The International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Core Competencies offer a simple but powerful frame for understanding what it takes to host conversations that help people think well together. They describe the skills, behaviours, and values that sit beneath effective facilitation, whatever the setting or culture. They also remind us that facilitation is as much about how we show up as it is about the methods we choose.

This space will grow into a series of reflections on each of the six competencies. Rather than listing techniques, the intention is to look at how the competencies live in practice, why they matter, and what they invite from us. The ideas will help facilitate in organisational life, community settings, education, and non-profit work and there will be questions that you can use to pause and make sense of your own approach.

We begin with A1: Develop Working Partnerships, because every facilitation process rests on the quality of the relationships that hold it. From there, we will move through the competencies in sequence, building a resource you can return to as your practice evolves.

Whether you are preparing for IAF certification, deepening your craft, or bringing facilitation into another professional role, this series is an invitation to explore what effective practice looks like in your own context.

More articles will follow soon.