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Global Flipchart #13

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September 2018

My time on the IAF board

 

by John Cornwell

As I head towards the end of my time as an IAF Board member, I have been reflecting deeply on the experience of the last 3½ years.  It has been a wonderful, engaging and empowering experience from the very start and highly recommended in terms of networking, learning and personal development.

In the second half of 2014, I was approached by the Board Chair at the time, Kimberly Bain, who had been given a recommendation by my predecessor, Solly Manyaka, and thus asked if I had interest in becoming Africa Regional Director for IAF.  It was a complete surprise and shock to me at that point, as I had not even considered this possibility but Solly and Kimberly were both able to convince me that I could not only continue the work I had been doing to encourage the development of facilitator networks in Kenya but also to do similar on a larger, continent-wide stage.  So it was that I ran for election in October 2014 and, again, in October 2016, and have been in the position since the start of 2015.

From the start, I had set out several clear objectives for my role which have been concerned with not only growing the membership, chapters and activities in the region but also increasing the “African Voice and Perspective” throughout all IAF activities.  This two-fold strategy has worked well and I hope that it is one that can be adopted (and improved upon!) by my successor.

Successes

In early 2015, we hit an all-time low of 11 members in Africa with no chapters in the region; currently we are at almost 80 members with 5 chapters and several potential ones coming up.  The growth has been phenomenal and it has been incredibly exciting to see so many of our members becoming engaged in IAF activities; we have had members in various global teams, notably as Facilitation Impact Awards (FIA) evaluators, as well as engaging in global webinars and other events.  The African Region have now won two FIA awards, both by Kofi Kumodzi from Togo, and are approaching our 3rd Africa Facilitation Conference in recent years, this time in Mombasa, Kenya from October 17-20.  We have an active Leadership team, regular online members meetings and continuous engagement through our Whatsapp groups.  Most critically, there is a growing sense that Africa is developing a significant presence and making a strong contribution to the development of the both IAF and the facilitation profession as a whole.

Challenges

My time on the board has not been without challenges; I clearly remember intentionally wearing a t-shirt with a map of all 54 African countries on it during my first day at my first face-to-face board meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia in January 2015.  During a short presentation I made, this gave me a great opportunity to highlight the enormous diversity of a region that has more than 1 billion people and is the second largest continent in the world with over 2,000 languages and ethnic groups.  Challenging the thinking of “Africa as a Country” and unhelpful stereotypes that go with it has been constant but the increased number and range, as well as active presence of members across (currently) 18 countries has helped to challenge such perceptions.  Equally, building a strong, committed team of members was, particularly at the start, quite challenging but we have made great progress.   A key challenge now is how to sustain the growth and retain members, ensuring that members have positive and productive experiences, keeping them engaged in developing the Association whilst enabling their own professional development.

Finally, it is important to share with everyone that it has been an absolute honour to represent my adopted continent since 2015; I have had wonderful support from many members, others on the Board and other colleagues in the facilitation world.  As one member said recently, we are promoting “the beauty of facilitation” as well as the power of it (from the IAF slogan).  After completing my term at the end of 2018, I fully intend to remain active, engaged and supportive of the new leadership in the region and globally.   Thank you, Merci, Shukran, Asanteni, Siyabonga, Medawoase, Obrigado.          

For more information about IAF in Africa, see here. To contact John, email rep.africa@iaf-world.org.