Facilitators

Coordinating Facilitator

Nigel Gibbs, Coordinating Facilitator, Gibbs Free Energy

Facilitation Design Team

The Facilitation Design Team is a group of experienced, well-connected facilitators who have taken on the task of identifying suitable facilitators for the IC process and the event itself. Members include:

	Gary Austin, circleindigo
	Jenny Howard, Sage Coach
	Gary Purser, Gary Purser and Associates
	Alex Villar Hauser
	Frances White

Facilitator Selection Process

The Facilitation Design Team have gone out to 3000 people via various international networks of facilitators, eg the International Association of Facilitators, the Future Search community, and others. About 200 people have applied to be involved as facilitators. The Facilitation Design Team met on 20th February 2002 to select 5 lead facilitators and a flexible resource pool of a further 30 facilitators.

The was done on the basis of the following criteria:

Members of the Facilitator Team MUST:

1. Be practicing facilitators - that is they must have regular and current practical experience of facilitating groups

2. Be experienced facilitators - that is for the Lead Facilitators have a minimum of 5 years or more practical facilitation experience as lead facilitators – not co-facilitation and for the other Facilitators have a minimum of 2 years experience

3. Have proven and practical experience of process facilitation particularly with Large Group Interventions

4. Must be a representative group of diverse peoples that would cover or include:

	Stakeholder Groups
	Culture
	Language
	Age
	Gender
	Status

Members of the Facilitator Team SHOULD:

1. Have an appreciation of:

	Large Group Dynamics
	Collaborative techniques and approaches
	Appreciative Inquiry philosophy and methods
	Creative approaches and techniques
	How involvement and participation leads to ownership and commitment
	The value of creativity, humour and contribution in working groups

2. Have experience and understanding of:

	Working with multi-lingual groups – ideally with Simultaneous Translation Events
	Working with multi-organisational groups
	A Team Facilitation environment
	3 Day (minimum) fast moving concentrated events
	Managing Conflict
	Seeking Consensus
	The skills for what it takes for individuals and groups to want to collaborate
	An understanding of ‘brokering partnerships’ would be an advantage

3. Have a passion and commitment to sustainable development

4. Preferably be professionally qualified e.g. a Certified Professional Facilitator under the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Programme or similar qualification and be an IAF member

5. Have a good/high level of intelligence and be highly articulate

Lead Facilitators of the Facilitator Team MUST:

1. Possess all the Must & Should qualities of a Team Member (see above)

2. Have proven experience of managing and leading a Facilitation Team

3. Be Client Centered

4. Be a process ‘expert’ – to co-create a process with the SH’s and client

5. Have significant Project Management experience

6. Have significant Change Management experience

7. Be able to handle uncertainty and complexity

8. Be Strategic

9. Have experience of facilitating 200 + people

Facilitator Pool

The 35 people chosen cover 4 continents, 14 countries, 7 developing countries and a 50% split between women and men.

5 Lead Facilitators for 5 IC issues (region in brackets) come from all 5 UN regions, and are 50:50 women/men.

The teams facilitating the smaller working groups will be led by the lead facilitators, and will each have a diverse make-up, reflecting the diversity within the pool of facilitators identified.

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