Facilitation Stories

Helene interviews Pilar Orti from Virtual not Distant, creator and co-host of this IAF E&W podcast, Facilitator and trainer specialising in online collaborative processes, podcaster, author and voiceover artist (she is the voice of Xuli on the Go Jetters).  Pilar starts by recounting her facilitation journey which started with the theatre company that she ran for 10 years. She went to a conference where Toby Wiltshire (from the Trestle mask company) was talking about using theatre in corporate training. This eventually led her to do her first away day using theatre exercises as a facilitation tool. She eventually moved away from this, finding it hard to describe what she did and getting people to take the “drama” seriously and understand what it was really about. She describes how she started to look more into organisational behaviour theory and find out how she could run workshops on leadership and change. She started to work on-line as she was travelling a lot, initially running some webinars which she

Sharing stories about working with different languages in the room. Helene Jewell, podcast co-host and freelance facilitator based in Bristol,  Martin Gilbraith (CPF facilitator and trainer and consultant based in London – who also took part in Episode 7 on facilitation values), Simon Wilson has been running facilitation company for 20 years CPF working internationally and in the UK, based in the Peak District. The podcast starts with some examples of working with people who speak different languages. Simon shares a story about working with a UN agency 5 years ago doing a mix of facilitation and training over 20 sessions. Virtual sessions using Webex platform in English, French and Spanish and Simon co-facilitated all of these. He talks about his different levels of competence in these languages and the different dynamics and energy. He used Google Translate to help him and when he was speaking in English which was often not the native language for many participants he had to keep his language simple and avoi

In this episode Helene Jewell interviews Nicola Morris who together with Penny Walker conducted a survey to find out what facilitators feel they need at the moment, during the times of Covid 19. Participants of the IAF virtual coffee meet up in April 2020 reflect on what they got from the session, what is going on for them at the moment, facilitation with family members, the difficulty of building in the experiential element in virtual facilitation and “deep participation”. Also facilitation of community groups, the steep learning curves and feeling okay about not knowing how to do it all. The facilitators talking were: Penny Walker, London Koren Stark, Dublin John Varney, Yorkshire Orla Cronin, Manchester Paul O'Raw, Dublin and finally, from Susannah Raffe, London Nicola Morris then talks to Helene about her journey into facilitation and how she has always used facilitation in some shape or form. Her current career was catalysed by early redundancy and is a mix of training and facilitation and sometimes be

In today’s episode, Pilar talks to Pinar Akkaya about how she supports organisations by training their internal facilitators. Pilar met Pinar for the first time at an IAF conference a couple of years ago and has since done some work with her. The next IAF conference is on 16th and 17th October – get in touch if you are interested in offering a session. At present this is still going ahead but is being closely monitored in relation to Covid-19.   Pinar first talks about her facilitation journey. She started off assisting her professor when she was a student in his strategy workshops and then worked alongside him after she graduated. She then went on to work in Human Resources and continued facilitating before starting out working for herself. She now works as an international trainer, teaches at the European School of Economics in London and works as a facilitator. She mainly works with big multinationals across Europe. She is also a part of the APM (Association of Progress of Management) international networ

In today's episode, Helene talks to Celeste Brito and Camilla Gordon about their experiences of being mentees as part of the IAF Global Mentorship Programme.  You can find out more about it here: https://www.iaf-world.org/site/global-mentorship-program In the introduction, Pilar mentions the next IAF Learning Online Meetup - you can register here: https://www.meetup.com/IAF-facilitators-and-friends/events/268954892/ You can find the links to all the IAF England Wales Meetup Groups here: https://www.iaf-world.org/site/chapters/england-wales To start with, we hear from Gianpietro Pucciariello https://makesense.org/en/ www.appymaps.com Twitter @gpinuk 09.45mins Helene talks to Celeste Brito about her experience of being mentored by Penny Walker.  Twitter: @britoc01  21.55mins Helene talks to Camilla Gordon about who might benefit most from being mentored You can hear more from Camilla in episode 11, and follow her on Twitter @camillagordon Hosts' Twitter handles: @HeleneJewell @PilarOrti Show: @Fac_Stories @

