There’s no going back – and facilitation needs to change also

I so miss meeting people with physical and social closeness, without screens, without concerns, without masks or obsession with hand sanitizers. Just enjoy the moment of being together. Do you feel the same? Hopefully soon we will gather with our friends and families, teams and customers. Yet, the world won’t be the same. We are not going back anymore, but to some place new.

Even before the Covid19 the world of work was in a major turning point due to the new technologies that are, with accelerated pace, changing the way of working. Machines are replacing the work of humans, machines work and think faster than humans, and they talk with other machines. New technologies liberate our time and give us plenty new opportunities in all the areas of life.

Future challenges of facilitators in a new reality

The role of people at work changes as result of the technology evolution. We need to learn new skills and redefine our roles in the new context. Organizations are now (hopefully) figuring out what does this mean for each of them, which steps should be taken, what’s the cost of reacting too slowly and how to have the people on board.

Naturally, this new reality sets challenges also for us facilitators. How can we truly help organizations to thrive in future? Do we have adequate understanding – to the point that is possible – of what’s going on? Do we have mastery of methods and tools that enable making sense of complexity? How can we take advantage of technologies to make the connection moments with people truly relevant and meaningful? This is the moment to challenge ourselves and to collaborate, not only with other facilitators, but also experts from other fields who can help us constantly formulate our understanding of the future of work and develop methods that respond to the needs of collaboration, innovation and connection in the new context.

This year, we’ll publish a series of blogposts in which we will explore different perspectives to the future of facilitation. The selfish aim is to broaden our own thinking and understanding, but we also want to make this a shared learning experience and dialogue. We’ll talk with experts from different fields with the aim to figure out what implications this era poses to facilitation. What do you think should or could be discussed in this series of blog posts? What would make group facilitation truly relevant in the new context of work life and business?