Tag Archives: survey

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.

IAF England & Wales facilitators & friends – please complete our survey!

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Are you interested in connecting, networking & learning with other facilitators and with others with an interest in facilitation in England & Wales?

Please take a few minutes to complete our survey, to help to make IAF England & Wales and our free facilitation meetups more valuable to you in 2017. See below for a preview of the 8 simple survey questions, and please complete your responses at surveymonkey.

The International Association of Facilitators (IAF) is a participatory organisation with around 1,600 members in over 65 countries, and 40 local groups including IAF England & Wales (IAF E&W). As a professional association, we set internationally accepted industry standards, provide accreditation, support a community of practice, advocate and educate on the power of facilitation and embrace the diversity of facilitators.

If you have any questions about this survey or about IAF E&W, please contact me.

Thank you!
Martin Gilbraith, IAF E&W meetups organiser #IAFMeetUp

  1. First, please tell us about your connection with IAF E&W to date (please tick all that apply)
  2. Next, please tell us about your interest or experience in facilitation (please tick all that apply)
  3. Now please tell us what IAF events have you attended at least once in the past 2 years (please tick all that apply)
  4. What have you appreciated most about the events you have attended?
  5. What could have been better about the events you have attended?
  6. What different events, times or locations would encourage or enable you to attend, or attend more, in future?
  7. What other activities would you like to see from IAF E&W, or how else would you like to see IAF E&W develop?
  8. Please let us know where you are located – and, if you may be interested to help us to grow and develop our network and activities in 2017, your name & how to reach you.

Happy New Year from the ICAI Board

Global-Buzz-banner-1000x667-641x427Happy New Year from the ICAI Board to all ICAI members, and to all ICA friends and colleagues worldwide.  We are grateful for all your support for ICA’s global mission of advancing human development in 2015, and wish you the best for all of your activities in 2016.

Fourteen representatives of 10 member ICAs participated in two online ICAI General Assembly (GA) meetings on December 10, and seven of 10 current statutory member ICAs voted in the online GA poll over the following 10 days to December 20.  Thank you to all who participated.

As a result of the GA we are pleased to welcome two new Associate members to ICAI, both nominated by ICA Kenya with the support of ICA Tanzania and ICA Uganda, and both approved unanimously by the GA – NCOC Kenya (Nairobi Community Organisation Consultants) and SCR Kenya (Support for Community Response) are both led by long-time colleagues of ICA in Kenya.

During the GA meetings we heard updates from the ICAI Global ToP (Technology of Participation) policy working group and the ICAI Global Conference working group, and also discussed global communications and peer-to-peer support for new members of ICAI.

We are grateful to the 28 ICAs who have already responded to our recent global survey on members’ usage of, capacity for and aspirations for ToP facilitation methods, and to the Global ToP working group that is now analysing the responses in order to make recommendations for peer-to-peer support and collaboration among ICAs in implementing our new global ToP policy.  We urge members that have not yet responded to continue to do so – please contact us to ask for a link to the online survey form.

We are also grateful to the ICAI Global Conference working group for its work with Initiatives of Change (IofC) exploring possibilities for a joint conference in Human Development at IofC Caux in Switzerland or elsewhere, now perhaps in 2017 or 2018.

The December issue of ICAI’s Winds & Waves magazine ‘Climate Change‘ was published on the 25th, as a Christmas gift!  We are grateful as ever to the tireless editorial team, who work so hard to enable us to share stories and insights on human development  in this magazine three times each year.

I echo the appeal of Peter Ellins in this latest issue –please do contribute to the magazine in 2016, and please contact us if you may be interested in joining the team to support with commissioning, reporting, editing, layout and design, social media, or in any other way.

This post was written for ICAI’s monthly bulletin the Global Buzz, January 2016

 

 

ICAI Winds and Waves – Edge thinking in human development

ICAI Winds and Waves, August 2103 - coverThis article was written for ICAI Winds and Waves, August 2013.

Welcome to the 6th issue of Winds and Waves, the online magazine of ICA International.

This issue on the theme of Edge Thinking in Human Development is packed with insightful and thought-provoking articles including stories of outrage and hope in the UK and the Arab world, of self-esteem and humility in Chile, of myth and metaphor in political science in Venezuela, of restorative practice in Australia, of Theatre of the Oppressed in Tajikistan and of higher education in public health online and worldwide – even of a comprehensive perspective from the international space station! Also included are news briefs from ICAs around the world, book reviews and much more. Woven through-out are the values of human development and the methods of facilitative leadership that are the hallmark of our global ICA network.

It is the role of ICA International to facilitate international peer-to-peer support and collaboration among ICAs and ICA colleagues, so I hope you will find something here to inspire or provoke you to reach out to colleagues you may or may not know, and to connect and perhaps to collaborate with them.

In our last issue in April we reported on the appointment of new ICAI Board members, and the development of a new 2013 business plan for ICAI. The ICAI Board took the opportunity of our July meeting, a little over half way through the year, to reflect on progress against that plan. I would like to share a little here on two key elements of our plan, as a couple of immediate opportunities for readers to get better connected and more involved in ICA globally.

The new network survey is intended primarily to enable ICAs and ICA colleagues around the world to know each other better, to facilitate peer to peer support and collaboration. It also includes questions designed to indicate how ICAs meet the ICAI membership criteria, to enable the ICAI Board and General Assembly to monitor that and take membership decisions, and questions on activity with UN agencies to enable ICAI to report on that to maintain ICAI’s consultative status with UN agencies.

We are grateful to the many ICA colleagues around the world that contributed to the survey design, and to the 19 ICA locations that have already completed and returned their responses – five from Africa, three from the Americas, seven from Asia and four from Europe. It is too early yet to draw any conclusions from the responses received to date, but we look forward to making all the data available to all members when all responses have been received. If your ICA hasn’t already responded, then please do so as soon as you can by completing the online questionnaire.

ICAI’s online regional gatherings are convened three times per year, for three regional time zone groups – Asia/Pacific, the Americas, and Europe/MENA/Africa. These gatherings are open to all ICA members, staff and volunteers worldwide, and people are welcome to attend another region’s gathering if they cannot attend their own.

The aims of the gatherings are to connect ICAs and ICA colleagues with each other, and help to build and strengthen relationships between them; to share information and facilitate peer-to-peer support and collaboration among ICAs and ICA colleagues; and to hold ICAI accountable to its members, and seek input and support to strengthen our global network and advance our global mission. The first gatherings of 2013 were held in March, and reported in the April issue. The recent August gatherings will be reported in the December issue of Winds and Waves. Everyone with an involvement or interest in ICA worldwide is welcome and encouraged to attend these on-line meetings.

Thank you again to the Winds and Waves global editorial team, and to all of our contributors, for so generously sharing their time, expertise, experience and ideas with us all in this issue!