Facilitating for Change

In 2022, Fran Pyatt and I came together to explore how we could we work together alongside organisations who are focused on making change – Charities, INGOs, international coalitions and membership organisations who convene, build partnerships and collaborate to support and improve the lives of people and protect our planet.  

We founded our Facilitation for Change Collaboration that not only gives us the opportunity to work closely together on projects that we are passionate about that align with our core values, but also enables us to draw on our peer network to enhance our offering.  Our client’s projects focus on important issues such as:   Global Advocacy, International Public Health & Development, Gender Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, Safeguarding, Disability Inclusive Programming & Sustainability.

We love to create the space to facilitate meaningful dialogue and time for reflection to enable you to reach your goals.  We are excited to work together with you!

We understand that often the individuals coming together might be volunteering their time, have busy day jobs delivering much-needed programmes, joining from different regional time zones and have their own language and accessibility needs. 

Your time, both individual and as a group, is valuable.  We help facilitate the conversation, create a space to hear from everyone, gently guide you to reflect and focus on your goals, support you with the planning to ensure your meetings keep momentum and are outcomes focused.

We offer both in person and virtual facilitation to help you:

• Set up and engage your committee or coalition, eg develop your TOR, provide structured planning, brainstorming activities to focus on your aims and objectives, run 1:1 sessions with members who might be unavailable or on different time zones, help you reach consensus, make decisions and build an action plan to achieve your goals. 
• We offer impartial support and guidance through the ‘difficult’ conversations, actively listening to all parties, delving into ‘what is beneath the surface’ to help understand the emotions, diverse perspectives and reach alignment on how to move your programmes or initiatives forward positively.
• Advocate for change with our expert experience in virtual webinars and workshops, ensuring that the key messages and output for your events reach a wide, global audience.  Starting with the content shaping, we design engaging and interactive programmes, take care of the set up and planning through to the delivery of the event.  

Debbie Jackson-Cole is a passionate linguist, facilitator and international conference programme manager.  Communication is unquestionably one of the most important factors in bringing about change – listening and learning – I absolutely love feeling part of an international community and being able to facilitate understanding across cultures ensuring people feel valued and involved.  

Fran Pyatt is an accredited facilitator with experience across the third sector from International NGOs, to national & local charities.  She delights in building healthy and cooperative group dynamics to enable collaboration and does this by valuing each contributor for their unique contribution.  Always bringing a light and fun touch, Fran creates spaces where groups thrive.  

We met in 2019 on the Association of Facilitators’ training programme and are both now accredited members at Level 2.  The Experiential Learning style meant we quickly recognised shared values and a love of different cultures and language.  We are both ‘interested’, open, friendly and keen to engage in an inclusive and calm way.  

Through drawing on facilitation theory and our combined skills, we ensure a balance of effort and attention is applied to process, task and relationships – Debbie with her expert experience delivering complex events is process and planning focused, whilst Fran loves to delve into theory, psychology and develop the relationships.  

Together we facilitate the conversation that delivers the task to effect change.