Category Archives: Facilitation Stories

Stories about Facilitation and Authentic Participation

Focus Group/Plenary Process for Large Group Consensus-Building  

Posted on January 29, 2026 by jofacilitator

The process used in “Large Scale Participatory Process: A Municipal Consultation…” in this blog uses the Consensus Workshop Method at two levels, first using the same focus question in a number of small groups or focus groups to create consensus … Continue reading →

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Facilitating Your Family 2: Another story about facilitating one’s family

Posted on January 16, 2026 by jofacilitator

In 1992, Wayne and I and our 2 sons were living in a small apartment belonging to the organization we worked for, after having lived in many places around the world in our married life. We had already decided to … Continue reading →

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Facilitating Your Family

Posted on January 12, 2026 by jofacilitator

A couple of colleagues mentioned in social media posts before the holidays that it is very challenging to facilitate family members – that chaos can erupt very quickly.  I was reminded of a story of facilitating my family years ago.  … Continue reading →

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Reflecting on the Past Created an Aha! that Changed the Future

Posted on November 21, 2025 by jofacilitator

Our underlying images of ourself and the world have a profound effect on our mental health and our behaviour. Messages that come to us in all kinds of ways can change those images. When those images change, our behaviour changes. … Continue reading →

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Healing Wounds by Sharing the Journey

Posted on November 13, 2025 by jofacilitator

(Photo is not of this story, but it is a creative Journey Wall.) Around 30 years ago, two community service organizations were serving a similar niche in an overlapping geographical area. One of these organizations was very large, with a … Continue reading →

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Addressing a Culture of Conflict within an Organization

Posted on November 6, 2025 by jofacilitator

This post was originally posted as “Organizational Transformation through Facilitation” in June, 2015. I think it may be informative in 2025, so I am reposting it. Once I had a client whose understanding of their mandate and mission was to … Continue reading →

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One Story of Integrity as a Facilitator

Posted on October 29, 2025 by jofacilitator

The memory of this story was catalyzed by a LinkedIn Post by a colleague who talked about her experience of the power of personal integrity as a facilitator in choosing work. Many years ago, after a successful facilitation with a … Continue reading →

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“No Time for Planning a Meeting”

Posted on October 23, 2025 by jofacilitator

I have heard this more and more often. Huge demands for productivity in meetings, but less and less time allotted to them. Here is a story of a team’s discovery about the impact of taking time to prepare a meeting. … Continue reading →

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Addressing Distrust in a Public Consultation with a Focused Conversation

Posted on October 16, 2025 by jofacilitator

A school district needed to address the fact that some schools were very old and needed very expensive renovation, and that there were new neighbourhoods in the city that needed new schools.  The budget was limited and not everything could … Continue reading →

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