In this episode, Helene Jewell talks to Rebecca Sutherns, author of Nimble: A Coaching Guide for Responsive Facilitation about how she became a facilitator, and what she's learned through her practice about remaining nimble and responsive during sessions, when things don't go as expected. (Hint: it involves plenty of preparation!) To find out more about the IAF England and Wales chapter (the group behind this podcast) check out https://www.iaf-world.org/site/chapters/england-wales Get in touch via podcast@iaf-englandwales.org and follow us on Twitter @Fac_Stories

These are challenging times for facilitators - in this bonus episode, we hear insights from Jonathan Bannister, Paolo Martinez, Koren Stark, Claudia, and Grant Cockerell.   If you need the links to the meetup pages, head over to https://www.iaf-world.org/site/chapters/england-wales  - remember that these meetups are great ways of learning informally from each other, through conversation. And if you're looking for more structured learning events, there are quite a few out there now, for example Martin Gilbraith and Judy Rees are running a workshop on Tues 24th March on Promoting Inclusion in Online Facilitation https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/promoting-inclusion-in-online-facilitation-tickets-94598146603    1 April, IAF Global is organising a webinar, on "COVID 19 is impacting your business? How about Digital Facilitation as an alternative" and Paul Nunesda is putting that together https://www.iaf-world.org/site/events/covid-19-impacting-your-business-how-about-digital-facilitation-alternative Tell us you'

In this episode, we hear from three people who attended one of our last virtual meetups, and one of our co-hosts, Pilar Orti, talks to Judy Rees about their recent experiment organising a "hybrid" meetup. Find out when the next virtual meetups are happening: https://www.iaf-world.org/site/chapters/england-wales We also have some listener feedback from Anuschka who wanted to know how to join the IAF Slack. https://join.slack.com/t/iaffacilitatorfriends/shared_invite/enQtODY4NDM0NDM4ODY4LTA0N2FlNWU4M2Y4NWZmZjM4OWRhZmM2N2Y2ZThmNmZjMjI4MzY2OWQ3ZjRiYzllZTYzNzY0MDllZTRiZGUxNzk If you have something to say about a recent IAF meetup, or anything else we say on this podcast, do emails us over at podcast@iaf-englandwales.org Pilar reads the message from the IAF Chair and Board, regarding the COVID-19 situation. A reminder that, in uncertain times like the current ones, you can connect with other fellow facilitators, through this podcast, Slack and our virtual meetups. Conversation with Judy Rees on Hybrid Meetups Can

Camilla Gordon is a freelance facilitator trainer and consultant specialising in working with marginalised groups and communities. She talks to Helene about how she got into facilitation, how she “fell into it” and the links between theatre and facilitation. She talks about the type of facilitation she does and how she takes a create and playful approach to her work. She works a lot with young people that have voices that are not being heard enough and how she us able to use her facilitation skills to make sure people are listening. Camilla also does a lot of strategy work to help organisations take a bottom up approach. She talks about the differences and similarities working with adults and young people and how the approaches are the same but the delivery is slightly different. She uses Lego serious play quite a lot, but also how she likes to take what works from different methodologies and mix them with more creative approaches. Camilla has been working with the Refugee Youth Service in Calais and tells us

Step into this episode brought to you by IAF England and Wales, with co-hosts Helene Jewell and Pilar Orti, plus three other voices, in both text and audio. Helene and Pilar celebrate the podcast's tenth episode, and how it's bringing "facilitators and friends" together in the asynchronous audio space, beyond the meetups, and linking the meetups. All meetups are listed here: https://www.iaf-world.org/site/chapters/england-wales Alison Knight sent us some thoughts about the last meetup she attended in Bristol. Find out more about the IAF South West England meetups, and look out for the next learning meetup in Bath on 14 May. Alison mentions this book by Anna Sheather's 'Coaching Beyond Words - Using Art to Deepen and Enrich our Conversations' At the latest Bristol meetup, Helene and others discussed does it matter what we call ourselves: coach, facilitator... is it linked to our identity, our marketing? Listeners: what's the difference between group coaching and group facilitation? Let us know! Helene and

