What can you learn from popular team facilitation models and frameworks?

1 The Technology of Participation (ToP)

The Technology of Participation (ToP) is a set of methods and principles developed by the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) to facilitate participatory and democratic group processes. The ToP model is based on four levels of participation: reflection, dialogue, consensus, and action. The ToP methods include the Focused Conversation Method, the Consensus Workshop Method, the Action Planning Method, and the Participatory Strategic Planning Method. The ToP model can help you learn how to design and lead conversations that engage all participants, elicit diverse perspectives, build shared understanding, and generate collective decisions and actions.

2 The ORID Framework

The ORID Framework is a simple and powerful tool for structuring any type of conversation or facilitation process. It stands for Objective, Reflective, Interpretive, and Decisional, and it corresponds to the four levels of thinking and questioning that guide participants from facts to feelings, to insights, to actions. The ORID Framework can help you learn how to ask the right questions at the right time, to stimulate deeper and more meaningful dialogue, to clarify and synthesize the key points, and to move the group towards a clear and actionable outcome.

3 The Grove Model

The Grove Model is a holistic and visual approach to team facilitation, developed by The Grove Consultants International. It is based on seven elements: purpose, product, participants, context, process, facilitation, and graphics. The Grove Model can help you learn how to plan and prepare for any type of team facilitation, how to align the group around a common purpose and product, how to adapt to the needs and expectations of the participants and the context, how to design and facilitate effective and engaging processes, how to use graphic facilitation techniques to support communication and collaboration, and how to evaluate and improve your facilitation skills and practices.

4 The Art of Hosting

The Art of Hosting is a practice of co-creating and hosting meaningful conversations that lead to collective action and change. It is based on four patterns: hosting yourself, hosting others, hosting conversations, and hosting in complexity. The Art of Hosting can help you learn how to cultivate your presence and awareness as a facilitator, how to invite and empower others to participate and contribute, how to use various conversational methods and formats to address different challenges and opportunities, and how to navigate complexity and uncertainty with curiosity and creativity.

5 The Facilitator's Handbook

The Facilitator's Handbook is a comprehensive and practical guide for team facilitators, written by John Heron. It covers the theory and practice of facilitation, including the roles, skills, styles, and ethics of facilitation, as well as the design and management of facilitation processes. The Facilitator's Handbook can help you learn how to balance your authority and participation as a facilitator, how to develop your core competencies and techniques as a facilitator, how to choose and apply different facilitation styles depending on the situation and the group, and how to deal with common challenges and dilemmas in facilitation.