I am grateful to Ramesh Srinivasanย of IAF India, host of the new Candid Convos video podcast, for the opportunity to join him as a guest for this new episode of just under 45 minutes.
๐ก ๐ง๐๐ ๐บ๐๐๐๐ผ๐๐บ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ Institute of Cultural Affairs International ๐บ๐๐ฝ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐บ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐.
Have you considered takingย ToP facilitation training, with me in Brussels or elsewhere, and wondered what it would be like and whether it would be worthwhile?
Below is what someย have had to say on LinkedIn about my own recent courses in Brussels and London, and a short time-lapse video offering a glimpse of ToP facilitation trainingย – for more glimpses see alsoย #ToPfacilitationย on Twitter.
Scroll on for details of my own upcoming courses in Brussels in 2017, and book now on Eventbrite.ย ย Discounted rates are available for voluntary organisations and independent professionals, and in particular toย ICA colleagues, to staff and members of Social Platform andย other European NGO platforms, andย to members of IAFย &ย IABC. Your fee includes one hour’s free telephone coaching after the course.
Regularly scheduled public ToP training courses are also provided by ICAs including inย Australia,ย Canada, Taiwan, UK, Ukraine & theย USA.ย Other ICAs also offer public courses, and in-house courses on request –ย see ICA Worldwide.
Michael Nord,ย Principal, Facilitator, Strategist & Networker, Amsterdam
“I joined Martin for Group Facilitation Methods training in Brussels, 2 days packed with tips, tricks and hands-on exercises. It was great experience and, though I work as a facilitator with my clients, it gave me a boost to do more, using the ToP methods.ย I would really recommend anyone who has done facilitation, but need a refresher or inspiration, to join one of Martin’s sessions. He is inspiring, he checks with attendees that they are OK, and he follows up afterwards.”
Nina Elzer, Policy Advisor at CENTR, Brussels
“Martin trained the Chairs of the CENTR Working Groups on facilitation. It provided them with valuable tools and techniques to make agenda-setting more efficient and meeting facilitation more effective – some have already been able to successfully implement what they learned. I would recommend Martin to anyone who is looking for an engaged trainer and thorough listener.”
Eve Geddie,ย Deputy Director at PICUM, Brussels
“Meetings are a key part of what we do. As a diverse, transnational, multilingual membership network, successful meetings are key to our internal and external successes. Many of our staff mentioned Martin’s training as a highlight in their end of year reviews โ several said it was the most useful training they had ever attended, and there was a clear consensus that we should work with him again.”
Miriam Elst,ย Facilitator Design Thinking and LEGOยฎ Serious Playยฎ, Lead UX researcher & strategist, Service designer, Brussels
“Martin is a very inspiring trainer, he is very skilled and knows how to facilitate facilitators in a structured and insightful way. I have been able to successfully use his personal advice and facilitation techniques straight away!”
Mike Pounsford,ย Employee engagement, communication and change specialist, London
“I went on a course run by Martin and found it really helpful. Martin established a really good group learning process and displayed mastery of his subject. I am very glad I went on it and very glad he ran it!” ย
Pierre Baussand,ย Director of Social Platform, Brussels
“I would recommend the course as something that can easily be used in practise for leaders, facilitators and participants of group meetingsโ.
Katherine Sargent,ย Country Programme Manager at Trรณcaire, London
“What made it so useful for me was the opportunity to practice the techniques in a supportive environment and the practical tools we took away from the course. This gave me the confidence to try out the techniques in the โreal worldโ.ย I have been using techniques I learnt during the course to prepare for meetings and it has really helped me focus my thoughts. Since the course I have facilitated a session for one of our partners using the Consensus Workshop approach. Not only did everyone actively participate, we reached consensus and I received very positive feedback from the participants!”
Meetings That Work (New for 2017)
Practical tools to design and lead effective meetingsย
How can I turn meetings into โeventsโ that people want to attend? How can I increase participation, and get the best input and results from everyone? ย How can I increase commitment to action, and handle difficult or controversial items?
This course will provide you with tips, templates and practical tools from professional facilitators that will enable you to get more from meetings than you ever thought possible. For this new course I shall be joined by Bill Staples of ICA Associates Inc of Canada as guest trainer.
Group Facilitation Methods
Introducing the foundations of the Technology of Participation (ToP) approach, two powerful techniques for structuring effective conversations and building group consensus
How can I have more purposeful & productive conversations, bring out the wisdom of a group, encourage feedback between people, and reach shared awareness in meetings? How can I generate and weave together a diverse range of ideas, develop creative solutions and build a group consensus?
This course provides a structured introduction to the ToP Focused Conversation and Consensus Workshop methods, which form the foundations of the ToP Action Planning method, Participatory Strategic Planning and other applications.
Action Planning
Participatory planning for short-term projects and eventsย
How can I get all members of a group to participate in planning a project or event together, and build their commitment and responsibility so that they can successfully implement their plan?
This course introduces a structured, participatory process to enable the successful implementation of a group project or event.ย The ToP Action Planning method uses the ToP Focused Conversation and Consensus Workshop methods to engage all members of a group effectively, and so it builds commitment and ownership at all stages. The method is suitable for planning short to medium-term projects, or completing projects that have stalled.
Participatory Strategic Planning
Bringing people together to create strategies for action
โHow can I enable my group to come to a common vision for their future? How can I help them make their vision happen by creatively addressing the root causes of the challenges that are blocking them, rather than focus simply on fire-fighting and problem-solving? How can I ensure a real sense of ownership, so that for once their plan actually happens?โ
The course presents a structured long-range planning process which incorporates the ToP Consensus Workshop method for building consensus, the ToP Focused Conversation method for effective group communication, and an implementation process for turning ideas into productive action and concrete accomplishments. Those with more experience of facilitation, strategic planning or ToP facilitation may need no further support to apply the process effectively in their own situations, and for others the course serves as a powerful, experiential introduction to the process.