In this episode, Helene talks to Hilary Topp about one of her favourite facilitation methods, why (and how) she got into facilitation and her involvement with Citizens Assemblies. Hilary Topp is a facilitator and coach and host of the IAF meet ups in Midlands and the East of England and IAF England and Wales board member. She tells us how she first got into facilitation and that although she hasn’t yet done a whole year as a freelancer how much she is enjoying it. She uses a variety of facilitation methodologies but in particular likes using ORID from the ICA Technologies of Participation approach, and tells us a bit about how she puts in into practise. Although she enjoys all kinds of facilitation her favourite pieces of work are strategy reviews and she talks us through some of the ways that she does these. Hilary tells us a bit about citizens assemblies and a related participatory democracy process (a People’s Panel) she was involved in last year, and a bit about the role of the facilitator in these. Both

If you haven't yet done so, please take a few minutes now to complete our survey - to help to make IAF England & Wales and our facilitation meetups more valuable to you and to others in the coming year: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/T9MSZZJ In this episode, we hear from our IAF England & Wales Meetup organisers, and attendees! Plus, an impromptu conversation with a new-ish IAF England & Wales member.  You can find links to all of our meetups here: We hear from a multitude of voices: https://www.iaf-world.org/site/chapters/england-wales First, we hear from Anish Hindocha, sharing what he got from the first meetup he attended.  We hear from Nicola Morris, Martin Gilbraith and Adrian Ashton, and messages from Amanda Stott and Joyce Matthews, about the meetups they host and why they host them.  We hear from attendees to the meetups. Rose Beauchamp tells us what happened at the last Bristol meetup, and we hear from participants at our last online coffee meetup. We end with a 12 minute conversatio

Martin Gilbraith is a facilitato, trainer and consultant, and Chair of the IAF England and Wales board. He started hosting IAF meet ups about 5 years ago and has been facilitating since 1986. He is an IAF Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF),  an ICA Certified ToP Facilitator (CTF) and experienced lead trainer and licensed provider of ‘ICA’s ‘ToP’ facilitation training and a Certified Scrum Master (CSM).  Martin talks about the importance of values – both personal and IAF values which talk about the collective wisdom of the group. He says that what you believe has an enormous impact on the group. Martin talks about defining values and how the IAF values resonate with him and his involvement with developing the ICA UK values. Values are what is important to people and what drives them, and are important to be able to define what is meaningful and important to them. He told us about taking decisions not to do work that conflicted with his values, mostly around contracting with the client. We discussed the s

In this episode, Pilar talks to Gary Austin about what learning opportunities he's found during his 30 years as a facilitator. But before that, we have a roundup of what's happening at the different Meetups from: Susannah Raffe, @SusannahRaffe https://www.meetup.com/IAF-South-West-England-facilitators-and-friends/events/266488389/   Peter Nelson https://www.meetup.com/IAF-North-of-England-facilitators-and-friends/events/266488388/   Hilary Topp, @HTFacilitation https://www.meetup.com/IAF-Midlands-East-of-England-facilitators-friends/events/266488390/ Megan Evans @megan_evans1 https://www.meetup.com/IAF-Wales-facilitators-and-friends/events/266488391/   Also check out what some of our other friends are doing: https://www.meetup.com/IAF-Ireland-facilitators-and-friends/events/266488392/   https://www.meetup.com/IAF-Scotland-facilitators-and-friends/events/266488393/ Check out Gianpietro's sketch @gpinuk, so that link will also be in the show notes, Gianpietro https://twitter.com/gpinuk/status/12018803211066

