Group+Facilitation+CoP

// This page is for all people working with facilitation or former attendees of the 'group facilitation' training course // toc //provided by Sam Kaner and Nelli Noakes from Community At Work. It is a hope that this space will progressively lead to developing a real community of practice around group facilitation.//

=Background to this community= In 2015 four groups of people were trained on 'group facilitation' skills that Sam Kaner from 'Community At Work' provided. This group of people showed some interest in continuing to practice their skills and the idea of developing a support network - which, if sustained, could really develop into a community of practice - to keep practicing their skills and reflecting on their group facilitation practice. More information can be found in th e concept note, at the bottom of this page.

Consultations in December 2015
A couple of meetings in December 2015 will take place to gauge what participants would like to get from and give to such a community space. These were documented on **this MeetingWords pad** and revealed that this group (based on the participation of 8 people):
 * Is happy to discuss all the topics mentioned in the concept note and finds the activities mentioned interesting - bearing in mind particularly the F2F ones may be difficult to set up initially but should happen in 2016;
 * Is particularly interested in finding support for upcoming meetings/events, hearing how they are happening and what lessons have been learned;
 * Wants to keep practicing this group facilitation skill;
 * May not have much time to entertain this group and so is happy for Ewen Le Borgne and the Engagement and Collaboration team of CKM to take the lead in this - and and to inform him/them about any upcoming question, opportunity for support etc.
 * Finds this wiki page enough for now but is happy to explore opportunities to interact slightly more (inter)actively on either of the following platforms:
 * No other platform, fine as it is: Simon T.
 * LinkedIn group (Amos, Simon T.)
 * Yammer group (Wanjawa, Amos)
 * Facebook group (Amos)
 * Email group (Wanjawa)

=Potential events to support each other with= Feel free to list events, meetings, processes, for which you would like to get support (e.g. event design, facilitation, chart writing, documentation etc.) or for which you think such support would provide additional benefits (then please explain why).


 * **Event / process** || **When is it happening** || **Type of support required** || **Who to contact for more information** ||

=Resources about group facilitation=
 * From ILRI:**
 * Communication support check list for events
 * List of events supported by ILRI CKM (and some lessons learnt about these)


 * More broadly:**
 * Facilitation for development (Knowledge Management for Development Journal special issue)
 * And specifically the article: Blogosphere review: facilitating interactions through blogs and posts
 * The Knowledge Sharing Toolkit provides guidelines for various knowledge sharing approaches that can be used in events
 * Liberating Structures (a recent manual on facilitation and collective action)
 * More resources can be found in the ILRI Komms Klinics presentation: Organizing effective events and conversations
 * The chemistry of magical facilitation (1) – mind the BOSSY HERALD
 * The chemistry of magical facilitation (2) – put the BOSSY HERALD to play for you
 * The chemistry of magical facilitation (2b) – And play more with the BOSSY HERALD!
 * [[file:Workshop checklist.doc|Workshop checklist]] for event development by IUCN
 * Venue checklist / what you want to know: []

The above list of resources is under the wiki page on the communication support check list for events.

=Concept note about the group facilitation emerging community (of practice?)= Because however good the training course by CommunityAtWork is, practice makes perfect and skills acquired at the training course need to be used further and honed at any opportunity possible.
 * Why?**

Secondly, because this course just set the basics and the practice actually reveals a lot of questions and issues that facilitators may not find answers to if they don’t have a group of peers with whom to bounce ideas with.

Finally because practice refreshers and opportunities to deepen some of the skills and know about some additional techniques and approaches that a facilitator can use would be very useful to get better at this.


 * Who is targeted here?**
 * Anybody who has attended the ‘group facilitation’ training courses by Sam Kaner and Nelli Noakes;
 * Anybody else who is doing any facilitation work (at events or wider processes), or anybody who is interested in using this skill and has actual opportunities to practice;
 * The engagement and collaboration team of CKM to help organise this (with anyone who would like to play a more active role).


 * What topics could or would it cover?**
 * Facilitation skills;
 * Facilitation tools and approaches, techniques;
 * Facilitation and related jobs;
 * Advice to collect
 * Resources about these could be shared on the platform identified.


 * How would it work?**

This community of practice would be a conversation, peer-assist mechanism and go-to place for anything related to facilitation in general and to practical cases of facilitation at ILRI in particular.

Activities in this community of practice could entail:
 * Sharing information about facilitation (e.g. useful posts, ideas, toolkits, opportunities to facilitate);
 * Sharing questions and ideas about facilitation jobs coming up + highlighting requests for help anywhere around;
 * Organising virtual or physical ‘peer assist’ sessions where someone who has a practical facilitation problem or issue can get ideas to go around this;
 * Organising occasional ‘practice refreshers’ organized by the CKM facilitation team (or anyone else);


 * First steps**
 * Share some ideas with P&OD, CapDev and directorate or other teams to see how we can formalize this (a bit) without requiring too many resources;
 * Invite all training course participants to reflect on their next steps and get their work organised around this to make sure that we can work together, identify what’s in it for each of them and identify what activities we could try to get to and what platform we could use to communicate;
 * Agree on a type of platform/channel to communicate and organize our work together: Wiki? Yammer? LinkedIn? Facebook group? WhatsApp? Other? It would be good to have a (couple of?) platform(s) that would serve to a) converse and b) document/track, in addition to the face-to-face moments of interaction
 * Invite everyone from the previous courses to connect with us and tell them what’s happening…

= Find support! = In the table below you find a list of people who are potentially ready to help with any of the fields mentioned (designing an event/process, facilitating, chart writing, reporting). If you are interested to be on this informal roster, please inform Ewen of your status - based on your self-assessment of confidence - and he will update the table with your name and other information. Skills are either at basic, intermediate or advanced level


 * **Name** || **Skill: event/process design** || **Skill: facilitation** || **Skill: chart writing** || **Skill: live documentation** || **Skill: formal reporting** || **Base** || **Availability conditions and other notes** ||
 * Ewen Le Borgne || Advanced || Advanced || Advanced || Advanced || Advanced || AA || Charging teams for this work. First events/processes we work on together can be partly free. ||
 * Kumneger Tilahun ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   || AA || Happy to help with facilitation ||
 * Barack Wanjawa || Intermediate || Intermediate || Intermediate || Intermediate || Intermediate || Nbi || Availability on 3 day notice. Mostly free of charge at Nrb campus ||
 * Gizachew Yadeta ||  ||   ||   ||   ||   || AA || Happy to help with facilitation ||