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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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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 →
Facilitating Your Family 2: Another story about facilitating one’s family
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 →
Posted in Facilitation Stories, Personal Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged facilitating family, facilitation, participation, stories
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Facilitating Your Family
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 →
Posted in Facilitation Stories, Personal Stories, Uncategorized
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Tagged avoiding conflict, facilitating family, informal facilitation, participation
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The Power of Metaphor to Shift Images: Story, Song, Symbol
(Image of the Iron Man statue in the 5th City community in Chicago) I was reminded of the event below when teaching the course The Power of Image Change. In the course, we talk about how underlying images of self … Continue reading →
Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged metaphors, Power of Image Change, story song symbol, underlying image
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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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Jofacilitator 