Megan Evans is a consultant, facilitator and trainer and host of the IAF meet ups in Wales. Megan describes how she first got into facilitation quite a few years ago, experiencing it as a participant and then being “roped in”. She was inspired by being asked what she and other people thought, and not just being told. Fascinated by the skills and style and started to get more and more involved in doing it herself. She worked for Participation Cymru – the aim of which was to spread participative and facilitative techniques across Wales throughout different organisations. Megan uses a lot of facilitative methods to ensure everyone’s voices can be heard. She talks about it being stressful “in a good way” and what she loves about facilitation, particularly when the group is engaged and don’t notice the facilitator anymore. She describes the best learning as coming from others and how important it is to watch others facilitate. She also goes on training, reads books and does a lot of learning by doing. She also hos

Lee Button is a freelance facilitator and Senior Partner at WeAreBPG. Lee tells us how he first came across facilitation, when he was part of a session run by someone who was leading a group process, enabling those present to create the content, and how that led to Lee taking his first steps in developing himself as a facilitator. Having some "stamp of approval" was important for Lee, so he describes how he went about his training, starting with The Patterson Centre in Chicago. On his return to the UK, Lee thought, "There must be others doing this here..." and he found the IAF. It's the joy of seeing others come alive to their own knowledge and solutions, even though he doesn't understand the context and content of what they're discussing, that drove Lee to pursue a career in facilitation. Lee explains how he sees where he sees the value of accreditation and how he sought the group where he could be part of the conversation and learn from his peers - guess what, his journey drove him to Martin Gilbraith,

  Helene Jewell and Pilar Orti discuss The IAF conference (18th/19th October 2019 in Birmingham) 2 days and an evening which included: Human map, Client Panel Interviewing, Parallel Sessions, Open Space (inspired), Dine Around  We hear from James at Session Lab @notjamessmart talking about the sessions he attended. Some of Helene’s and Pilar’s highlights: The panel interview – 3 clients from 3 different organisations, interviewed by Gary Austin with additional questions from the audience. It was great to hear from the panel and question them live. Lots of different aspects were discussed including not underselling the whole package of facilitation and the benefits of the pre and post work.  The panel discussion was useful in terms of helping everyone to understand how to explain to clients who “don’t get it”. They were advocates for the profession. They also talked about co-creation by using an external and internal facilitator together.  The human map – organised by Hilary Topp. A great way to show where p

Get in touch! We’re @IAFEnglandWales or @Fac_stories on Twitter. Helene Jewell talks to Penny Walker Facilitator, Coach, Consultant and trainer in change for sustainable development. She's the author of two books and has contributed to a whole variety of other publications. Connect with Penny on Twitter @penny_walker_sd or through her website https://www.penny-walker.co.uk/ Penny tells Helene about how she started working as a facilitator, through her work with Friends of the Earth, the environmental pressure group, as a campaigner and then moved across to managing the team of people who provide support to local Friends of the Earth support groups across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. These were mostly volunteers and many of them came from a community development background. It was them that first introduced her to facilitation – meetings that were pleasant and got somewhere.  Penny became interested in the grey areas between people and organisations that were taking very positional attitudes towards di

Get in touch! We’re @IAFEnglandWales on Twitter.

In this first episode, we introduce the show and the IAF’s England and Wales Chapter. We also let you know you how you can get involved, because one of the aims of the show is also to help the community come together beyond the MeetUps, and for those of you who can't attend the Meetups, to find out what's going on in them!

 We talk about what do we mean by facilitation? It’s a lot of different things to different people but is essentially helping groups of people to have more effective and productive conversations. Better and more inclusive conversations guided by a facilitator. 
The applications of facilitation beyond "facilitating a meeting". Facilitating a meeting can make you think of sitting around a board room table, but it is so much more. Facilitation could be team away days, strategy sessions, creative thinking sessions, ideas generation, problem solving, stakeholder engagement for example. Facilitation is such a broad thing where you have facilitat