International Facilitation Week – The International Association of Facilitators

The Facilitation Week  is an international initiative of The International Association of Facilitators – an organisation operating in 65 countries around the world and promoting the creation of a network of facilitators as well as the very idea of facilitation.

In Poland it takes place for the second time, on  17-23 October 2016, and Pathways will be the co-organiser of the events related to it.

International Facilitation Week

Description of the activities of the International FacilitationWeek2016 under the auspices of International Association of Facilitators (IAF)

WHAT IS FACILITATION?

• Facilitation is a method of working with a group of people, improving the quality of the results achieved by this group. Facilitation makes it possible for a group of people to make the best possible decision, solve a problem or properly diagnose it. The facilitator is not a teacher or a leader of a meeting; his/her task is to bring out individual responsibility and involvement in the people in a skillful and ethical manner
• Facilitation promotes teamwork based on trust, respect for the unique character of the group, respect for the culture and situation the group is in
• Both in the world and in Poland can we observe growing interest in facilitation, both in business (conducting meetings, workshops, creative sessions) and in social context (consulting sessions, meetings)
• Facilitation is also becoming part of the management style – it is more and more common especially in the IT branch

WHAT IS INTERNATIONAL FACILITATION WEEK – 17-23 October 2016 ?

• It’s a cyclical event organised all around the world each October since 2013
• The initiator of the event is the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) with the seat in Canada
• The main purpose of the event is to show the power of facilitation both to people who are not familiar with it/ do not use it, and for facilitators – people who use this approach while working with various groups
• The Facilitation Week is a sparkle that kindles various actions all around the world – they show the benefits from using facilitation and promote the cooperation among facilitators from different parts of the world
• The Facilitation Week is also an excellent opportunity to become familiar with the specific nature of groupwork, observe the practical applications of facilitation in various fields and areas and to display the skills of the facilitators themselves
• Last year (19-25 October 2015) under the auspices of the IAF meetings, workshops and lectures were conducted on 5 continents in 37 branches of the IAF
• Last year, the Facilitation Week took place in Poland for the first time – in Cracow and in Warsaw; it was accompanied by lectures, workshops and meetings for both facilitators and people who would like to learn more about this approach to working with people (managers, business and HR representatives, trainers, coaches, tutors)
• This year, the Facilitation Week will be organised in Poland (17-23 October 2016) for the second time under the International Facilitation Week
• The purpose of the actions in Poland is, on the one hand, to promote facilitation by sharing knowledge on the significance of this field and its extensive applications (from business to social actions), and on the other hand, to unify and consolidate the community of Polish facilitators and inspire other  to develop as facilitators.
• The plan of this year’s events include activities in Warsaw, Cracow and Poznań
• These will include the presentations of i.a. case studies with the use of facilitation in business and social processes, open and closed workshops presenting various tools that may be used by a facilitator (from creative techniques, problem solving, to solving conflicts and nonviolent communication), presentations, discussions, webinars; there will also be time for networking and promoting the competences and ethical aspects of the facilitator’s work
• The event will be attended by communities of Polish facilitators, focused around the Pathways School of Facilitation
• The invitation to this open, socially useful and non-commercial event will be sent via media to a broad circle of people interested in new knowledge and personal development

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF THE FACILITATION WEEK AND OF FACILITATION ITSELF?

• This is a non-commercial event, which promotes the following values in the contemporary society: cooperation and collaboration, openness, respect, empathy, mindfulness and variety – it helps to build the foundations for the modern civic society and it shapes the attitudes of mature cooperation rather than rivalry.
• This is the time for all those who are interested is developing themselves and their competences, or are looking for a new challenge or profession – it helps to learn and sometimes even experience something new and inspires action or change
• This is an opportunity for promoting a hardly known, but widely applicable approach to the work of various groups, from business to social context
• Furthermore, this is an opportunity to show that thanks to facilitation, it is possible to work effectively with a group of people without resorting to manipulation or solutions imposed from above
• The events under the Facilitation Week also show dozens of examples and ways to work in business effectively, at the same time building involvement
• What is more, facilitation itself is a response to the nightmare of every corporation – long, ineffective meetings. Applying the principles of facilitation, you can make the meetings shorter, less frequent, yet more effective