Efficient Collaboration Through Convergent Facilitation with Paul Kahawatte
Duncan Autrey from the Omni-Win Project explores together with mediator and facilitator Paul Kahawatte what makes Convergent Facilitation so powerful.
How can we ensure everyone wins?
In this episode with Paul Kahawatte, you’ll get a small taste of the power of convergent facilitation, a process created by OWP podcast guest Miki Kashtan, and learn how to find the non-controversial essence behind what people desire. Using these tools, we can discover what people truly need and find a way to incorporate that into a solution that works for all.
Paul explains how we can look toward something more transformational and visionary while addressing the practical steps to get there. By integrating different needs, we can create something much more powerful and creative than if we don’t.
After this conversation, Duncan was filled with hope that we can truly create a win-win future. Join us on that journey.
Episode Highlights:
- Duncan and Paul talk about how convergent facilitation can bring divergent voices to collaborative decisions
- Discover the power of convergent facilitation in creating win-wins
- Understand why we can’t get what we want without collaboration.
- Learn why binary choices force us to compromise
- Paul introduces the “non-controversial essence”, which helps us understand the why behind someone’s position
- Understand the magic of incorporating everyone’s needs to create a better outcome.
- Uncover why it’s important to realize that everyone matters, and how this can lead to better solutions.
- Duncan and Paul ponder why people don’t use the process more, and how that could change.
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About this episode’s guest:
Paul is a mediator, facilitator and trainer, with a depth of experience in supporting people through conflict, collaborative decision making and the process of developing their systems and ways of working together. He draws on a number of approaches in his work, including Convergent Facilitation, Restorative Circles, Nonviolent Communication (NVC), Aikido, Focusing, Relational Neuroscience and multiple others.
Paul currently focuses on supporting groups and projects working for social and environmental justice, and has also worked as a community mediator. He is currently exploring movement building and radical approaches to democracy. He is passionate about helping people to come together in transformative ways, to organize their collective power and find ways forward that genuinely work for all.