State of Facilitation: the Impact of Facilitation
Join us to help paint an accurate picture of how the impact
of facilitation is measured, assessed and communicated.
Our goal
To create a comprehensive report on the practice of facilitation and build a resource for facilitators everywhere.
Who is a facilitator, and what do they do? In the first three editions of SessionLab’s State of Facilitation report we learned a lot about the professional paths, practices and challenges of facilitators worldwide.
This year, for the fourth edition, we are zooming in on the topic of impact. How are the effects of facilitated sessions and other interventions measured, assessed and communicated? What can we learn about follow-up that will help us share the power of facilitation and, ultimately, deliver real-world results?
Before you go...
Help us spread the word
Please share the news with your fellow facilitators and help us a culture of facilitation, worldwide!
WHO IS BEHIND THE SURVEY and the Report?
The State of Facilitation is an initiative from SessionLab – the go-to platform for session design.
Our main goal with this project is to better understand the profession of facilitation, share insights, and promote discussions in and beyond the global facilitation community.
Interested in the next report?
Don’t miss any updates
We’re excited to put together the fourth edition of this comprehensive report on the profession of facilitation.
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Contributors
Special thanks to the following people for helping us create this year's survey.
You!
Pollster
Deborah Rim Moiso
Survey Editor, Content Writer @ SessionLab
Romy Alexandra
Learning Experience Designer, Facilitator & Experiential Learning Trainer
Steve Bouchard
Head of Training & Client Relations @ xchange
Julia Donohue, GAICD
Facilitator, Project Team Member @ Facilitation Impact Awards
Dr. Myriam Hadnes
Founder & CEO, podcast host @ workshops.work
Anna Gullstrand
Chief People & Culture Officer @ Mentimeter
Shalaka Gundi, CPF
IAF Certified Professional Facilitator, Project Leader @ Facilitation Impact Awards
Tim Leake
Founder & Crusher of Soulcrushers @ Let's Lightbulb
Melanie Martinelli
CEO @ Institute for Transfer Effectiveness
Chris Taylor
CEO @ Actionable.co
Christine E. Thomas, MPH
Monitoring, Research and Evaluation Specialist
James Smart
Head of Content @ SessionLab
Carrin Robertson
Marketer, community manager @ SessionLab
Gemma Palacio
Illustrator, Visual Storyteller & Designer @ SessionLab
state of facilitation partners
About our partners
Thank you to our partners for supporting the State of Facilitation project by sharing with their networks, helping us shape the survey and report, and for their constant work to grow the profession.
The International Association of Facilitators (IAF) is a participatory organisation with members in more than 65 countries.
As a professional association, we set internationally accepted industry standards, provide accreditation, support a community of practice, advocate and educate on the power of facilitation and embrace the diversity of facilitators.
The Facilitation Impact Awards honours organisations that have achieved a positive, measurable impact using facilitation.
Nominations for the Facilitation Impact Awards are open until Saturday, 28 February 2026.
Learn more, and read about previous awardees here.
xchange is a global leadership development training company that specializes in creating transformational learning experiences. It offers certification programs to leaders, coaches and consultants in how to design and facilitate with the xchange Approach, enabling connection, learning and belonging to occur at speed and scale.
“Turn on the lights” with Actionable.
Actionable provides training companies with the tools to prove and amplify your impact, so you can deepen client relationships and stand out in a crowded market.
At the Institute for Transfer Effectiveness, thinkers, doers and critical minds from L&D research and practice passionately pursue a common goal:
to increase the transfer success of training and development programmes.
To this end, we conduct intensive research on the factors influencing transfer effectiveness, develop scientifically sound tools and interventions and test them in practice.
The results are practicable hands-on tools and useful best-practice solutions based on sound findings.
trevato is a training evaluation tool that helps you move beyond satisfaction surveys to measure the true impact of training.
With real-time dashboards and personalized recommendations, you can clearly show results and gain insights to keep improving your programs.
Previous reports
State of Facilitation 2025
The third edition of the industry’s most comprehensive report included a special focus on the topic of in-house facilitation, and a section on the use of AI and Large Language Models in the profession.
“Human-led, tech-enhanced” are the key words chosen to represent over 1000 responses to questions on hopes, challenges and impacts of facilitation world-wide.
State of Facilitation 2024
The second edition of the State of Facilitation report aggregates almost 1000 answers, given in both English and Spanish.
Check out the 2024 report to find aggregated results from the survey, including a special focus on early adoption of AI tools by facilitators, and commentary from 12 experts sharing their perspectives.
The path to professional facilitation in 2024 requires becoming literate in the use of digital tools while cultivating the heart of the craft: relationships, trust, and human connection.
State of Facilitation 2023
Last year the global facilitation community was generous enough to provide over 1100 responses to the first-ever survey on the state of facilitation.
Check out the 2023 report to find aggregated results from the survey, divided into 7 sections covering everything from demographics and employment, to challenges and tools.
You’ll also find a collection of key takeaways, information and insightful commentary by workshop design and delivery experts from around the world and see why they think that facilitation is everywhere and yet it hasn’t reached the recognition it needs.