Vision
What is your vision for facilitation in 2025?
Employment & Topics
Where does facilitation happen?
Human-led, tech-enhanced
1050 people took the time to fill out the State of Facilitation survey this year: thank you! Here you will find results, divided into 9 sections.
This report is based upon data collected through a global survey running from September to November 2024.
For each section you will find aggregated data (What? ), and commentary by experts from different fields involved in facilitation, such as leadership training and learning design (So What? ). Their role is to guide readers through the material and help make sense of it.
Ultimately, the value of this report is in what you decide to do with its contents. How will it inform, or even change, your practice? We’ve added some reflection boxes along the way, with space for your thoughts and action plans (Now What? ).
If you want to fill in the reflection spaces while you read, and save them for future reference, download the report in PDF format below. If you prefer to read this document online, we invite you to take a moment to think about what actions you might want to take in your own practice by jotting down some notes when you meet the Now What? reflection cards.
We’d love to know how this report informs your practice. Follow SessionLab on Linkedin and Instagram and take part in our #FacilitationForward campaign.
3rd edition
1050 respondents
78 countries
Answers in 7 languages
In this report
Focus on
In-house facilitation
Practice
What was it like to facilitate in 2024?
Tools & Skills
What is in facilitators’ toolboxes?
AI
How are facilitators using GenAI?
Resources
How do facilitators keep learning?
Demographics
Who is facilitating and where?
Before we jump in, a word of caution:
To collect responses we reached out to our networks, colleagues, business partners, and friends. We did our best, but inevitably that reach is limited. A majority of responses reached the survey through our own channels, such as the SessionLab newsletter. This may help explain certain aspects of the data we’ve collected, especially when it comes to overrepresentation of European and North American responses.
Help us reach beyond our bubble in the next edition by joining in and reaching out to your networks. Leave your email below and we will let you know as soon as survey for 2025 is open.
Prefer to download the report?
If you prefer to download the report in PDF format, leave your email here to receive it in your inbox! You’ll also receive SessionLab’s facilitation newsletter and get updates about the next survey too!
Key TAKEAWAYS
Human-led, tech-enhanced
Facilitation in 2025 is all about finding the balance between the human and technological aspects of the craft. Facilitators must know how to stay in the moment, present and aware of human dynamics. At the same time, increased use of specialized software and AI assistance indicates the growing importance of technological proficiency, with facilitators who embrace these tools gaining a competitive edge. Technology can enhance facilitation, but how to keep it from being a distraction?
Multi-modal facilitation
The silos between online vs in person facilitation have broken down. With more teams and projects happening in distributed locations, facilitators are called in to help teams keep aligned, wherever they are. Facilitation has become multi-modal, operating across hybrid formats, combining in-person, online, and asynchronous sessions. Hybrid facilitation in particular requires extra expertise and resources for maintaining engagement across diverse participant groups.
Bite-sized sessions
The length of a typical session has shortened since pre-Covid days, from half a day to 90 minutes. Facilitators must adapt to shortened attention spans, deliver impact quickly, and get creative with working in modules or series of sessions. It can be challenging to identify what can be done in small interventions and what truly requires more space and time.
L&D is where it’s at
Facilitation skills are spreading within companies, with more professionals working inhouse. Larger organizations in particular are discovering the benefits of having team leaders and managers put facilitation skills at work in regular meetings and collaborative projects. Learning and development departments are leading the way in promoting facilitation as an essential leadership skill. Read more in our special focus on inhouse facilitation below!
It’s time to build capacity
As facilitation gains recognition as a workplace skill, the need for training in general facilitation skills is rising. Interest is growing for introductory courses sharing facilitation basics that can make the difference in any meeting or event. This represents an opportunity for facilitators to lead by example and upskill other professionals.
The responsible facilitator
Facilitators are often the ones calling attention to cultural sensitivity and matters of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). When asked for their vision for the coming years, facilitators wrote about the importance of managing cultural dynamics with sensitivity, and ensuring all voices are heard, regardless of format. In the midst of a backlash against DEI, what does it take to be a responsible facilitator?
WHAT? - VISION
What is your vision for facilitation in 2025?
Reading through almost 800 answers to this open question, what is striking is the coherence of a narrative threaded through a vast majority of answers: the interplay between the human element and technological proficiency in facilitation.
These are the main topics that emerged.
The role of technology
Many envision AI and other digital tools becoming integral to facilitation, both for preparation and enhancing participant engagement.
Concerns about over-reliance on technology and the need to retain human connection are prevalent.
