a legacy last year

Safeguard the Integrity of the Global Membership

  • We have welcomed 3 new members approved at July GA – SNF Uganda, ORP Korea & EPDI Nigeria
  • We have supported members & applicants for memberships to complete nomination papers for 2 new Associate members, NCOC Kenya & SCR Kenya
  • We have continued to work with prospective applicants in Russia (Moscow & Siberia), Poland, France & the Philippines
  • We have supported colleagues of NIRADO Nigeria and Itereleng Itereleng ICA South Africa working on renewing ICAs on those countries

Recognizing & Leveraging ICA Wisdom & Nurturing New Leadership

Recognize & Appreciate Contributions/ Achievements

  • We have regularly published available ICA news updates to new website

Strengthen and Share our Collective Wisdom & Approaches

Share & Nurture Global Leadership within the Membership

  • We have begun to prepare for ICAI Board nominations & elections process leading to election in June prior to face-to-face Board meeting at August Global Conference – may delay to election in December of Global Conference is postponed

What does it take for people to align behind change? Six top tips & tools from #FacWeekchat

#FacWeekChat 2015This is the question that brought together 69 facilitation, communications and change management professionals over two one-hour twitter chats on October 23, during International Facilitation Week. In this post I’ll share six top tips and some of the tools that were shared in response.

The twitter chats were co-hosted by Michael Ambjorn of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), Faith Forster of the Change Management Institute (CMI) and myself for the International Association of Facilitators (IAF). Our aims were to bring people together to connect with and learn from each other on a topic of mutual interest, and also to make connections and foster broader collaboration between our associations and between our professions.

Participants were located as far afield as Canada, USA, Serbia, UK and India. Our experience of change included local and international work with large and small organisations in a variety of sectors and industries including health, education, IT, faith and international aid & development.

So what did we learn? What does it take for people to align behind change?

1. The context must be conducive. People align behind change “when external pressures have made the need for change evident”.  “The facilitator as midwife can only help a client that is already pregnant”!

2. High level vision and goals, and ideally values as well, must be clear and shared. Alignment happens when there is “a clear purpose… before a decision on what to do, a focus on energy & momentum for change”.

3. There must be inclusive and authentic participation. “Holistic participation in co-creating vision is the key to create buy in”.  “Co-design, co-creation, collaboration”. “Convene all with a stake in change”. “Everyone wants change, but no-one wants to be changed”.  Alignment does not happen “when when people forget that changes requires the involvement of others” or “when change is imposed from above without proper consultation or facilitation”.

4. Humility, patience and deep listening is required. “Be honest and transparent about the challenges that will be faced, otherwise when failure happens you lose people’s trust”. “Take time, constant process checks, take time, listen, take time, acknowledge resistance (did I mention take time?)”. “Come to terms with the antibodies in the system and talk candidly about them”. “The disruptive power of good listening skills”. “Pay as much attention to the intangibles amongst people as to what is explicitly being said”.

5. Be open to what needs to emerge, while remaining focused on the vision. “Start with possibilities rather than a project plan” and “be aware of groups emerging needs… [allow] the group synergy to flow”.  Alignment did not happen “when people didn’t respond to emerging needs, and when personal issues took precidence over common vison”.

6. Nevertheless, leadership must also be be clear, decisive and inspiring.  “Be a leader that makes tough decisions. The notion of change is disruptive, but strong leadership can mitigate people risk”. Make a “powerful invitation, expressed openly with integrity”. “Discussions about change are so often are negative, ie. about failure – we need to inspire people, enable them”.

What tools and techniques can help?

Favoured approaches to addressing the challenges of aligment and change included the Art of Hosting/Art of Participatory Leadership, Organisational Development, Quality Management, Coaching and Mediation, Graphic Facilitation (especially in multilingual contexts), the work of Perry Timms on ‘hacking adaptable organisations’ and of course ICA’s Technology of Participation (ToP).

Some of the particular tools referenced were Story Boarding and Lead with a Story, My Goals My Action Steps, Power/Interest Matrix, RASCI, Ladder of inference, CSITO’s Constellation Collaboration model and the ToP Focused Conversation method.

What can we learn from each other?

What can communications and change management professionals learn from facilitation? “If you want to bring people with you you have to involve others, and facilitation is a great way to do that”. Facilitation “can help transform communications ‘from cascade to conversation'” – “communicators can learn from facilitators about how to structure conversations once people are engaged”. “Change management can get caught up in project management processes – facilitation keeps the focus on what is important”. “At a simple level, facilitation can help managers learn to run more productive and enjoyable meetings”.

