Global Flipchart #11

The IAF Global Flipchart is the International Association of Facilitators’ quarterly members publication with tips, tricks and resources for your individual facilitation practice and ideas to help you build your facilitation business and impact.

In this issue, we explore the art and practice of Process Design. How do we as facilitators design meetings that increase participation and deliver results? What models and processes do we apply to get from a vague client request to a successful meeting?

John Butcher, Cameron Fraser, Tony Nash and Rhonda Tranks compiled learnings from decades of facilitation practice in the overview article on Effective Process Design, outlining the needs and questions facilitators must consider when designing their processes.

Maya Bernstein and Rae Ringel propose Design Thinking as a specific approach that starts with empathy for participants and stakeholders and ends with testing a draft design before the meeting.

Rebecca Sutherns reminds us to Loosen your grip on your script as holding too closely to your process design will keep you from being present and listening fully during the session.

Anja Ebers shares how she is using Liberating Structures to sequence methods towards useful outcomes - and leverages the open nature of the methods to teach her clients hold better meetings themselves.

Miriam Ndambuki tells the story of using a Design Sprint to improve retention and reduce unemployment in young people in Kenya.

Wiebke Herding offers a practical tool, the Facilitation Plan, to help with the nitty-gritty details of process design. Use it to bridge your great ideas for the session with the practical realities of time and space - and to communicate your plans to your client.

Zena-Gabrielle Hailu asked IAF members and fellow facilitators: What’s in your toolbox for process design? Answers ranged from philosophies to hands-on methods.

Van Lai-DuMone presents a list of good Facilitation Resources Online for moments when we are out of ideas for our session design - and the IAF Methods Library has been exhausted.

And we invite you warmly to join us for our upcoming webinars and conferences!

Join in!

This Global Flipchart is only the start of a conversation. There are many stories waiting to be shared. Let's continue the conversation in the IAF social media forums.

Interested in contributing to the IAF Global Flipchart? The editorial team is looking for regular contributors – get in touch at globalflipchart@iaf-world.org. This year, we got shortlisted as Best Association E-Newsletter - help us win next year!

Upcoming issue

Our next topic is Into the Future. We will explore the future of our profession: will it be agile, virtual, visual? Are we going back to the basics? How will we deal with complex societal challenges - or long-term organisational change? We’d love to hear your stories, reflections and any suggestions on what you’d like to see in the next Global Flipchart. The deadline for contributions is 10 May 2018.

With best regards,

Wiebke Herding, Editor of the IAF Global Flipchart
and the entire Editorial Team of the IAF Global Flipchart