Jul 6, 2020
In today's episode, Helene talks to Trevor Durnford Co-Founder
at Facil Profundo, Certified professional facilitator and until
January of this year Chair of the International Association of
Facilitators. He is based in Uruguay.
But before that, don't forget to check out the online meetup
Facilitate the Future we Want on 17 July 2020, organised by two of
the voices from last week's episode, Cat and John. Join here:
https://www.meetup.com/IAF-facilitators-and-friends/events/271496819/
Trevor talks about the biggest changes he's seen since 1993, when
he first started facilitating: asking teams on the shop floor to
contribute to continuous improvement conversations. Trevor tends to
work more in Leadership and Culture now.
Over the last few months, Trevor has been investing in kit to be
able to deliver high quality virtual sessions, even though he was
already used to the medium. It's great not to get as much on a
plane, even if you like traveling!
Him and colleagues have found themselves focusing more on specific
outcomes for the clients, to provide continuous value, for example
how they can become more resilient and flexible.
Helene asks about the opportunities for facilitators. After reading
some research by Gardner, Trevor has picked up on: the expectation
of 50% of people working remotely in organisations, helping clients
with things they don't usually do online, like having profound
dialogue.
32% organisations are thinking of replacing permanent staff with
contingent staff. Maybe there's an opportunity to help with
knowledge retention in organisations.
Finally, helping people in organisations being resilient and
flexible during difficult times and developing facilitative
capabilities in leaders.
Helene wanted to know what challenges are lurking in the horizon.
For the facilitator community: the belief system around not being
enough work and not wanting to "bother" the clients, while actually
facilitators can help when organisations start to turn.
Engagement-driven versus outcome-driven. Organisations are more
likely to be interested in outcome, whereas the political arena
needs dialogue and engagement.
What risks are we running? Trevor has noticed that there are lots
of "experts" out there. Is there a risk in going for mass consensus
instead of looking for a good decision-making process, that is
driven by real expertise?
Helene is wondering where Trevor sees himself in (in his words) the
"next normal"? Having profound dialogue is the most important thing
right now, using the appropriate methods and tools.
What is Trevor looking forward to?
Not what you would expect: Profundo Wine! and supporting
international companies through the current chaos. And borders
opening in Uruguay, so he can take off his wooly jumper...
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