🎙️ FS79_Julia Slay & Ending Sessions Well
Facilitation Stories
In today's episode, Olivia is joined by Julia Slay, founder of Facilitation 101, to explore an often-overlooked part of facilitation: how we end sessions well. With 15+ years’ experience across social policy, consultancy and learning design, Julia shares her journey into facilitation and what sparked her growing fascination with powerful endings. They talk about: Why endings matter,and common mistakes at the close of sessions — rushed checkouts, lack of closure, and clunky feedback moments. How to design meaningful endings, using buffer time, reflection, grounding and action planning....
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🎙️ FS 78 – Relaunch Episode: Meet the New Hosts; Umah, Sam, Olivia
Facilitation Stories
In today’s episode, the Facilitation Stories podcast returns with a brand-new hosting team — Olivia, Sam, and Umah — who share their stories, inspirations, and hopes for the next chapter of the podcast. They talk about: Why they joined the Facilitation Stories team and what excites them about podcasting as a way to connect facilitators and share learning. How their diverse backgrounds — from healthcare and construction to creative arts, community engagement and youth work — have shaped their facilitation practice. The power of collaboration and curiosity in creating spaces...
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FS 77 Facilitation in the Agile Space with Farah Egby and Çiğdem Saka Jackson
Facilitation Stories
In today’s episode Helene speaks to Farah Egby and Cigdem Saka-Jackson about Agile. They talk about: Agile as a set of working practices that prioritises people over processes and tools; Farah and Cigdem’s previous work and journeys into Agile facilitation; The roles and functions that the “Scrum Master” and “Kanban” play in Agile; Roles and techniques in Agile facilitation and tips on how to do it; "I think you need to care. You have to be a caring person. I definitely don't believe it is, it is a rule book and just a set of applicable guidelines. You have to care...
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FS 76 Chapter Chat with Andrew Spiteri EME Regional Director
Facilitation Stories
In this episode Helene talks to Andrew Spiteri, Regional Director of the IAF Europe and Middle East Region. Andrew tells Helene about himself as a facilitator, the kind of work he does and his background with IAF. He became regional director at the start of the year and shares a bit about the work he has been involved in so far, his roles and responsibilities as director, and what he would like to see in future for the region and beyond. He tells us about the regional conference in Romania in November 2025 and about what he most loves about facilitation. You can contact Andrew at: And Helene...
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FS 75 Race Ahead for Facilitators with Bianca Jones, Cat Duncan-Rees and Paul Brand
Facilitation Stories
In this episode Helene talks to Bianca Jones - Award Winning Mental Health & Anti-Racism Training Provider, MHFA England Associate and Founder & Managing Director of EDP Training, Paul Brand- Facilitator and Management Consultant, Director at Risk Solutions and IAF England and Wales board member and Cat Duncan-Rees- Facilitator and founder of Curators of Change and also an IAF England and Wales board member. She starts by asking Bianca to talk a bit about the work she does and what led her to develop EDP and the Race Ahead training She asks Cat and Paul about what led...
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FS74 Representation and Lego with Camilla Gordon
Facilitation Stories
In this episode Nikki talks to Camilla Gordon, a process facilitator , about representation in Lego and her new “Figiverse” project. They talk about How Camilla uses Lego Serious Play in facilitation The lack of representation within Lego ‘I had people of colour seeing these more representative Lego pieces and had really emotional reactions to it, because people have never seen themselves in these pieces’ ‘It has become so normalised that particular identities don't get represented in different spaces’ Improving representation and access to more diverse...
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December pause
Facilitation Stories
Hello! We're pausing for December and so there won't be an episode this month. We'd like to thank everyone who chatted to us this year and all of our wonderful listeners. We hope your 2024 ends well and we look forward to bringing you another Facilitation Story in January 2025. Helene and Nikki
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FS73 Reflections on being Chair of IAF England and Wales with Jane Clift
Facilitation Stories
In this episode Helene talks to Jane Clift about her role as the Chair of IAF England and Wales. They talk about: How Jane got involved with the IAF and the facilitation community “the game changer for me was coming to my first IAF conference,I had never met so many people interested in facilitation” How Jane became the Chair of IAF England and Wales Highlights and challenges since becoming the Chair The importance of the IAF and community events “I think there's been a recognition in our chapter, in our community, we can all learn from each other.” And...
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FS 72 Working as an Internal Facilitator with Cath Brooks from the Environment Agency
Facilitation Stories
In this episode Helene talks to Cath about her role as Senior Engagement Advisor and internal facilitator with the Environment Agency (EA) Cath tells Helene a bit about the EA and the type of work they do. She explains how her role as Engagement Advisor includes facilitation and also how she works an an independent internal facilitator for other projects withing the EA. Cath gives some examples of what she really enjoys about her role as a faciliator including working with the public on a climate adaptation project and working alongside external independent facilitators that the EA also use....
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FS71 Chapter Chat with Jan Lelie IAF Netherlands
Facilitation Stories
This episode is one of our quarterly “Chapter Chats” where Helene and Nikki talk to a member of the leadership team from another IAF Chapter. Today’s guest is Jan Lelie, founder of IAF Netherlands. Outside their IAF role Jan is a facilitator with a background in experimental physics. Key topics from the conversation include: How Facilitation and the role of Facilitators has changed over time What Jan has learned and continues to learn from other facilitators “you have to practice what you preach. When I go to an IAF conference, I will do a workshop of...
info_outlineToday we’re introducing a new quarterly feature “Chapter Chat”. As many listeners know, the England and Wales chapter is just one of the many IAF volunteer-led chapters globally, all working within 6 regions across 65 countries. While all chapters are united under the IAF vision and operate in accordance to the IAF Code of Ethics they are all run in a slightly different way, and reflect the context they’re working within.
So alongside our episodes capturing individual facilitators’ stories, each quarter we’re going to chat to people leading other chapters, about how they see the status of facilitation where they are, and the history, priorities, current projects and aspirations for their chapter.
To kick us off, we have a special episode reflecting on a year of facilitation in the EME region, where Helene and Nikki talk to Tamara Zivadinovic Regional Director of the Europe and Middle East Region of the IAF.
Tamara talks about her own facilitation practise, how she got involved in IAF and her her journey to becoming Regional Director.
She explains to Helene and Nikki what are your main responsibilities are as regional Director and what has been happening in the Region over the last year.
She talks about celebrating the many IAF volunteers and about her proudest moments as Regional Director.
Tamara shares what is coming up in 2024, her hopes for the region and finishes up with an ask for the members of the region.
You can contact Tamara on: rep.europe@iaf-world.org or find her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamara-zivadinovic-4975384/