Tag Archives: training

Transformational Strategy: Facilitation of ToP Participatory Planning

Transformational Strategy - coverNow available worldwide from Amazon, as well as directly from ICA Associates in Canada.

Author Bill Staples gave us a sneak preview of this new book from ICA Associates at the ICAI Global Conference on Human Development in Kathmandu last October.

The Art of Focused Conversation and the Workshop Book, authored by Brian Stanfield of ICA Associates, covered the two foundational methods of ICA’s Technology of Participation (ToP) facilitation methodology.  This new book covers the ToP Participatory Strategic Planning method in similar depth – from the history and development of the method through to the theory and practice, including numerous case studies.

Much anticipated by ToP facilitators everywhere, this book will be of immense value to all those who are looking for ways to mobilise the transformational power of shared commitment to create their desired future.

And if reading the book is not enough for you, it is not (quite!) too late to register for the ICA:UK Participatory Strategic Planning course that I shall be leading myself next week in London.  See you there!

Introducing the Technology of Participation on Vimeo

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Well done and thank you to Bill Staples of ICA Associates in Canada and the team at Youth Empowerment Studios in the USA for this updated video introduction to ICA’s Technology of Participation (ToP) facilitation methods.

Readers with long memories may remember the original VHS video produced in the 1990s. This covers the same ground, but has been updated for the digital age last year.  Bill gave us a preview at the ICA International gathering in Nepal last October, and I am pleased to see that it is now publicly available online at vimeo.

The video provides a 25 minute introduction to the ToP Focused Conversation and Consensus Workshop methods, the foundations of the ToP approach.  If you have taken ICA’s Group Facilitation Methods course you should find the content familar and may find the video a helpful refresher.  If you have not taken the course, then watch the video and maybe consider it – the video is a useful resource, but really no substitute for being there!

Alternatively, ICA Associates are now offering Group Facilitation Methods online, in case being there in person is really not an option for you….

Reflections on a term as IAF Chair

the International Association of FacilitatorsThis post was first published in the IAF newsletter the Global Flipchart, January 2013.

After a little over four years on the IAF Board and a two year term as Chair, my term is now over.  I have had a tremendous time – I have learned a lot, and I have very much enjoyed working closely with many talented and dedicated colleagues among our membership. I am delighted to have passed on the baton to our very capable new Chair Kimberly Bain, along with the symbol that was passed on to me by my predecessor Gary Rush two years ago – a beautiful glass globe engraved with the IAF logo.

I would like to share some of things I find myself proud of and sorry about, as I reflect on my term and on the accomplishments of the Board, and of IAF as a whole, relative to the Board’s strategic priorities for these last two years.  These were:

  1. Marketing & Communications ( branding, online and regional) to position IAF as ‘the International Association’ for professional facilitators and all those who have an interest in facilitation
  2. Increased member retention and membership growth, particularly through chapter development & support and transformation of affiliation to new partnership relationships
  3. Diversification of income sources for financial strength & sustainability
  4. Growth & diversification of certification programmes, to strengthen global pathways to CPF
  5. Good governance & management, including succession planning and role definition

I am proud that we have the new Board role of Marketing & Partnerships Director to bring a new emphasis to this priority area, and that the new Board is embarking on this New Year with that post filled and with marketing as a central and cross-cutting theme in its business planning.  I am sorry that the role remained vacant for most of last year, and that we have not been able to invest as much energy in repositioning IAF as we had planned.

I am proud of the much improved visitor experience of the new IAF website introduced two years ago.  I am sorry that the functionality of the membership database behind the new website has proven inadequate to our needs, and that this has been an obstacle to serving our members as well and as easily as we would like.

I am proud that total membership has increased slightly over the past two years, in spite of severe economic recession in parts of the world where many of our members are located – we have 1,269 members today as compared with 1,210 at the end of 2010.  I am sorry that we have yet to attract back or replace many former members – the total was 1,453 when I joined the Board in October 2008.

I am proud that IAF chapters have seen such growth these past two years, after development of the model had taken such great investment of Board time and attention the previous two.  Since the first IAF chapter was established in 2010 the Board has approved 18 new chapters around the world and many more are in development, and local activity and membership are growing in many places as a direct result.  I am sorry that we are still not yet as clear as we would like on the principles and the practicalities of how local chapters and regional teams should expect to relate with each other and with IAF at the global level.

I am proud that IAF’s financial strength and sustainability are much improved, to the point that the Board is increasingly concerned by how to spend money wisely rather than how to conserve it.  I am sorry that income sources are not yet significantly diversified (they are still mainly membership dues, certification fees and to some extent conference surpluses), and that membership dues remain the only significant source of finance for membership services.

I am proud of the fantastic learning communities that IAF conferences continue to provide, and of the many successful and increasingly innovative conferences that have been held the past few years – not least the two that I attended myself last year in Halifax and in Geneva.  I am sorry that I did not manage to attend any IAF conferences as Chair in regions other than Europe and North America.

