Tag Archives: International Association of Facilitators

Supercharge your facilitation practice with opportunities & insights from the profession

ICAUK ToP Participatory Strategic Planning training, 2013 at NCVO in London - photo Adam Swann, facilitation Martin Gilbraith #ToPfacilitation 1Supercharge your learning at the UK’s top facilitation event of the year

A space to grow, reflect and learn together

Register for the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) England & Wales annual conference, and supercharge your learning this year by joining our special pre-conference ICA:UK ToP facilitation masterclass with Martin Gilbraith.

Conference attendees enjoy a 25% discount, IAF members and non-members.

Register now:

What is changing in the world of facilitation and workshop design?

What can 2023 teach us about the promises and challenges of 2024?

There are some fascinating insights on the practice of facilitation and the profession in this new survey report from SessionLab, not least that almost 20% of respondents report that they use ICA’s ToP facilitation methods – we wonder what the other 80% are waiting for!

This second annual report is based on the contributions of 975 facilitators around the world, and accompanied by commentary from 12 experts sharing their perspectives.

John Cornwell of our own ICA:UK Team and IAF’s Social Inclusion Facilitators comments on the demographics of the profession:

“We need to expand outreach efforts, include colleagues from various backgrounds worldwide, and create an inclusive and supportive environment for facilitators”

Read the report:

Taking your facilitation online

Includes Miro, Mural and Jamboard templates for ToP Focused Conversations and Consensus Workshops

A few places remain available on this month’s two-session course on adapting ICA’s ToP facilitation methods for the online world with Alan Heckman.

Register now:

Support us to support our international partners

The current focus of ICA:UK’s International Working Group is on:

  • providing support for local organisations in Africa through the Village Volunteers sponsorship scheme. We have recently been able to fund training in ToP methods for Support for Community Response, and training of Climate Change Educators through the Kombuni Water Development Self-Help Group, both in Kenya.
  • making plans for the expansion of the Village Volunteers scheme so that we can deepen and broaden our impact in Africa. Watch this space for more detail
  • exploring further expansion of ToP training in Romania by identifying and working with a local partner there

Add your support to Village Volunteers here.

Why ICA’s ‘Technology of Participation’ (ToP) facilitation training?

93% of participants rated Group Facilitation Methods 8/10 or higher

Comments from participants’ end-of-course evaluations included:

  • brilliant – a must-do if you want better, more effective meetings
  • provides two practical, easy-to-use methods to discover deep insights from diverse groups – useful tools for any group, organisation or community
  • benefits for experienced facilitator and novice alike
  • worth every penny – excellent content & great presentation

“Successful meetings are key to our internal and external successes. Many of our staff mentioned this training as a highlight in their end of year reviews – several said it was the most useful training they had ever attended.”

Eve Geddie

Find out what Group Facilitation Methods could do for you.

Download our course brochure here

** Last few places available **  
Taking ToP Methods Online,
ONLINE, 15 Feb
with Alan Heckman

Adapting ICA’s ToP facilitation methods for the online world.		 Group Facilitation Methods
LONDON, 20-21 Feb
with Martin Gilbraith

Introducing the foundations of the ToP approach, two powerful techniques for structuring effective conversations and building group consensus.
* Fast approaching *  
Group Facilitation Methods
EDINBURGH, 20-21 Mar
with Martin Gilbraith

Introducing the foundations of the ToP approach, two powerful techniques for structuring effective conversations and building group consensus		 ToP Masterclass
Birmingham, 25 Apr
with Martin Gilbraith

Facilitating dialogue, learning, consensus & change.

Also coming soon:

See the full 2024 schedule at https://ica-uk.org.uk/courses/

Looking for something else, tailored or in-house?

Let us come to you to meet your particular goals

Maximise your benefit from our training by letting us come to you, to meet your particular learning goals:

If your organisation or group needs a facilitator, or if you need support in designing and delivering a workshop, meeting or conference:

Meet Our Team, and Contact us!

Interested in joining our team of trainers?

We currently have seven trainee trainers at various stages of the trainer’s journey, and we are keen to grow and diversify our team further – learn more and contact us.

Have you got your Sticky Wall yet?

ICA:UK Sticky Walls are a great visual tool for facilitators, group leaders and trainers. They are light, portable and can be used anywhere. Arrange and reposition ideas easily to inspire idea generation and encourage group involvement. 

Buy now

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.

Register now in Eventbrite for my own upcoming public courses in London & elsewhere and see ICA:UK for additional courses offered by fellow ICA:UK Associates online and elsewhere.

To arrange an in-house or partnership course for your group, see ToP facilitation training at your place – and free places for you! and please contact me.

Feminist Facilitation – Facilitation Week free webinar

Monday, 11 September 2023 – 1.00-2:30pm UK time

Thank you again to the 95 who shared their experience and insights so generously at this free facilitation webinar, and to all the 247 who expressed an interest by registering for the session – as for our May session, we are excited  again that the topic and the session generated so much interest! 

Thanks also for the fabulous co-facilitation this time of Monica Atim and producer support of Megan Evans & Dawn Williams, and to International Association of Facilitators (IAF) for hosting and ICA:UK, We Are Feminist Leaders & The Collective for partnering.

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

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 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, organisational 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 free and open to everyone. It is convened by IAF Social Inclusion Facilitators in partnership with ICA:UK, We Are Feminist Leaders and the Collective. It is a repeat of a session delivered in May, somewhat adapted for Facilitation Week in September by Monica Atim, Martin Gilbraith, Megan Evans & Dawn Williams. Whether or not you joined us May, do join us to further the conversation in September!

Registrations are not limited, but the room capacity will be limited to 100 this time. The May session attracted 700 registrations and 200 attendees, so to secure your place in September please arrive early for the session and join the waiting room until start time.

 

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

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

Join us in promoting the power of facilitation worldwide this #FacWeek!

Happy Facilitation Week 2021, starting today!

Facilitation Week is a participatory experience that inspires synergy and celebrates the act of group facilitation. Held in the third week of October each year, it’s purpose is to showcase the power of facilitation to both new and existing audiences, and to create a sense of community among facilitators and their groups worldwide. To join in as a participant, facilitator or sponsor, see facilitationweek.org.

The mission of our #FacPower book project too is to promote the power of facilitation worldwide. So, what better opportunity could there be for us to share a brief update on how we have been working to do just that, and how you can get involved?

The #FacPower story so far…

How you can get involved

Please…

  • download and read the whole book, or whichever chapters interest you most
  • rate the book on Goodreads, and add a brief review there – that will help many other readers to find it
  • share your reflections and questions on your own website, blog or social media with the #FacPower hashtag and a link to facpower.org, and mention or tag the relevant contributors – let’s deepen and broaden the conversation together
  • if you have your own blog, podcast or other publication, contact us to arrange an interview or online session with one or more of our contributors
  • contact us if you are interested to translate of all or some of the book into your own language – see our translation page for what support we are ready to offer and what we will expect from you
  • contact us if you are interested to share your skills to help us to develop new editions including print-on-demand, an audio-book and a podcast series
  • follow, like, connect and engage with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn & YouTube
  • refer to our media kit and Creative Commons license for the resources you need to otherwise help to get the word out, or to use excerpts from the book
  • last but not least, please donate generously to the International Association of Facilitators Bursary Fund, to support IAF too to promote the power of facilitation worldwide.

Thank you!

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.