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Category Archives: ToP Tools
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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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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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 →
My Working Assumptions as a Facilitator
I have recently read reflections by several facilitators on group norms, facilitator neutrality, and “facilitation as manipulation”. I think that this is an important topic, especially in these times. Thirty-two years ago a group of people (I was a part … Continue reading →
Posted in Facilitation Stories, ToP Tools, Uncategorized
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Tagged facilitation, ground rules, leadership, participation, ToP methods
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Focus Group/Plenary Process for Large Group Consensus-Building
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 →
Posted in Facilitation Stories, ToP Tools
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Tagged consensus, facilitation, large group process, participation, ToP methods
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Large Scale Participatory Process: A Municipal Consultation on Public Engagement
I have been struggling with answering the question of what I can do to help build new patterns in society that address current issues, as our old expectations of how people and nations relate to each other and the structures … Continue reading →
Reflecting on the Past Created an Aha! that Changed the Future
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 →
Posted in Facilitation Stories, ToP Tools, Uncategorized
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Tagged image, image change, ToP methods
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