A Credo for Facilitators was put together by Peter Adler, John Barkai, Donna Ching, Dolores Foley, Holly Henderson, Kem Lowry, Tom Mitrano, and Jane Yamashiro in 1998. The statement grew out of a series of discussions about the use and occasional abuse of “facilitation” in the public, private, and civic sectors. The authors encourage readers to […]

Large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination, yet the social sector remains focused on the isolated intervention of individual organizations. For more on this topic, visit the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Understanding how cultural differences manifest themselves is crucial. While an individual’s nationality does not necessarily determine the attitudes and behavior they bring to a gathering, it can provide valuable guidance on facilitation strategies likely to be more successful over others. 

20 things you can do to help environmental stakeholder groups talk more effectively about science, culture, professional knowledge and community wisdom. By Peter S. Adler and Juliana E. Birkhoff, Ph.D. Click here to view the PDF.

A “strategy map” describes a sequence of phases associated with several types of cross-sector collaborations and some of the activities associated with each phase. In practice, no process “blueprint” describes precisely how a process may unfold. Nor can it anticipate all the process dilemmas or tensions that occur in the design and implementation of collaborative processes. Outlined below are some typical tensions that can occur.