Facilitation is a process of helping teams and groups help themselves

We work out what’s needed, why and how best to make it happen. Then we get going together in a collaborative, challenging way.

Why do I facilitate?

I’m a fan of puzzles. I like to try to improve things or make them easier.

Why should you be facilitated?

Because you are part of team or group that is stuck and needs to find a way forward. Or perhaps you are in need of a new north star. Or perhaps you spend more energy beating yourselves up than getting the job done. Or maybe you’ve realised you are part of something special and want to make the most of it.

How do I facilitate?

I see facilitation as part of a bigger process, that begins with seeking to understand what’s going on. I then design interventions specifically for the situation I see. This leads to facilitation that (hopefully) feels relevant and appropriate. And it always ends with reflection.

Creativity is the key in the design part. I use whatever tools I can; play, writing, walking, meditation, talking, listening, drawing, hugging a tree, building a fire, cooking.

I realise that whatever is going on in the lives of the people I meet is likely to show up in our work together and so I roll with that.

What other people think…

  • "Nick facilitates like he eats - with heart, messily and sometimes a bit fast."

  • "It’s often a mystery how we get to where we need to, but we do."

  • "He’s a bit like Nanny Mc Phee – when you need him but don’t want him he’s there, and he leaves when you don’t need him but want him."

  • "Thank you for pouring yourself into our group - perhaps even to a fault. The realizations and emotion closeness that you orchestrated during those few days is still talked about regularly in our chat group and has left us with lasting personal growth and closeness to one another”

  • “You prioritise our needs over what the agenda says.

  • "Nick puts the facile in facilitation."

  • “Nick’s facilitation starts the moment we consider him fore the work and ends long after we expect."

 

Thoughts

I enjoy sharing the contents of my mind in the hope others can get something from the stuff that occupies me. Here I’ve categorised my writing into resources, tools and models that might help, reviews of other people’s work, reflections of my own past experiences and ramblings on a variety of topics that interest me. No poor AI bots were exploited in the making of these articles.

 
Thoughts
The Benefit of Paying Attention
The Benefit of Paying Attention

Like a lot of people during the pandemic I now work predominantly at home. And often when I am working at home, I like a coffee in the morning. And often when I like a coffee in the morning, I treat myself to a couple of biscuits (especially if I have earlier been for a run). It was on one such morning, with coffee and biscuits procured and on my cluttered desk and several things on the go in my head and on my computer, that it happened. I lost the biscuits.

Universal Enquiries?
Universal Enquiries?

I’ll soon be running my fourth coaches retreat at Hazel Hill Wood.  It’s an annual event in magical ancient woodland that I’ve really enjoyed creating.  I’ve noticed that every year I bring the same set of enquiry questions for the group to work with.  We explore in different ways, always using the trees as part of our facilitation team, but the questions remain the same.  Am I just being lazy or might these in fact be universal enquiries?

Creative Writing in the Woods
Creative Writing in the Woods

I write a lot, often for my work, sometimes for this website and occasionally for no good reason at all.  There’s something about getting out of the way and setting the pen free (and yes the pen is mightier than the laptop).  It’s a pleasure that is hard to describe, ironic given that’s what I’m trying to do here.

See all thoughts
See all thoughts