IAF Virtual Facilitation Survey

19 October 2016

One way in which we celebrate the power of facilitation during International Facilitation Week 2016 is by looking at the future of our profession.

Together with practitioners worldwide, the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) is currently designing a IAF Virtual Technology and Tools Center of Excellence web portal.

We would like to invite your input for this project – participate in the survey below and let us know how you work with virtual facilitation!

>> Participate in the IAF Virtual Facilitation Survey

Imagine This

Think of the time in the past where people played chess by mail. It could take months if not years for a chess match to be completed. The players were not in a face to face situation and they were not in the same place in “time”. Today we have faster and more immediate “ways” of being in touch in both real time and in different time spaces. Those “ways” are is what we want our IAF Virtual Technology and Tools Center of Excellence web portal to hold and display to our members. And this survey is designed to assist the IAF develop that “space” – the Center of Excellence.

Virtual Facilitation

So what is virtual collaboration? What is virtual facilitation? A virtual collaboration event is essentially a meeting where participants may not all be in the same place and maybe not in the same “time”. They are interacting using some form of technology that provides the ability to talk and/or collaborate regardless of their physical location or place in time. Virtual facilitation is that process a facilitator uses to assist the distributed group in collaborating effectively and efficiently to achieve whatever they call “success.”

Your Participation

There are a variety of technology forms and tools that are being used and developed for virtual collaboration. Currently, in a broad sense, they could include the telephone, video conferencing, chat boxes, and web conferencing. We want to know what your experience has been. The knowledge and experience you have right now is all you need to effectively participate. We want to learn, synthesize, and present the collective wisdom of you to all of IAF.

>> Participate in the IAF Virtual Facilitation Survey

Thank you for participating!

 

Donald Kerper

IAF US Region Representative
Project Lead, IAF Virtual Technology and Tools Center of Excellence