Global Flipchart

by CHONG Chan-yau and Candice LAM, IAF Hong Kong Chapter

The 19th IAF Asia Regional Conference was held in Hualien, Taiwan, from 30 August to 4 September.

We were part of the Hong Kong delegation which comprised of 22 members who are facilitators, trainers, and professionals in business, education and social service.  As the organizer promised, we gained a lot of fun and learning from a gathering of diverse approaches, beliefs and gifts.  Likewise, members had contributed ideas, experiences and insights.

Hualien is an inspiring place. As a stretch of land between high mountains and the Pacific Ocean, it gives rise to the conference theme of 'from mountain to sea'.  It is indeed an ideal place for a conference of facilitators, a meeting place of diversity like rivers flowing into the sea. 

The heart of facilitation

Noel Tan, Global Chair of IAF, gave an inspiring opening speech including the following remark: "At the heart of facilitation is a deep shared belief that the complex challenges that confront organisations, communities, societies and indeed our world can be solved through dialogue, trust and understanding, created with good group process."

Hualien is special because it is situated in the meeting point of the Eurasia plate and the Philippine Sea Plate.  So in a place at a physical fault line, we learned many approaches to address the fault lines and tensions in organizations and communities.

Some of us were in the two day strategic planning workshop by Kimberly Bain.  Connie Tsui and Chan-yau Chong presented a case of developing a strategy to promote global citizenship education.  It was probably the largest signed up workshop.  We benefited by the diversity of participants. There was an air of openness which encouraged conversations in both English and Mandarin.  Kimberly demonstrated how to handle complex processes in large organization. 

Rita Chan, Candice Lam and Yvonne Yam gained insights from the workshop on Elephant in the Room by Vinay Kumar.  They enjoyed learning how to surface the real issues in group dynamics as well as how to close the pandora’s box.  When and how to confront or circumvent contentious matters was an art.

Lilian Wang, Founder and Chair of IAF Hong Kong Chapter, said she was inspired by the pre-conference workshop with Lawrence Philbrook, Evelyn Philbrook and Ya-hui Fang.  “They showed me a complete process of facilitating community development and an example that touched me deeply.  They inspired me to think about how we could help a community revive and refresh their identity, ignite the passion and commitment of younger generation, and see hope in grim situation" she said.  This takeaway is important for a city like Hong Kong which has to struggle with urban development with impact on local communities.

Katherine Sum found Crossroad to be a very useful tool.  In the workshop, she shared her view that “very often we jumped to decisional level (i.e. yes or no) in our interaction.  The “Crossroad” Game is a good way to invite people to discuss their thoughts in a safe environment.”

Birds of a feather

Hong Kong members played an active role in the Conference.  Anita Lo initiated a conversation on how facilitation can be applied in education by setting up a table in the Birds of Feather lunch.

The Hong Kong delegation organized a cross-chapter dinner with over 70 people turned up.  That was fantastic.  Chan-yau Chong sat next to Kazuaki Katori and learned a lot from this veteran facilitator who called himself an uncertified professional facilitator.

A few of us spent time before the conference visiting the mountains and seaside.  The night market was not to be missed.  The hotel was nice, especially the lawn which was a favorite lunch break hideout.  A group of us could not help singing the Sound of Music.  Of course we came to hear the beautiful and true sound of music from the hills when the artists from the indigenous community came to perform during the gala dinner.

Seven of us shared a house with excellent service at bargain price.  Barbara Mackay came to join us from the west coast of US which is in fact the east coast of the Pacific.  We had a wonderful lodging experience.

Some of us had reluctantly missed the last day of the conference as we had to rush back to vote for the Hong Kong Legislative Council election. 

Going far together

"If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together” - a quote from the Power and Love workshop.  It is our mission as facilitator to help people work together to go far.  And for us, after interacting with another 200 facilitators from a diverse range of countries, we, and all participants of the 19th IAF Asia Conference have to reflect on the question of how far we can go from Hualien.  We are sure, together we can go very far.