097 - Keeping facilitation human with Paul Nunesdea

As a former Board member of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF), and co-Founder of the Digital Collaboration Academy, there are few people better placed to discuss where our industry is and where it's going than Paul Nunesdea.

We certainly captured some fascinating predictions and provocations in our wide-ranging conversation in this episode.

A central focus was the importance - and limitations – of the IAF’s stated ‘core competencies’ for facilitators. We also explored the role AI might play in the future of facilitation, why neutrality can never be the aim, and how facilitators and clients can each make sure they’re choosing the right collaborator.

This episode is your opportunity to hear many opinions from the very top of facilitation’s leading professional body. It’s not every day I get to say that!

Find out about:

• Why spirituality might be the missing dimension in facilitation
• Why individuality and a lack of neutrality are actually key to our effectiveness
• What Paul believes is the most important core competency of facilitators
• Why it helps to have different versions of the same consensus across communities
• What Paul considers his biggest discovery in 2020
• How Paul pictures the future of facilitation – including the strengths and limitations of facilitation by AI
• Understanding collaboration architecture and how it appears in workplaces

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Questions and Answers

[01:17] When did you start calling yourself a facilitator?

[04:12] What are the core competencies of a facilitator and how do they separate us from consultants?

[06:10] What do you mean by “a spiritual dimension”?

[07:55] What motivated you to join the International Association of Facilitators?

[12:23] How can a client select the right facilitator?

[16:14] What is the benefit of being an accredited facilitator?

[16:59] Can you share some examples of the core competencies of facilitation?

[19:25] Can there be a true ‘standard’ of facilitation when we have so many subgroups and specialisms?

[21:07] Have the core competencies changed as we’ve moved to online meetings?

[24:57] What makes a workshop fail?

[27:57] What’s been your biggest technological discovery in the last year?

[30:57] Do successful workshops really require us all to be in the same room?

[33:03] What is the future of facilitation, from your perspective?

[37:26] Would the introduction of AI remove innovation and nuance from facilitation?

[38:53] What is a key characteristic of a good humaniser?

[40:19] Would you recommend an exercise to bring spirituality into workshops?

[43:49] What damages facilitators’ reputations?

[45:31] What is “collaboration architecture”?

[48:28] What makes collaboration stick?

[51:36] Are there red flags to look for when it comes to ‘difficult’ clients?

[55:04] What is the one thing that you would like listeners to take away from this episode?

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