Becoming a Reflective Practitioner: The Reflective Ethical Facilitator's Guide

By Kimberly Bain

As Facilitators we are architects of trust. We owe it to our clients to act in a conscious manner and with an informed appreciation of the ethical issues and values inherent in our profession. As individuals, and as professionals, we must be continually mindful of how we exercise our power when helping groups achieve their desired outcomes. Awareness is the first step towards insight. Consideration and reflection are the best mechanism to enhance our collective understanding of the ethical choices we make. We must all consider the fundamental values of our profession and be prepared when our ethics and values are challenged in practice. This book is will help you explore your ethical values and expand your awareness of the ethical choices we make and the possible affects of those choices on our clients.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483539270

Book preview

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About this Workbook

This workbook:

• Will assist you to become a Reflective Ethical Facilitator by making you conscious of the ethics and values of our profession and how we personally resolve tensions between them.

• Will help you explore and challenge your professional values and ethics and expand your awareness as a Facilitator and a professional using Schon’s concepts of reflection-in-action and double-loop learning.

• Is based on the Statement of Values and Ethics published by the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) and is consistent with the statement of ethics published by other professional associations such as the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) and the International Coaching Federation (ICF). The values and ethics identified by IAF are relevant for all forms of facilitation and participatory dialogue (with the partial exception of content neutrality in the case of learning facilitators) and are adhered to as the professional code of conduct for Facilitators around the world.

• Can be conducted as a self-reflective exercise individually or in groups.

Who needs to consider ethics and values? EVERYONE who works with groups of people!

• This workbook is for everyone who works with groups of people as Process Facilitators, Learning Facilitators, Virtual Facilitators, Visual Facilitators, Dialogue and Deliberation Professionals, Public Participation Professionals, Alternative Dispute Resolution Professionals and Coaches.

Outline of This Guide

In order to reflect on our professional ethics and the situations in which these ethics and values may sometimes come into conflict:

• You will walk through each of the ethical values identified by the IAF and contemplate the meaning of each for you as a professional.

• You will then consider different scenarios where your ethics and values might be challenged and how you would handle each situation.

The Importance of Ethics as Our Profession Expands

The use of facilitative processes has expanded. We see corporations, governments, communities and organizations using Facilitators to help their groups make the best use of the contributions of each of its members, build sustainable outcomes and achieve meaningful results. Similar trends are happening in the fields of coaching, dialogue and deliberation and public participation. As society expects more collaborative and cooperative interaction, our professions will be heavily relied upon to provide guidance on