Sharing the story of facilitation

By Martin Gilbraith

As the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, join us in celebrating the power of facilitation by exploring, sharing and reflecting together on its history worldwide – past, present and future.

We are inviting facilitators everywhere – and everyone with an interest in facilitation, professional and otherwise – to join a six-month collaborative process that was launched in April to develop our collective story of facilitation. The process will culminate during International Facilitation Week, 20-26 October 2014. Our aim is to strike a balance between honouring the past, celebrating the present and envisioning the future – and to learn and have some fun together in the process!

We invite you to share key events and milestones in the history of facilitation, from your perspective and in your experience, and links and resources on how facilitation has developed and where it might be heading – share and discuss online at Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (hashtag #FacHistory), and participate face-to-face as well!

Workshops and other opportunities to share and reflect together will be held at each of IAF’s global conferences this year (April 9-12 in Orlando, August 14-16 in Singapore and October 3-5 in Copenhagen). We are encouraging IAF chapters and other local groups to hold their own events as well in the run up to International Facilitation Week and/or during the week itself. Events in New York, London and Mombasa have been announced so far. Follow @FacWeek and #FacHistory on twitter for the latest.

The six-month process is adapted from ICA’s Technology of Participation (ToP) Historical Scan method (or ‘Wall of Wonder) – a powerful tool to enable a group to share and learn from their varied perspectives of a journey through history, to review the past in order to prepare for the future.

We will build on ideas shared during such a session at the 2007 IAF Europe conference in Edinburgh “Reviewing the past to prepare for the future” (https://martingilbraith.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/reviewing-the-past-to-prepare-for-the-future-iaf-europe-edinburgh-2007.pdf) and a subsequent article by Richard Chapman published by IAF Europe & AMED in 2011 (http://facilitatorsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/richard-chapman-eop-article-aug-2011.pdf) – and of course the history of IAF.

Questions we might use to reflect and learn together on the story emerging from the shared events, milestones, links and resources could include:

• Which are/were most exciting or encouraging for you (and which less so)?
• Which are/were most influential for you, in your experience or from your perspective? How?
• Which indicate the power of facilitation to impact positively – on people, on communities, on organisations, on societies?
• What trends can you discern over time, or across geography?
• Where can you discern turning points, as between chapters in history?
• How would you name the chapters? How would you name the history as a whole?

During International Facilitation Week itself, as well as any other local or online events, there will be a couple of #FacWeekChat twitter chats to reflect together on what has been shared. Many events and resources have already been shared since the process was launched, including at the IAF North America conference during April 9-12 in Orlando. These are being compiled weekly for you to view at any time on storify at Celebrating the development of facilitation – world-wide and history long (https://storify.com/martingilbraith/fachistory/). Join us now by following and sharing your events & milestones, and links & resources, at Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter (hashtag #FacHistory)!

Martin Gilbraith can be contacted at martin@martingilbraith.com