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Author Archives: jofacilitator
About jofacilitator
On Sept 1, 2020, I celebrated 50 years of work with the Institute of Cultural Affairs, facilitating meetings, groups, communities, and organizations, making it possible for ordinary people to have a voice in decisions that affect their lives. I retired on December 31, 2021, but still volunteer with the organization.What if there are no walls I can use in my facilitation event?
This is a bit lighter than some of my posts, but I had a wonderful time remembering creative responses to this challenge! This week I had an email from a colleague who said “I’m working with a low budget non-profit … Continue reading →
Posted in Facilitation Stories, Personal Stories, ToP Tools
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Tagged facilitation, participation, solving facilitation problems
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Authentic Inclusion
Inclusion of all those who have a stake in the results of a decision in contributing to the consensus on that decision is an ethical value that undergirds authentic facilitation. It is often very challenging. There are many blocks, both … Continue reading →
Posted in Facilitation Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged authentic inclusion, facilitation, inclusion, participation
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Transformation of a Worldview: A Personal Story
Dr. Jean Houston Dr. Jean Houston was a deeply caring and thoughtful person who worked with groups of people to reflect on their own lives and life itself. She died in May this year, and this post is in memory … Continue reading →
Posted in Facilitation Stories, Personal Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged facilitation, Jean Houston, leadership, stories
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Resolving Destructive Dispute Behaviour
It seems to me that this is a time in history when differences in opinion easily escalate into polarization and from that to destructive behaviour. This is not a new pattern, though it seems to be happening more often and … Continue reading →
Posted in Facilitation Stories, ToP Tools, Uncategorized
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Tagged conflict resolution, destructive behaviour, facilitation, ToP methods
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Listening as a Leadership Skill
A number of current events and posts by colleagues have catalyzed my thinking about leadership. As a facilitator, I have experienced a range of situations with clients where leaders thought that leadership was about presenting their own insights and requiring … Continue reading →
Posted in Facilitation Stories, Personal Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged leadership, listening
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A First Step in My Facilitation Journey
Someone asked me this question: If a career as a facilitator is lifelong, when did you decide you wanted to become a facilitator? When I started facilitating, there was no profession called facilitation. I started out as a teacher. I … Continue reading →
Posted in Facilitation Stories, Personal Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged facilitation, making a positive difference, participation, teaching
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Using the Focused Conversation Method with Dots to Prioritize Consensus Workshop Results
I’m not sure when I discovered this process based on the Focused Conversation Method, but it allows thinking through a number of perspectives on priorities at different levels to discover which item is the biggest priority overall. Instead of just … Continue reading →
Posted in Facilitation Stories, ToP Tools, Uncategorized
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Tagged facilitation, participation, ToP methods
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ORID Thinking to Address a Facilitation Emergency: A Participant Who Tried to Take Over a Meeting
I was facilitating the first meeting of a steering committee for a proposed province-wide public consultation on a painful and difficult topic involving abuse. My colleague and I had worked hard to find a wide range of participants who all … Continue reading →
Posted in Personal Stories, ToP Tools, Uncategorized
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Tagged facilitation, ORID, ToP methods
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Focused Conversation On Current Events with One or a Few Others (Or with Self)
This conversation was catalyzed by a conversation with a couple of other ToP facilitators in this month’s ToP Community of Practice meeting about how in current times it is challenging to have conversations about anything because people cannot agree on … Continue reading →
Posted in ToP Tools, Uncategorized, Useful Conversations
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Tagged leadership, making a difference, participation, ToP methods
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Facilitating Diversity
(Photo from the front cover of The Art of Focused Conversation, Second Edition) This week in February 2026 marked significant religious events in several different traditions. Lunar New Year, the beginning of Ramadan, and Ash Wednesday all happened within 2 … Continue reading →