Inclusivity and diversity
Facilitators highlight the importance of creating inclusive spaces, addressing cultural and generational dynamics, and promoting equity.
Greater focus on neuroinclusion and trauma-informed facilitation is noted.
Facilitation as a core skill
Growing recognition of facilitation as a leadership competency and a vital skill across industries.
Calls for more structured training, certifications, and professionalization of the field.
Hybrid and online facilitation
Increased demand for hybrid and remote-friendly practices.
Emphasis on creating engaging and accessible virtual experiences while maintaining balance with in-person facilitation.
Human connection and empathy
Strong emphasis on preserving the human essence in facilitation, fostering trust, and building meaningful connections.
Facilitators see themselves as enablers of collaboration and societal change.
Sustainability and impact
Vision of facilitation contributing to sustainable practices and addressing global challenges like climate change and social division.
Respondents’ vision for facilitation in 2025 combines technological advancement with a deep commitment to human connection, inclusivity, and societal impact.
The integration of AI into facilitation is continuing and will grow. The reach of facilitation around the world, primarily through facilitators connecting, will grow.
Creating brave spaces and psychological safety, vulnerability, trauma and shadow work, polarity management, holistic facilitation - important to keep in mind and promote the power of facilitation.
I believe facilitation will grow in prominence and importance in the post-COVID era, especially with the emergence of AI and the growing divisions between ideologies. High-quality human interaction and meaningful connection will become increasingly valued and in demand.
La integración entre la facilitacion, desarrollo humano y tecnologia IA
(Integration between facilitation, human development and AI technology)
My vision is that AI helps me manage content creation so that I can focus on human connection and supporting people, which people need more than ever.
Acho que cada vez mais as pessoas querem ensinar o que sabem e isso vai promover um aumento grande de pessoas que precisam aprender a facilitar.
(I think that more and more people will want to teach what they know, and this is going to lead to a huge increase in the number of people who want to learn how to facilitate.)
Time is becoming a challenge and that along with budget constraints means facilitators will need to demonstrate more RoI from the time invested in sessions. Respond to changing needs by using more tools but also stick to key principles underpinning your practice. Building connections and creating conditions for psychological safety are key.
Teilnehmerinnen werden Informationen/Input sich selbst aneignen. Der Fokus liegt auf Moderation von schwierigen Change-Prozessen und Konflikten.
(Participants will acquire information/input themselves. The focus will be on facilitating difficult change processes and conflicts.)
SO WHAT? - EXPERT INSIGHT
In 2025, we live in a world where the supply of information exceeds its demand. We are no longer short of answers, but we struggle to ask the right questions! AI offers insights at our fingertips, which leads to even more fractured attention spans and impacts the role of facilitators. The facilitator’s role is shifting from enabling ideation and solution-finding to creating spaces where people can find their own answers. Facilitators bring humanness back into the workplace to foster meaningful connections where participants can co-create the future using both cognitive and embodied intelligence.
AI is here to stay and is already facilitating the facilitators’ job by transforming how we prepare for, conduct, and debrief sessions. AI helps us make sense of vast amounts of information we would never have been able to process otherwise. But what we often forget is that AI cannot differentiate between what is relevant and what is merely noise. It lacks the ability to spot the outlier idea that could become the next unicorn. While AI can fast-track a group’s decision-making, it cannot drive participants’ buy-in if they haven’t been involved in the solution-finding and sense-making process. Just because AI can do it, doesn’t mean it should.
To say it with the words of one of the respondents to the SessionLab survey:
“Facilitation will become a skill AI supports, but cannot replace. The human ability to manage group dynamics and foster trust will remain irreplaceable.”
In areas such as cultural diversity, neuroinclusion, and trauma-informed facilitation, technology can support diversity, equity, and inclusivity by shedding light on biases or accommodating diverse needs. But ultimately, it is the facilitator’s presence, intuition, and ability to hold space for difficult conversations and disagreements that will make the difference and ensure buy-in and sustainable solutions.
In a world of virtual or hybrid work and shortened attention spans, facilitators have an opportunity – and the responsibility – to bring the body back into the workspace. Embodiment, long seen as a niche area of life coaching, is emerging as a central ingredient of effective facilitation. Embodied practices allow groups to move beyond intellectual problem-solving, tapping into their intuition and a full range of human experiences related to how people connect, collaborate, and lead.
If we embrace these challenges – collaborating with AI and engaging participants holistically – facilitation has the potential to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges, from climate change to social division. Facilitators can help organisations and communities embrace sustainable practices, foster collective action, and design solutions that balance the needs of people, the planet, and the economy.