What can facilitators learn from communications and change management? How “to get people ‘in the room’ for facilitation, to engage all those who will never be ‘in the room’… and to communicate the results”.  Also “good use of data gathering tools”, “ways to measure/evaluate the outcomes of their facilitation work” and how to “draw out stories as they relate to the task at hand, and use these stories for sense making”.

We could all benefit from each other’s professional standards and competency models – IAF’s Facilitation Core Competencies, IABC’s communications Global Standard andCMI’s Change Management Foundation & Master Competencies.

For more of what we shared, including links to many of the examples and tools referred to, see the edited highlights on Storify or find all 707 tweets at #FacWeekchat on Twitter.

Please add your own thoughts in a comment below, or of course on Twitter with the hashtag #FacWeekchat!

For more on my work, and what others have to say about it, please see how I work, who I work with and recommendations & case studies – or view my profile and connect with me on LinkedIn.

You can connect with me also by joining my free facilitation webinars online, and IAF England & Wales’ free facilitation meetups in London and elsewhere.

ICA International Board update, November 2015

ICAI Global Buzz, November 2015
This post was written for ICAI’s monthly bulletin the Global Buzz, November 2015.

The Institute of Cultural Affairs is a global community of non-profit organisations advancing human development worldwide. The ICAI network comprises member organisations and related groups in over 40 countries.  The role of ICA International is to facilitate peer-to-peer interchange, learning and mutual support across the network, for greater and deeper impact. ICA International maintains consultative status with UN ECOSOC, UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO & FAO.

The ICAI Board at its October Board meeting was happy to approve requests for financial support toward two ICA regional gatherings that are coming up soon.

The ICA Europe MENA gathering to be hosted by ICA Netherlands near Amersfoort from November 20-22 is expecting around 24 participants from most ICAs in Europe, plus ICA MENA from Egypt and ICA colleagues from Poland, Moldova and Kazakhstan.  The programme is planned to include sharing of stories and exploring shared values and ICA methods, as well as preparing for the 2016 ICAI Global Conference to be convened in partnership with Initiatives of Change in Switzerland next year.

The ICA Asia Pacific gathering to be hosted by ICA India near Pune from November 29-December 5 is expecting around 30 participants from most ICAs in that region, plus colleagues of IAF India .  The programme will include training, site visits and excursions as well as workshops in preparation for the 2016 Global Conference.

It is not too late to register for either event – for details please contact ICA Netherlands or ICA India directly, or contact us.

We were delighted to hear during the Board meeting of the succesful ICA West Africa regional gathering hosted by ICA Cote D’Ivoire near Abidjan in September.

Also during the Board meeting we began to prepare for the online ICAI General Assembly meetings to be held on Thursday 10 December at 10am UK & 5pm UK time, followed by asynchronous voting over 10 days by surveymonkey.  ICAI members and colleagues are encouraged to save the date, and ensure that their statutory membership dues are renewed if necessary before the GA vote. We have received completed applications for Associate membership from ICA partners NCOC Kenya and SCR Kenya. 

Following the Board meeting, Board members spent time familiarising themselves with the workings of the new ICAI website, in order to be able to update their own Board member profiles and support member ICAs in their regions to update their ICA profiles and post news updates.  Meet the first to have done so – ICAI members Emerging Ecology USA, ICA:UK, Bospo BiH, SNF Uganda & Lambassa ICA Benin and ICAI Board members Staci Kentish, Svetlana Salamtova and myself.   News updates have been posted from ICA Netherlands, Lambassa ICA Benin, ORP Institute Korea, ICA Chile and ICA Cote D’Ivoire.  Member ICAs are encouraged to contact us for any support they might need to start using the new website themselves.

Also during the month we have been in contact with partners of ICA:UK and ICA Ukraine interested in starting new ICAs or ToP networks in Poland, Russia and Kazakhstan, and with colleagues of NIRADO Nigeria and Itereleng ICA South Africa working on renewing ICAs on those countries.

We have continued to support the work of the ICAI Global ToP Policy working group and the ICAI 2016 Global Conference working group, each of which met online at least once during October.  The Global ToP policy group has prepared a survey for circulation soon to member ICAs to gather baseline data on current ToP facilitation, training and CTF certification activity and capacity of member ICAs around the world.  The Global Conference working group  is in conversation with the IofC Caux Foundation to identify and invite IofC representatives to join a joint conference team with a view to next agreeing an overall theme.

ICA International Board update, October 2015

ICAI Global Buzz, October 2015
This post was written for ICAI’s monthly bulletin the Global Buzz, October 2015.

