Simplicity

“If we hadn’t done that, I couldn’t have done this.”

barbara pedersen business, business planning, collaboration, complexity, consulting, Conversation, Discussion, facilitation, in-person facilitation, Inclusion, lessons, listening, online facilitation, Planning, process, reading, Simplicity, storytelling, strategic planning, team building, team work, Visual facilitation

“That” was a Historical Scan activity; “this” was goal setting during a strategic planning session. The individual who said this pointed to the wall chart showing four decades of their nonprofit organization’s history and said that knowing their history helped

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Oops. A facilitator’s mishap is a good reminder that I can adapt

barbara pedersen business, collaboration, complexity, consulting, Conversation, design, Dialogue, Discussion, Diversity, facilitation, Fun, hybrid sessions, in-person facilitation, Inclusion, listening, nonprofit, online facilitation, Planning, process, Simplicity, storytelling, strategic planning, team building, team work, virtual, virtual facilitation, Visual facilitation

I enjoy successfully facilitating strategic planning, team building, conflict resolution, idea generation, focus groups, and other sessions. To keep things balanced, here’s my recent facilitation blooper and a timely reminder. I arrived at a hotel for a 1½-day, in-person strategic

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Facilitation is inspired by urban recreation planning

barbara pedersen Belonging, collaboration, community, Conversation, design, Dialogue, Discussion, Diversity, Equity, facilitation, Family, Fun, Inclusion, intersectionality, listening, online facilitation, outdoors, Planning, process, Simplicity, strategic planning, summer, Talking, virtual facilitation, Visual facilitation
Children, adults, and pets at an accessible playground

Inspiration for facilitation comes from many sources. In this post, I apply themes from urban planning to facilitation. “If you build it, they might not come.” When I read this sentence about accessible public recreation spaces, I immediately thought, “If

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barbara pedersen business, business planning, collaboration, community, complexity, consulting, Conversation, design, Dialogue, Discussion, Diversity, facilitation, feedback, fierce conversations, hybrid sessions, in-person facilitation, Inclusion, intersectionality, listening, online facilitation, Planning, process, Simplicity, storytelling, strategic planning, Talking, team building, team work, Trends, virtual facilitation, Visual facilitation

This week, an organization I worked with most recently in 2021 asked me to facilitate a strategic planning process. This opportunity, coming from the success of a project four years ago, made me reflect on my approaches with clients. Here

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