As another respondent put it:
“Facilitation must adapt to address the mental health crisis and rising polarization, using skills like empathy and deep listening to bridge divides.”
In this sense, the vision of facilitation goes beyond the profession. Facilitation is a mindset and a leadership skill that empowers individuals and groups to collaborate on a better future. As facilitators, our role is not just to guide processes but to inspire trust, foster belonging, and ignite action.
Dr Myriam Hadnes
Dr Myriam Hadnes is a behavioural economist (PhD), the host of the “workshops work” podcast and the founder and CEO of workshops.work, a boutique agency for facilitation-based corporate online training. Myriam is dedicated to the vision that we can create collaborative cultures, one workshop at a time. In her work, Myriam applies scientific insights about human behaviour and group dynamics, along with learnings from experts on her podcast.
In a world of virtual or hybrid work and shortened attention spans, facilitators have an opportunity - and the responsibility - to bring the body back into the workspace.
Dr Myriam Hadnes
Now WHAT? — Reflection questions
what? - Employment
Where does facilitation happen?
Among respondents to the survey, employment is split between independent contractors (49.7%) and full-time employees (41.4%). The next question offers a bit more granularity: people practicing facilitation fall into three main categories:
Freelancers and the self-employed. This is probably the image most of us have in mind when visualizing who a “facilitator” is. A freelancing consultant, often changing projects, offering facilitation, consultancy, coaching and/or training services to different clients.
Founders and associates in specialized agencies. 23.4% of respondents facilitate as part of consultancies offering facilitation as their main service.
An increasing number of respondents (31.4% vs 27.1% in the past edition of this report) are facilitating in their role as part of a larger company or organization where the main business is something other than facilitation. We’ll refer to these folks as “in-house facilitators”.
How are facilitation skills spreading in the workforce? What kind of tasks do in-house facilitators take on in their day-to-day work? Are there specific challenges to facilitating as someone internal to the company? The third section of the report will focus specifically on the experience of facilitating in-house.
Employment status
% of responses# of responses
Which of the following best describes your current employment status?
Type of facilitator
% of responses# of responses
Which of the following options best describes you currently?
Role
% of responses# of responses
Which of the following describe your current role?
Session topic
Now that we know a bit more about where facilitators work, let’s see what they are working at. In the next question, we asked about topics of sessions: What types of sessions have facilitators delivered in the past year? Note that this was a multiple choice question and participants could tick as many boxes as applied.
The most commonly run sessions concern Brainstorming and ideation, with over 73% of facilitators working to help spark divergence and creativity in the past year. Next come Training sessions (68.7%) and Coaching and mentoring (55.3%). Overall, this paints a picture of facilitation as a support to company and employee growth,upskilling workers and improving processes.
It’s interesting to note that the lowest positions are reserved for the kinds of sessions most likely to happen with impulse from the public sector (Town hall meetings, 9.6%, Public consultation events, 9.1%). This gives credit to one participant who wrote: “I would love to see more resources dedicated to understanding facilitation in public sector workspaces”!
Topic
AllBy type of facilitator
% of responses# of responses
What types of sessions have you led over the past 12 months?
So what? Expert InsIGhT
The State of Facilitation is an invaluable tool to not just determine where we are but also providing direction to where we want to go. The Where, What, and Who of facilitation provides valuable insights. The data from In house facilitators as well as facilitation service providers reinforce and validate that facilitation continues to play a role wherever groups need to come together.
Data clearly shows us that facilitation is being used in a variety of situations. At the most simplistic level, we can say that wherever meetings happen, group process facilitation can add value and increase effectiveness. In view of this, I wish to bring attention to the interesting opportunity I see hidden behind the data.
That opportunity is for all practitioners to go beyond merely practicing facilitation, becoming skilled in sharing and communicating its value. Everyone involved should consider the need to create success stories, case studies, impact studies, and any other materials that might provide decision makers, buyers, and users with critical data and measurements of success.
Facilitation enables groups to come together to solve many of the critical and complex challenges the world is facing today. Unless we are able to influence decision makers to deploy facilitation to support them this will be a lost opportunity.
Vinay Kumar
Vinay is the Founding Director of C2C Organizational Development. He has been in the facilitation field for almost 20 years and has worked with leaders, groups, and teams in enabling them to become more effective. He is also the former Global Chair of the International Association of Facilitators (2020-2021) and has served on the IAF global board for 5 years.
