Articles

Regardless of how long you have been facilitating, you would probably remember the first time you ever facilitated. Can you still remember what you felt on that day?

As a process facilitator, reading a room can be one of the hardest things to do. When I first started facilitating focus group discussions, I struggled with understanding why participants weren’t as ready with answering. I would ask a question, and hear… crickets.

Reflecting on my learning journey from school to tertiary level and into adult learning, I realize I have forgotten much of the academic and theoretical contents.  Fortunately, certain valuable experiential lessons withstood the passing of time and have remained vividly etched in my mental compass.  Kudos to wise teachers and trainers who have the gracious gumption to point out my weaknesses and mistakes rather than heaping praises that get me swell-headed.

Recently, I had the good fortune of completing the Advanced Facilitation Programme organised by the Institute for Adult Learning and led by Prabu Naidu and Janice Lua.  At the Oral Assessment, I conveyed to Prabu and Janice how I marvel at the ingenuity of the diagrammatic depiction of the FNS (Facilitators Network Singapore) 4D Facilitation Model.  Amazingly, beyond the key stages from D1 to D4, the model comprehensively and succinctly encapsulates the cornerstone, underlying precepts and navigational guideposts for effective process facilitation, all into a single diagram!

We need your help! INIFAC is crafting a template RFP for facilitation services, and we will be sharing and promoting that template for clients who want to hire certified facilitators for work. Do you have any example RFP language you would like to share with us? We’d love to hear from you!

I remember the day I had to be certified as a virtual facilitator. I was scared.

So scared that I didn’t prepare. No, I didn’t know how to even prepare.

After all, all I had under my belt was just 2 virtual facilitation sessions of focus group discussions. Could I count myself as experienced enough to be certified?

We work, care and make decisions involving other people almost everyday, whether it is at work, with friends, neighbours or our family.

How can we design more inclusive ways of decision making so that our colleagues, friends, volunteers, partners, fellow citizens feel involved, listened to and valued?

Can I be honest?

I’m 26. Yes, maybe I’m your son’s age. Before you quickly click away, wait. I’m not here to sell you the latest app to use for your virtual facilitation. I’m not even sure how to use the latest apps. I’m not here to tell you how you should be using your technology better. I’m here to talk about how maybe, just maybe, in a ‘new’ normal, ‘next’ normal, whatever normal they call it now, there are certain unchangeable principles that still hold. This article is about the principles that still remain, and how certain tweaks can adjust your work to a new environment.

Learning is one of the best things that can happen to you, all throughout life. For children, schools provide some of the education they need. But why are modern schools killing critical thinking? We learn to read, we learn to write, but do we formally learn about how to discern solutions to a complicated problem?

I am Jess, a participant of the SPOT on Facilitation workshop with Facilitators Network Singapore (FNS) on 8-10 December 2021. I’m sharing my experience and learning outcomes gathered during the workshop so that future participants like you who are considering it will be able to have a bird’s eye view of the workshop to make an informed choice. By way of background, I have graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a Double Honours Degree in Law and Economics and have been admitted to the Singapore Bar as an Advocate and Solicitor. I am now an in-company solicitor. I came to know about  SPOT on Facilitation workshop through Mr Prabu Naidu, FNS founder.

What impact have you really made, if you’re talking at the front, to 500 people, beyond making your CV nicer?

Have you ever been in a facilitated discussion where you come out transformed?