Do you facilitate groups? Have you ever thought about the language that you use whilst facilitating? What insights can language give you about your facilitation?

We have just had an article published in the IAF Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal titled “exploring the language of facilitation”.

Some quotes from our paper:

“Whilst language is the means by which facilitation is realised, there has been little research to date investigating language use in facilitation.”

“Language is all around us. Like a fish in water, we are immersed in language, through words, every day. As Hall (2005) describes, one may think of language as a spell.”

“In business and organisations it may come as no surprise that there is an attitude favouring action over talk (Weick, 2004), yet in many ways it is through the very act of talking and speaking that sense is made and action enacted (Weick, 2005).”

You can download a full copy of the paper here. Enjoy!