Facilitation is already everywhere - in schools, non profits, public sector, companies, communities etc.
We need to create a way to acknowledge and celebrate the use of facilitation
in order to scale and promote its use even more.
Vinay Kumar
Now WHAT? — Reflection questions
Focus on
in-house facilitation
In-house facilitation refers to the practice of having employees, rather than external consultants, design and lead workshops, meetings, or collaborative sessions within an organization.
Increasing the capacity for in-house facilitation may well be one of the main ways facilitation can break into the mainstream. This is a vision of, as one participant in the survey put it, a “democratized” future for facilitation, with basic skills shared by professionals in all kinds of fields.
At SessionLab we work with numerous companies who are building a company-wide culture of facilitation, often by combining the expertise of consultants with a more diffuse use of facilitation for day-to-day meetings. We are very curious to learn more about the specific challenges and advantages of in-house facilitation so we asked a series of specific questions on the topic. Let’s see what is going on in the world of in-house facilitation.
The next two questions were only asked to respondents who are not freelancers. It’s interesting to notice that the top two responses to “Approximately how many people are employed in your company” are the smallest number (2 to 9 employees, 28.8%) and the largest (5,000 or more, 18%). This would indicate that facilitation is either practiced as a main skill in small, boutique agencies selling consultancy and training, or in-house in very large corporates, large enough to have a dedicated leadership training program or a group of in-house workshoppers.
So what about those mid-sized companies? Are there perhaps not enough resources there to upskill staff in collaboration skills? Is the need not yet felt, or not urgently? In her commentary below, Zoe Lord offers some ideas on how and why it’s important for all types of organizations to step up their facilitation game.
Size of the company
% of responses# of responses
Approximately how many people are employed by your company?
Facilitators in the company
% of responses# of responses
Approximately how many people facilitate workshops at your company?
Let’s zoom in some more and look at questions answered by respondents who answered yes to “Do you facilitate meetings, sessions and workshops within the company that employs you”?
Company sector
% of responses# of responses
What sector does your company operate in?
Facilitation is showing up across a broad range of organizations, with consulting, education, and non-profits leading the way. It’s no surprise that consulting firms (32.5%) top the list; this is presumably the category facilitation agencies placed themselves in. Also, facilitation might be a service offered by consulting companies in applicable scenarios, such as multi-stakeholder environments or vision workshops.
In education (26.5%), facilitation plays a key role in creating interactive, learner-focused environments. And for non-profits (24.6%), facilitation helps align diverse stakeholders and drive mission-focused work. These sectors highlight how facilitation shines when collaboration and creativity are needed to tackle big challenges or bring people together.
Department
% of responses# of responses
What department do you work in?
The responses to the question, “What department do you work in?” highlight that individuals facilitating sessions, training, and workshops are spread across various company departments. Major contributors include Learning and Development and, of course, Management.
These areas reflect the organizational focus on employee growth, team alignment, and operational efficiency, emphasizing their direct role in supporting training and facilitation efforts. Learning and Development departments, in particular, stand out as key sites where facilitation skills are often practiced and introduced, especially through experiential learning and training programs.
However, it is clear that facilitation is not confined to a single domain: it is a cross-departmental activity leveraged for diverse purposes.
Interestingly, about a quarter of the responses fall under “Other”. These include a practically un-clusterable list of different positions, from board volunteers to nurses, and a considerable number of company founders.
The broad distribution of responses suggests that facilitation may well have a natural home in L&D but is not confined to a single department. Facilitation is a workplace superpower needed wherever collaboration happens, regardless of sector or role.
Participants
% of responses# of responses
Who is most often attending your workshops?
These results paint a picture of in-house facilitators wearing many hats and working across different participant groups. The nearly equal percentages for external stakeholders (51.1%), cross-company teams (50.4%), and their own teams (50.1%) suggest that facilitation is not confined to any one audience.
People with the skills to facilitate will likely apply them to their own team work but might also be called to facilitate other teams or larger, multistakeholder events. In fact, the slight edge for external stakeholders shows how facilitation is often used to build connections outside the organization: with clients, partners, or broader communities.
We see an interesting growth opportunity here: this data shows that companies find value in facilitating both internal sessions and external, client-facing sessions, yet not all departments are yet utilizing facilitation as a skillset. If some of your teams are behind or you don’t yet have a company-wide facilitation culture, 2025 could be the year!”
Where does learning happen
% of responses# of responses
At what point in your career did you pick up facilitation skills?
