DiaPraxis:

Dynamic Facilitation

Originally created by Jim Rough, this non-linear approach to hosting powerful choice-creating conversations is particularly appropriate for complex and "impossible-to-solve" challenges.

For clients, this process yields highly effective, creative, and practical outcomes, with notable group energy and commitment.

As facilitators, this practice helps us to become more skilled and comfortable with:

• relating to conflict as a resource

• leveraging the energy of advocacy

• working with emotions

• tapping into creative energy

• navigating unexpected situations

Learning Dynamic Facilitation

I am certified as a Dynamic Facilitation instructor, and am an associate with Dynamic Facilitation Associates. Within the U.S., I have led Dynamic Facilitation workshops in California, Oregon, Hawaii, and Georgia. I have also taught internationally, in both Canada and Chile.

In addition to teaching, I have also written a manual for the Dynamic Facilitation process. Many people have commented on how useful and readable they have found the manual to be. Print copies can be purchased from DFA.

An older edition of the manual is freely available on Tom Atlee's website, at http://www.co-intelligence.org/DFManual.html.

If you read the older version, find it useful, and have any feedback on it, I can provide you a complementary pdf of the current version, which has 20+ additional pages with our newest learnings about this process.  The manual is currently available in English, Spanish, German, or Russian.

Of course, direct experience is one of the best ways to learn. DFA offers several public seminars throughout the year, and you can also contact me to schedule a customized in-house workshop.      

And, if you'd like to connect with the growing community of practice around Dynamic Facilitation, here are some options.

A Broader Family of Emergence-Based Approaches

Each method offers its own unique gifts. At the same time, Dynamic Facilitation shares many underlying principles with other approaches that foster emergence, such as:

• Open Space Technology,
• Appreciative Inquiry,
• World Cafe,
• Theory U,
• Art of Hosting, and
• Deep Democracy.

There is growing interest in how these various practices can enhance and complement one another. Along these lines, I highly recommend Peggy Holman's Engaging Emergence, an in-depth exploration of some of the shared principles underlying this work.

Dynamic Inquiry

...is what I call my own practice, which is a synthesis of Jim Rough's Dynamic Facilitation, Gene Gendlin's Focusing, and Jeff Conklin's Dialogue Mapping.

My work is also informed by Action Research, Polarity Management, and the Internal Family Systems model.

Other key influences on and inspirations for my work, include Council Circle practice, Future Search, and other "emergence-based approaches."

Some connections between Dynamic Facilitation and Dialogue Mapping are explored in a chapter called "Practical Dialogue", that I contributed to Sandor Schuman's book "Creating a Culture of Collaboration".

Revitalizing the Public Sphere

I am particularly drawn to the implications of this work for our shared public life. I am delighted to see how Wisdom Councils and Creative Insight Councils, two applications of Dynamic Facilitation, have been spreading in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Here in the U.S., I enjoy working with communities to shift polarized situations by hosting creative and inclusive conversations.

I have also enjoyed collaborating with my friend and colleague Tom Atlee, founder of the Co-Intelligence Institute, on his book The Tao of Democracy.

You can read an overview of Tom's book, as well as of the ever-growing field of dialogue and deliberation, in my essay "Deepening Democracy", written for the Fetzer Foundation's Collective Wisdom Initiative.

And, with regard to dialogue and deliberation, I enjoy spreading the word about NCDD, the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation. of which I am a long-time member.