The Institute of Cultural Affairs is a global community of non-profit organisations advancing human development worldwide. The ICAI network comprises member organisations and related groups in over 40 countries.  The role of ICA International is to facilitate peer-to-peer interchange, learning and mutual support across the network, for greater and deeper impact. ICA International maintains consultative status with UN ECOSOC, UNESCO, UNICEF, WHO & FAO.

home page thumbnailWe are excited to have launched the new ICAI website in September. This new site is designed to provide an engaging platform for member ICAs and ICA colleagues to communicate with each other and with the wider world. We hope that you will like it, and and that you will use it and share it!

In the launch post on the website itself  you can read an overview of some of what you can already find on the site, some of what is coming and some of what will be possible for the future.  Member ICAs have been invited to complete and update their ICA Worldwide profiles by completing a simple online form, and we encourage them to do so right away and let us know of any support that they might need.

Following decisions of the General Assembly in July, nominations have been received for member representatives to serve on the new 2016 Global Conference working group and the new Global ToP policy working group. The two new global working groups are now beginning their work.

The Board were pleased that ICAI was able to provide some small financial support for the West & Central Africa regional gathering hosted by ICA Cote D’Ivoire in September.  We hope to be able to support upcoming regional gatherings of the Asia Pacific region in India and the Europe MENA region in the Netherlands in November as well.

Many member ICAs’ annual dues become payable at this time of year, and we are grateful to all those who are responding promtply to the dues reminders that ICAI Treasurer Seva Gandhi has been circulating.

Vigour, conviction and commitment in Egypt – revisting ICA MENA

This post was written for ICAI Winds and Waves, September 2015 issue.

Martin with some of the new staff of ICA MENA Bayad June 2015I joined the ICA MENA team as an international volunteer in 1989, and wound up joining the permanent staff and staying for 6 years in Egypt before I left now 20 years ago. When I visited again this June I had not been back for maybe 10 years, so it was great to be back, and to reconnect with old friends and colleagues and to a place and context where I spent some formative years.

Much has changed in Egypt in those years, as it has in the world at large and in ICA and my own life as well. So my visit gave me plenty of cause for reflection.

It also gave me a welcome opportunity to use my Arabic again among those with whom I learned it – which I was pleased to find relatively effortless compared to other countries in the region that I have visited more recently, where quite different dialiects are spoken.  I visited Egypt from Beirut, after completing a strategic planning assignment there with the Safety & Security Committee for Lebanon.

Of course the effects of the revolution and subsequent events were noticeable everywhere, from the security in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to the burnt out government buildings in Beni Suef, and the ever-present talk of politics – that had previously been forever absent.

ICA MENA staff lunch in Bayad June 2015Egypt’s population has continued to grow at a tremendous rate over recent decades, and so has its urban sprawl continued to extend into the desert. The desert village of Bayad El Arab was accessible only by boat at the time that ICA began work there in 1976. During my time it was accessible also by bridge from Beni Suef and by desert road from Cairo, but it was still a remote and clearly distinct community. Now it has been entirely absorbed by the greater city of Beni Suef – there is a new university campus next door, apartments have been built on ICA’s demonstration desert reclamation farm and many of the stone houses of the village have been rebuilt or replaced in concrete. The ICA training centre itself, however, remains remarkably as I remember living and working in it myself.

ICA MENA staff August 1995During my time with ICA MENA the staff team grew from a low of around a dozen resident volunteers in Bayad to around 35 salaried employees in Bayad and Cairo, with up to 15 or 20 grant-funded programmes operating at any time.

In subsequent years the staff grew to over 100 in five offices nationwide, operating more and larger programmes across Egypt and the region. It then shrank again to the small core team who have remained with ICA all these years, and who have now been able to sustain the organisation through changes in leadership, a dramatic fall in project funding and then the turbulence of the revolution as well.

Sabah presents the ICA MENA strategy in Bayad June 2015I enjoyed meeting again with numerous old friends and colleagues from my own time in Egypt, those still with ICA and some who are not. However it was also very exciting to meet some of the 65 or so bright young staff who have newly joined ICA in the past year, to meet some of ICA’s long-time external partners and supporters in Cairo as well, and to learn of ICA MENA’s new programmes  new strategies and plans for the future.

I witnessed a new vigour to ICA MENA, as well as a deep conviction of the valuable role that ICA has to play in Egypt’s future and a strong commitment to that – and to renewed collaboration and partnership with ICAs and others beyond the region as well.

I was inspired and am grateful to our colleagues in Egypt for their tenacity and commitment through what have clearly been challenging times, and I urge ICA colleagues everywhere to support them in whatever ways they can – and in the process to take the opportunity to learn from their rich experience as I have.

ICA MENA logo‘Like’ and connect with ICA MENA on Facebook, and watch out for an update from ICA MENA Director Sabah Khalifa in the September issue of ICAI Winds and Waves magazine.