Join us on Thursday, April 23rd for NCDD’s next “Confab Call.” We’ll be talking with NCDD Member Pete Peterson about lessons learned from running for office on a “civic engagement” platform. The confab will take place from 1-2pm Eastern (10-11am Pacific).  Register today to secure your spot!

Pete Peterson is the Executive Director of the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership at Pepperdine’s School of Public Policy in Malibu, California. In 2014, after earning one of the “top two” slots in the primary, Pete became the Republican candidate for California Secretary of State, running on a platform of increasing informed civic participation and using technology to make government more responsive and transparent. Throughout the campaign, he highlighted many of his experiences at the Davenport Institute as unique qualifications for this statewide office.

Although he finished second in November’s general election, he managed to earn more votes (3.2 million) than any other Republican in California for the 2014 cycle, and along the way, earned the endorsement of nine of the ten largest newspapers in the state.

In their endorsement of Pete, the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board noted that Peterson “possesses an almost evangelical passion for public participation, which is exactly what the office needs.” The government/technology website, techpresident.com, named Pete, “the most tech savvy candidate running for statewide office this year.”

In this confab, Pete will talk about what it was like to run for statewide office on a platform he described as becoming California’s first “Chief Engagement Officer” and what promise and challenges the civic participation field faces when translated into a political context.

NCDD’s Confab Calls are opportunities for members (and potential members) of NCDD to talk with and hear from innovators in our field about the work they’re doing, and to connect with fellow members around shared interests. Membership in NCDD is encouraged but not required for participation. Register today if you’d like to join us.

NCDD’s next Confab Call will take place Wednesday, March 25th from 1:00 to 2:00 pm Eastern (10:00 to 11:00 am Pacific). Register today to secure your spot!

On this Confab we will be led in a discussion of ethics for facilitators by Kimberly Bain, author of Becoming a Reflective Practitioner: The Reflective Ethical Facilitator’s Guide and Chair of the International Association of Facilitators. Kimberly will give an overview of ethical values and reflective practice, and then engage with participants in discussion of the ethical issues participants have experienced in their own practice.

As Facilitators we are “architects of trust” and in order to protect that trust we must always be conscious of the ethical values and principles that guide our profession.  Ethics and values allow us to hold ourselves and each other accountable for the power we hold over groups, over processes and over outcomes.  Discussing these issues as a profession is critical in this process.  We not only need to be individual reflective practitioners but we need to be a reflective profession.

For more about this call, check out the original blog post at www.ncdd.org/17546.

NCDD’s “Confab Calls” are opportunities for members [and potential members] of NCDD to talk with and hear from innovators in our field about the work they’re doing, and to connect with fellow members around shared interests. Membership in NCDD is encouraged but not required for participation. Register today if you’d like to join us.

NCDD’s next Confab Call will take place Wednesday, March 25th from 1:00 to 2:00 pm Eastern (10:00 to 11:00 am Pacific). Register today to secure your spot!

Kimberly Bain holding up her “next steps” bubble at NCDD 2014

On this Confab, we will talking with Kimberly Bain, Global Chair of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF), about the concepts in her new book, Becoming a Reflective Practitioner: The Reflective Ethical Facilitator’s Guide. In this guide and on the call, Kimberly will help us bring these ethical principles to life both for us as reflective practitioners and for our profession.

A Reflective Practitioner is conscious of the ethics and values of our profession and constantly reflects on how he/she personally resolves tensions within that ethical framework.  Awareness is the first step towards insight.  Consideration and reflection are in the interests of each of us, our profession as a whole and in the interests of those we serve.  We all must consider the ethics and fundamental values of our profession and be prepared when those values are challenged in practice.  As practitioners we must be continually mindful of how we exercise our power as facilitators when helping groups and communities achieve their desired outcomes.

Kimberly Bain is Senior Partner in Bain Group Consulting, based in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Kimberly is an IAF Certified Professional Facilitator, is Global Chair of the International Association of Facilitators and holds the appointment of Visiting Scholar in facilitation and mediation at Queen’s University.

NCDD’s “Confab Calls” are opportunities for members [and potential members] of NCDD to talk with and hear from innovators in our field about the work they’re doing, and to connect with fellow members around shared interests. Membership in NCDD is encouraged but not required for participation. Register today if you’d like to join us.

More about the book…

Becoming a Reflective Practitioner: The Reflective Ethical Facilitator’s Guide is based on the International Association of Facilitator’s (IAF) Code of Ethics and Values, however it works also for other practitioners and organizations (NCDD, IAP2, ICF, etc.) as these ethical principles are universal.  Ethics and values set standards that help us as professionals hold ourselves and each other accountable.  But a Code of Ethics is only effective if it is continuously reviewed, discussed, challenged and reflected upon.

The IAF knows both the power of facilitation (i.e. better and more sustainable outcomes, higher levels of engagement and ownership of decisions, more effective use of resources, better decisions) and the dangers (i.e. coerced consensus, unequal outcomes, directed outcomes, breaches in confidentiality and loss of public trust).  As facilitators, and as dialogue & deliberation practitioners, “we are architects of trust” (The Reflective Practitioner, page 53).  We owe it to our clients, and to the public in which we serve, to act with an informed appreciation of the ethical issues and competencies needed to help groups/communities build consensus and produce meaningful outcomes.

More about Kimberly…

Kimberly Bain holds certificates in mediation and dispute resolution and has conducted over 200 court appointed mediations, as well as dozens of workplace interventions and community disputes. Kimberly provides professional facilitation services around the world, speaks regularly on facilitation at international conferences, and teaches at colleges and universities.  She has an Honours Degree from Queen’s University and a Master’s Degree from Carleton University.  Kimberly is author of Becoming a Reflective Practitioner: The Reflective Ethical Facilitator’s Guide.  For more information about Kimberly or to purchase her book, visit her website at www.baingroup.ca.