How did you start your facilitation journey?
How did you start your facilitation journey?My facilitation journey began organically through my leadership roles across global organisations. With 25+ years of experience driving transformation and change management, I started designing and leading collaborative processes for stakeholders. My work at HSBC, where I led global teams of 1,300+ employees across 56 markets, required creating environments where cross-functional perspectives could converge to drive strategic transformation. These experiences built the foundation for my formal facilitation work.
Throughout my career at Language Line Services, Citigroup, and HSBC, I developed expertise in facilitating strategic workshops, customer forums, decision-making sessions, and complex problem-solving meetings. This background in process design and group dynamics has become central to my work at True North Collaboration, where I help organisations navigate change through structured, purposeful facilitation.
What do you find most exciting about facilitating?
The most exciting aspect of facilitation is creating the conditions for collective intelligence to emerge. As someone who believes in the power of human-centric approaches to transformation, I find tremendous satisfaction in designing processes that help groups overcome obstacles and reach breakthrough solutions.
I’m particularly energised when I can help teams move past surface-level discussions to address underlying challenges. There’s a special magic in watching a group that began with divergent perspectives converge around shared understanding and commitment to action. Seeing participants leave with renewed energy and practical solutions they’ve co-created makes every facilitation opportunity rewarding.
How do you typically prepare to facilitate sessions?
To prepare for a session, I typically begin by engaging with stakeholders to gain a deep understanding of the context, including its history and the desired outcomes. Following this, my focus shifts to process design, where I tailor the approach to the specific group dynamics and the prevailing organisational culture. I also give careful consideration to environmental factors, aiming to create physical or virtual spaces that are truly conducive to collaboration. My next step involves materials development, ensuring these resources effectively support the chosen facilitation methodology. Lastly, I undertake contingency planning to proactively address any potential challenges or resistance that might arise during the session.
What tips and tricks would you recommend for those aspiring to become facilitators?
For those aspiring to become facilitators, I’d recommend first mastering process design, truly understanding how different methodologies can effectively address the varied challenges groups face. It’s also crucial to develop neutrality, learning to serve the group’s process without imposing your own agenda.
Cultivating psychological safety is another key aspect, as groups tend to innovate more effectively when participants feel secure in sharing their perspectives. Strive to balance structure and flexibility; have a clear plan in place, but be ready to adapt as needed. Finally, learn to embrace silence, recognising that some of the most profound thinking often occurs in quiet moments.
In what ways has facilitating contributed to your growth as a leader in your field?
Facilitating has profoundly shaped my leadership journey in several key ways. It has deepened my systems thinking, allowing me to see the intricate connections between various challenges within a system. Moreover, it has strengthened my capacity to remain neutral while still effectively guiding groups toward desired outcomes. Through the experience of reading diverse group dynamics, my emotional intelligence has also been significantly enhanced. Finally, facilitation has equipped me with a diverse toolkit of approaches and methodologies that I can readily apply across a wide range of organisational scenarios.
My facilitation experience spans financial services, healthcare, technology, and manufacturing sectors, allowing me to bring cross-industry insights to each engagement while adapting my approach to sector-specific cultures and challenges. This versatility has been particularly valuable in helping organisations navigate post-pandemic workplace transformations, where bringing together diverse perspectives on hybrid work models has been essential.
How has facilitating contributed to your personal and professional growth?
Professionally, facilitation has positioned me as someone who can help organisations unlock their collective wisdom. It has become a cornerstone of my work at True North Collaboration, complementing my executive coaching and consulting services.
Facilitation embodies the core philosophy behind True North Collaboration: that organisations achieve their greatest potential when they align authentic human connection with strategic purpose. When I facilitate, I’m putting into practice our fundamental belief that sustainable transformation happens when people feel genuinely heard, valued, and connected to meaningful work. This approach creates the conditions for both individual fulfilment and organisational success.
Personally, facilitation has deepened my commitment to human-centric leadership approaches. Each session reinforces my belief that the answers to most organisational challenges already exist within the collective knowledge of the people involved—they simply need the right process and environment to emerge.