The majority (62.7%) of in-house facilitators learned their skills before taking on their current roles. While facilitation itself might not be the primary reason for hiring, the skills it builds, like effective communication, collaboration, and problem-solving, are an asset in the workplace.
A smaller but significant group (27.2%) developed these skills on the job, either early in their tenure (15.2%) or later (12.0%). This points to the importance of offering facilitation training within organizations.
The “other” responses, which mainly tell the story of early learning through student activism or community work, show how facilitation often stems from diverse, real-world experiences. Put that high school volunteering experience in your CV!
Employees with facilitation/human skills will be in demand and be able to ask for higher compensations.
Facilitation becomes a core skill modern teams acquire across the board.
I think facilitation will soon be a core skill set employers look for in a candidate.
Facilitation is really becoming a crucial skill for all companies.
Skill sharing
% of responses# of responses
How are facilitation skills shared in your company?
Let’s take a closer look at those people who learnt facilitation at work. How did that happen? As is typical with this craft, it often gets “picked up” more or less informally, by observing and shadowing others (40.8%). It’s great to see high numbers of people learning facilitation in an internal community of practice (39.4%) and internal training programs (36.4%).
If you are in a leadership role in any of those workplaces where facilitation skills are not shared at work (28.8%) it might be time to do something to change this. 25.9% of facilitators belong to an in-house community or peer group; starting one might be as easy as creating a dedicated Slack channel or a sharing opportunity at your next offsite.
Below you will find some quotes for great examples of what is happening in companies world-wide, which contributors to the survey left in comments to this question, as well as some inspiring expert commentary explaining why it’s important to increase facilitation capacity at work.
My office shares best practices and makes it a point of doing so.
In our consulting firm, we do retrospectives after every session, so learning is a continual practice.
We model in team meetings and give team members opportunities to facilitate team conversations using new methods.
We'd love to develop facilitation training though, just hasn't been a high priority.
We ask colleagues for direct feedback before and after sessions.
SO WHAT? - Expert InsIGhT
In-house facilitation
The development of in-house facilitation is one of those ideas that could truly transform how organisations operate. Imagine a world where facilitation is not confined to a small group of people, but is instead a mindset and skillset that permeates throughout teams, departments, and the leadership.
In health and care improvement – my world – we’ve long held the belief that everyone should have quality improvement expertise. Whether you’re a clinician, manager, service delivery or in support teams, these skills are invaluable to aim for world-class care, optimum quality and efficiency.
If everyone had facilitation knowledge and skills, we could unlock stronger communication, deeper collaboration, and more impactful leadership – fueling productive meetings, energised teams, and a culture of continuous improvement that drives organisational effectiveness and agility. There would be fewer over running meetings, more concise contributions, and a greater understanding of why the process matters!
Having workplace cultures where facilitation knowledge and skills become commonplace would certainly make life easier for us facilitators and it would lead more people to recognize the need for specialist facilitation skills to guide groups through the most complex situations.
In-house vs external facilitation
I often hear that many organisations value the skills of an external facilitator more than someone within the organisation – do you see this too? Why is that? Whilst both have their place, I challenge leaders in organisations to reflect on who they are asking to design and facilitate sessions and why. Are they overlooking in-house talent? And if they’re not the right people, how can they be developed?
The data in this report paints a concerning picture: in-house facilitators often lack access to structured development opportunities. This is worth a reflective pause for all of us – how are we developing our skills and how are we developing others’ in our organisations?
Training and development
To develop and grow in-house facilitation, it’s imperative to embrace continuous learning, explore new tools and innovative techniques to remain effective, relevant, and impactful. Without development, we risk:
- Skill stagnation: Outdated or overused methods reducing effectiveness and creativity
- Decreased engagement: Poorly facilitated and unproductive sessions disengaging participants
- Increased costs: Greater reliance on external facilitators who ‘seem’ more innovative and exciting
- Weakened facilitation culture: Lack of investment signaling that facilitation is not a priority or valued.
Take a moment to reflect: over the last 12 months, have you or your organisation invested in developing your facilitation skills? What plans do you have for the year ahead? Who are you actively learning from? We personally learn from teaching others, so who are you supporting and developing?
If you don’t have robust answers to these, it’s time to take action!
Ideas for action
- Take time to reflect, develop a practical and inspiring plan for the year ahead
- Explore available courses (paid and free)
- Identify people to observe or shadow
- Follow inspiring facilitators on social media, YouTube, or other platforms
- Share your expertise: Deconstruct your methods, share what you do, how you do it and why you do it in a particular way. Explain the deliberate choices you make – for example where you stand in a room, how you use your body, how to frame good questions. These purposeful interventions help others to see the magic and help others grow.
