[DEBATE] Facilitating the Unknown
What happens when a facilitator stops trying to inform/teach/manage — and instead holds space for the unknown? A debate with facilitators and designers of participatory processes.
Destined for the past, I was drawn to archaeology, history, and Latin as a teen, yet chose engineering for my studies. This path unveiled the art of simplifying complexity by returning to first principles and translating ideas into tangible designs tested against real-world challenges. My academic journey expanded to include philosophy and urban planning, shaping my future as a systems practitioner. After brief stints in large organizations, I founded shiftN in the mid-1990s, a consultancy that, 25 years later, remains my professional sphere. At shiftN, we provide strategic services to 'change makers for good,' blending futures and systems thinking. Concurrently, I pursue doctoral research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and blend photography, writing, and travel into my artistic research. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge penned, "Imagination; honourable aims; Free commune with the choir that cannot die; Science and song; delight in little things, The buoyant child surviving in the man ..."