BOOK NOW,ย or please contact me with any questions or for further details.
โHow can I have more purposeful & productive conversations, bring out the wisdom of a group, encourage feedback between people, and reach shared awareness in meetings? How can I generate and weave together a diverse range of ideas, develop creative solutions and build a group consensus?โ
The course presents the two methods in a practical and participatory way. Each method is first demonstrated, then analysed and discussed, and then practiced in supportive small groups with guided reflection & feedback. Finally, participants plan how they will apply each method in their own situations.
This short timelapse video, fromย last September’s ICA:UK Group Facilitation Methods training at NCVO in London, shows the interactive walk-through, analysis and discussion of the Consensus Workshopย method.
In my last post I blogged on Power to the People โ why I am excited to be attending #EuroComm 2015, the April 12-14 Europe MENA conference of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in London. Here I’d like to share a few of my reflections on that event, and something of the potential that I see for mutual learning and collaboration between facilitators and communicators, and for partnership between IAF and IABC.
I was struck at the event, as I was in browsing the agenda in advance, by the emphasis on the changing role of the communications profession, ‘from cascade to conversation’ (Katie MacAulay) and ‘from crafting and controlling messages to facilitator, coach and guide’ (Barbara Gibson). Highlights for me among the presentations were stories of large-scale staff engagement at HSBC Exchange from Ulrike Felber and on the Art of Participatory Leadership at the European Commisisonย from Ian Andersen, and on ‘bringing values alive’ at Newsweaver from Andrew OโShaughnessy.ย There was a lot valuable experience evident of engaging people at scale in change processes, from which I think facilitators could learn a great deal – particularly when it comes to engaging all those stakeholders who, for one reason or another, will never be ‘in the room’ to participate directly in a facilitated process.
I was also struck, however, that there seemed less awareness of the body of knowledge and experience that the facilitation profession has accumulated – in particular, the value of designing and leading a group through a structured series of questions and activities to achieve a particular purpose. Mention was made of using workshops to engage people, but (with the exception of the Art of Participatory Leadership) I gained little sense of their methodology or process design. While it was made clear that communications today must involve listening, and no longer just talking, I reflected that a third element that is key to making conversation productive as well as engaging is to ask purposeful questions. It seems to me that this is an area where communications professional may be able to learn from facilitators.
In spite of the emphasis in the content of the conference on communications as dialogue rather than broadcast, in terms of process I found the sessions mostly structured as presentations with dialogue limited to questions from the floor – between the stage and the tiered seating of a lecture theatre. I dare say that IAF facilitators could have learned a thing or two about making presentations engaging, but certainly I find that IAF conferences enable a greater depth and breadth of conversation.
It was partly for this reason that another highlight for me was the session on the future of the communications profession, which was held in a large classroom rather than a lecture theatre and facilitated as a number of parallel small table conversations. This session also highlighted for me the potential for the two professions and the two associations to learn from each other’s experience of common issues and challenges, such as upholding and raising professional standards and mobilising and managing volunteers and chapters.
@martingilbraith@IABC Watching the activity at this year's #eurocomm indicates there is a lot of potential for collaboration.
I was impressed (as you might hope) by the use of social media at EuroComm, including vox pop videos on facebook and especially the very cool Whova mobile app for conference networking – also by the speed and number of conference reviews published online, for example by Daniel Munslow and by the AB team, and by IABC on storify. So imagine my surprise when, as #EuroComm twitter statistics were projected at the closing session, it turned out that the most prolific tweeter with the widest reach was… me, the facilitator at a conference of communicators!
Already IAF and IABC members are able to enjoy reciprocal discounts at each others’ conferences, at least in Europe. I want to encourage members of both associations to take advantage of that, and connect with each other to further explore the potential for mutual learning and collaboration, and for partnership. The door is open – step through and see what you find!
I am excited to announce these two new public courses in Brussels in November. Please join me if you can, and share these details with friends, colleagues and networks who might be interested.
These courses are scheduled in partnership with Social Platform,ย the largest platform of European rights and value-based NGOs working in the social sector; and provided under license with ICA:UK, the participation & development charity.ย It was following an earlier course with Social Platform in Brussels last December that I blogged Three dimensions of the facilitator role โ a focusedย conversation with video.
“I would recommend the course to others as something that can easily be used in practise for leaders, facilitators and participants of group meetings” – Pierre Baussand, Director, Social Platform, Brussels.
Group Facilitation Methods
Introducing the foundations of the Technology of Participation (ToP) approach, two powerful techniques for structuring effective conversations and building group consensus โ 2 days, November 25-26
How can I have more purposeful & productive conversations, bring out the wisdom of a group, encourage feedback between people, and reach shared awareness in meetings? How can I generate and weave together a diverse range of ideas, develop creative solutions and build a group consensus?
This course provides a structured introduction to the ToP Focused Conversation and Consensus Workshop methods, which form the foundations of the ToP Action Planning method, Participatory Strategic Planning and other applications.
Action Plannning
Participatory planning for short-term projects and events – 1 day, November 27
How can I get all members of a group to participate in planning a project or event together, and build their commitment and responsibility so that they can successfully implement their plan?
This course introduces a structured, participatory process to enable the successful implementation of a group project or event.ย The ToP Action Planning method uses the ToP Focused Conversation and Consensus Workshop methods to engage all members of a group effectively, and so it builds commitment and ownership at all stages. The method is suitable for planning short to medium-term projects, or completing projects that have stalled.
The 