To amplify the work we love and to advance our profession, we must commit to ongoing learning, sharing, and growth… Let’s all be intentional about developing our own skills, supporting others, and fostering cultures where facilitation is recognised, valued and celebrated.
Facilitation is far more than a skill – it’s a powerful way of leading, connecting, and inspiring change, and it all begins with us.
Zoë Lord
Deputy Director of NHS Horizons, leader and facilitator of large scale change, liberating structures practitioner, author and curator of The School for Change Agents.
The development of in-house facilitation is one of those ideas that could truly transform how organisations operate.
Zoë Lord
WHAT? - practice
What was it like to facilitate in 2024?
In this section we’ll look at the practicalities of facilitation: what kinds of sessions were most commonly run in 2024. Were they online, in person or hybrid (spoiler: all three). How long is a typical facilitated session and what are the trends there? What challenges are facilitators worldwide facing?
Let’s dig in.
Session length
202420232022
% of responses# of responses
How often have you facilitated the following sessions in the past 12 months?
Facilitated sessions are becoming shorter. Comparing responses from the 2022 and 2024 surveys, the proportion of facilitators who have never conducted workshops lasting more than one day has increased by 10%.
This trend likely stems from several factors. On the demand side, clients are seeking higher-impact sessions in less time, often driven by budget constraints. At the same time, shorter attention spans and a preference for bite-sized, digestible content are shaping expectations across industries.
However, shorter sessions are not without their advantages. For example, 1- to 2-hour formats are ideal for online workshops, and far preferable to the marathon all-day sessions many endured during the early pandemic days. Additionally, the rise in shorter sessions aligns with the trend toward in-house facilitation, where team leaders often guide routine team meetings or quick decision-making workshops.
For freelance facilitators and trainers, this shift emphasizes the need to adapt delivery methods. Consider designing modular programs that string shorter sessions together, rather than relying on standalone, longer workshops. If achieving your objectives requires extended sessions, be prepared to make a compelling case for their necessity to clients who may prefer shorter formats.
Session Type
202420232022
% of responses# of responses
What types of sessions have you delivered over the past 12 months?
In-person sessions are back, but remote and hybrid facilitation are here to stay. In 2022, 57.8% of sessions were held online, but by 2024, in-person workshops have regained the top spot. However, the two formats are now neck-and-neck. Hybrid sessions—where some participants join online and others in person—have decreased in frequency from last year, but still remain quite common, giving a sense that format is stabilizing from something experimental to a standard practice (60.3% of respondents led some hybrid events in 2022, 65.5% in 2023, 56.3% in 2024).
In the same section we asked an open-ended question about changes experienced in 2024. Plenty of people talked about new skills acquired, and professional development milestones. That said, almost half of respondents underlined the increased use of technology in facilitation, including the adoption of new tools and platforms, hybrid facilitation, and integrating AI into their work (more on this later).
Many facilitators no longer focus exclusively on either in-person or online facilitation. Instead, they emphasize the importance of multi-modal facilitation—choosing the right format based on the client’s or group’s needs. This approach involves determining when to work in person, online, asynchronously, or in hybrid modes, and knowing how to work fluidly in each of those settings. Facilitators must now master a variety of platforms and technologies while remaining clear about which approach works best for different scenarios.
Integrating online into practice and keeping up with (or deciding 'not to' keep up with) the newest bells and whistles on line!
Working on my virtual game mostly.
My workplace is hybrid but we've tried to move back to doing in-person when it's a facilitated discussion or decision-making meeting as much as feasible, trying to get folks to have longer sessions where they talk more (everyone wanted really short online meetings around and after COVID, but engagement is challenging when it's just online all the time).
Even with a return to in-person options, online facilitation remains a crucial offering, making my services more accessible and adaptable to clients' preferences and logistical needs.
What challenges are facilitators experiencing?
Keeping momentum after sessions
A major challenge for over 37% of facilitators: it seems that no matter how good the workshop is, it’s hard to execute actions and keep the ball rolling afterwards.
Managing my own capacity (time/energy)
In the general overwhelm of these past years, facilitators are no exception. Stress, burnout, and overwhelming workloads were highlighted as concerns for facilitators.
Finding jobs
Professional recognition and getting to the point where the calendar is full with a consistent roster of workshops and clients is a challenge in a business that relies on word-of-mouth.
Challenges
AllBy type of facilitator
% of responses# of responses