I am proud that the Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF) programme has grown to over 100 candidates assessed worldwide in 2012, as compared to 69 in 2009, and that the new recertification programme has now become well established these past two years.  I am proud that a model for accreditation of facilitation training programmes is now out for consultation among members and training providers.  I am sorry that certification is still available only in English and Dutch, and that the cost of such a rigorous assessment process continues to be an obstacle for many.

In terms of governance, I am proud that IAF has completed its third year of online Board elections and now its first online Annual General Meeting, accessible to all members.  I am proud that the Board has been ready invest in a substantial face-to-face Board planning meeting early each year, and of the impact I think that has had on the culture and performance of the Board.  I am sorry that participation in this year’s election was so much reduced compared to the last two years – most likely I think as a result of problems with our email blast not reaching some members.

Most of all I am proud of the extraordinary talent and energy that is volunteered by so many of our fellow members every year in so many ways, for the advancement of our global profession and its social impact worldwide as well as for the learning and growth of ourselves and each other.  I thank you all.

In some ways I am sorry that my time on the Board is at an end.  I am looking forward to remaining an active member in other ways, however, and I am enjoying a major fall in my daily email traffic since transferring the IAF Chair’s account to Kimberly!

Also I am already enjoying many opportunities to apply learnings from my time on the IAF Board in my new volunteer role as President of ICA International, and as a newly independent CPF Facilitator, Trainer and Consultant as well. You can now find me at www.martingilbraith.com, and I look forward to staying in touch with fellow members online and I hope occasionally face to face.

I would welcome any reflections from you on changes that you’ve noticed in IAF in recent years, for better or for worse – you can reach me now at martin@martingilbraith.com.  I expect Kimberly and the Board will also welcome input and suggestions for their 2013 business planning meeting, taking place the week of 21 January in Tokyo – you can now reach Kimberly at my old address chair@iaf-world.org.  I wish them all the very best, with my support and confidence.

ToP facilitation training in London in February

ICA:UK, the participation & developpment charityI am pleased to be leading ICA:UK’s ToP facilitation training courses in London in February – please follow the links for full details and online bookings, and do contact me with any queries:

Both courses are to be held at NCVO, near Kings Cross.

A new transition for ICA:UK – and for me

This article was excerpted in ICA:UK Nework News, issue 47.

Martin Gilbraith

After 16 years with ICA:UK, it is a curious feeling to have given notice to leave my role as Chief Executive at the end of September! I am excited by the prospects for both me and for ICA:UK, although I do feel some sense of loss already after so many years of close identification with ICA:UK. Nevertheless it seems to me for a number of reasons to be the right time for me to move on, both for ICA:UK and for me.

For ICA:UK, we have been clear that we need to reorient our strategy and restructure our roles in response to the radically changed operating environment that we now find ourselves in now. Since I began my role as Development Officer in 1996, ICA:UK has grown and developed almost beyond recognition. My departure will both require and facilitate further organisational change, and I think more effectively than I could lead it myself. With the addition of this year’s newly appointed Trustees and Savita as Board Chair, with the passion, expertise and capacity of our network of members, volunteers and associates, and with our strong and experienced team of core staff, I have no doubt that ICA:UK will meet that challenge. I hope that all those who care for ICA:UK and it’s mission and values will join together over the coming months and years to continue ‘to enable people to bring about change, toward a just and sustainable future for all’ in line with those values.

For me, I embarked upon this journey with ICA:UK in 1996 with the aim of working with other members to rebuild and grow a sustainable ICA organisation in Britain, at a time when we had no office or staff and close to zero annual turnover. I think that I supposed then that that might take 10-15 years. I feel that it is now high time that I allow ICA:UK the opportunity to sustain itself without me, and to reinvent itself without me for the next 10-15 years. Also I feel that it is time that I allow myself the opportunity to embark on some new challenges of my own.

I look forward to working initially at least on a freelance basis, based in London after two long years dividing my time between London and Manchester. I shall be available to work with ICA:UK as an Associate, if called upon for a particular project or to serve existing or new ICA:UK clients, and I plan to offer ICA:UK’s ToP facilitation training courses independently as a licensed Associate as well. I am pleased to have accepted a nomination for election to the Board of ICA International from next year, after completing my present two year term as Chair of IAF. Also I hope to find more time to read, to reflect and to write, and to explore whatever other new opportunities emerge.

Please get in touch with any queries or feedback about what this transition might mean for ICA:UK, and if you might like to offer your support, and please also feel free to contact me about my own future. Until 30 September I can be reached at martin@ica-uk.org.uk , and I can also be reached from now at martin@martingilbraith.com.

For a message from ICA:UK Chair Savita Custead, see also http://www.ica-uk.org.uk/a-new-transition-for-icauk.htm