Fieldnotes
Architecting Collaboration Fieldnotes on Meetings, Workshops and Group Facilitation
"A book is something more than a book, it's shared knowledge in the shape of an object that you can keep and treasure."
As an IAF (TM) Certified Professional Facilitator, I am aware that every group intervention is a touch-point for anyone to experience an engaging moment in their lives with a tangible outcome that you can measure. The same goes when writing about the professional and organisational roles of a 'collaboration architect'.
Please note that this is not a handbook about group facilitation. It's just a curated collection of published articles transformed in chapters and organised according to a nine section structure where I map the IAF core competencies.
You will be able to choose which section or chapter to read or skip according to your learning needs or just out of curiosity. As with any facilitated process, you will be in charge of the content.
I do hope you enjoy reading this book that will be yours to keep.
The challenge
This book is made from a compilation of my +50 LinkedIn articles. You do not need to purchase it because all its content is published and freely available online.
Every successful product is the fruit of hard work, and this also applies to books. Yet, in this case, all the work done was made throughout the last past years. I am just curating here the articles that I consider have still value, regardless of the time when I have published them and organizing a chapter structure under several sections that you might find useful to your purpose as a reader.
The value proposition
Each book section is mapped within the six IAF core competencies. Not only you will get more familiarized with all of them, but this will also be providing you hints about each chapter's content so you may read this book according to your learning needs.
A novel profession
In this book, I propose the notion of a 'collaboration architect' to describe the work of group facilitators, a novel profession that started in the late 60s and 70s around the San Francisco bay area with the seminal work of Strauss, Doyle, Sibbet, Kaner, and others that rapidly spread to the rest of the world, with Hunter in New Zealand as one of the most distinguished examples.
The International Association of Facilitators
(IAF) is the worldwide professional body established to promote, support and advance the art and practice of professional facilitation through methods exchange, professional growth, practical research and collegial networking.
The Core Facilitator Competencies
framework was developed over several years by the IAF with the support of its members and facilitators from all over the world. Tested over time, the six competencies form the basic set of skills, knowledge, and behaviors that facilitators must have in order to be successful facilitating in a wide variety of environments.
A friendly guide
A professional facilitator needs to constantly acquire and develop knowledge about this exciting profession that is constructed by daily practice.
This book, I hope, will be a friendly guide to help you step into group facilitation
either as a stand alone consulting practice or within organizations, to become a more skilful manager as a facilitative leader.
Also for managers
Managers can also take advantage of this series with the 1st volume - 5 Steps to Facilitating Leadership
(Portuguese or Spanish edition)
This pocket-sized edition is intended for all leaders in the 21st century, who adopt facilitative behaviors and increasingly involve their employees in joint problem-solving and decision-making.
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