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Facilitation StoriesAuthor: IAF England Wales
Facilitation: the art of enabling a group of people to achieve a common goal. IAF England Wales brings you a show by facilitators, for facilitators and anyone interested in using facilitation for change. We'll share guest stories, experiences and methods. Plus, we'll bring you up to date on what's happening at our Meetups. Language: en-gb Genres: Business, Careers, Personal Journals, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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🎙️FS85 - Authenticity and Accountable Grounding with AI
Thursday, 24 September, 2026
What does it mean to be yourself on purpose as a facilitator, especially in a world increasingly shaped by AI? In the latest episode of IAF England & Wales' Facilitation Stories, Sam Moon sits down with Hannah Boneham, Co-Founder of Facilitate Sheffield, for a conversation about authenticity, accountability, community and belonging. They explore what inspired Hannah to set up Facilitate Sheffield and how facilitation communities can create spaces where people feel a genuine sense of connection and belonging. They also talk about authenticity in practice, finding your own way of holding a room, and staying grounded and accountable as AI becomes increasingly part of our work. And, continuing the thread from the previous episode, Hannah reflects on learning from mistakes and what those experiences have taught her along the way. Quote highlights "What I will never do is use it to design workshops end to end, or plug in outputs from client workshops and ask it to do the analysis without me also separately having done the analysis." "You can really be yourself. You can be authentically you, so long as you are in a place where that authenticity helps bring people together to solve the problems that they have in front of them." "There are some absolutely tremendous people, wonderful talent, and so very generous with their skills and experience... it brings so much joy and it makes facilitation not just a profession, but a community that I really love." Sam: Hello and welcome to Facilitation Stories, the community podcast of the England and Wales chapter of the International Association of Facilitators, also known as the IAF. My name is Sam Moon and my guest today is Hannah Bonham. Hannah is a facilitator specialising in change management and organisational development, and as a CEO of Leadwell, a social enterprise and consultancy based in Sheffield. So, Hannah, to kick off with tell me what, in your world of facilitation is making you smile at the moment? Hannah audio: Thank you, Sam. And can I say, first of all, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you very much for having me. Sam: Thank you, Hannah. Hannah audio: what's making me smile? So, the obvious and, first answer that rushed to my mind when you asked the question was the community of facilitators that I've gotten to know over the last few years. There are some absolutely tremendous people, wonderful talent, and so very generous with their skills and experience and this network, this space that we've all chosen to occupy together. It brings so much joy and, it makes facilitation not just a profession, but a community that I really love that. Sam: Tell me a bit about what you love about that. What does that mean to you, Hannah? Hannah audio: Well, I'm an extreme extrovert and I don't say that lightly. I really do, like, at the end of a day's facilitation, I come home absolutely pumped because I've just spent the day interacting with people the whole time and I really enjoy it. It's something I have to watch and manage in terms of how my energy can come across and I can be a lot. So my husband tells me from time to time and the fact that there are a huge range of different kinds of people from different walks of life, the different backgrounds and skills and perspectives and who present different challenges and ideas. It's such a rich tapestry facilitation with so many amazing different people and it really feeds me. I get a huge amount from it and I hope I give a lot back to it as well. 'cause I get a lot of enjoyment from spending time with those people. Sam: Say and in danger of putting you on the spot here. Is there anything that comes to mind that have been highlights of this shared community and, the gifts that you discover when your inner community of facilitators and things that surprise you that you weren't expecting? Hannah audio: Yeah. Yeah. So I was one of the co-founders of Facilitate Sheffield, which is the Sheffield branch of the IAF, the meetup. I co-founded that with Jane Clift, who has been a guest on this podcast herself. And Jane and I starting that off, we literally met for a coffee and we were like, we can't be the only facilitators in Sheffield. Who else is here? How should we find them? And growing that from that conversation, just the two of us to the next, I think it was the next month when we had nine or 10 different people come along, two of whom agreed to then be co-lead. So I now co-lead along with Angel Takooree and Helen Todd. And we now have last count, I cannot remember, something like 50 or 60 members that come to sessions every two months. And each time we have a different person volunteer to facilitate a session, which means that we get to learn a completely new topic and we get to experience someone else's kind of key skillset. So you get two for one, right? Because you're not just like experiencing the facilitation of that person, but you're also learning how they do it. You might pick up a new tip or a new trick or a new set of pens that would work for you that you can try and, or whatever it might be. And I think that's the thing that really stands out for me that in the last few years is that not only is this community about, but it's generous and it's willing to be expanded and wants to be probed and shared and enjoyed by everyone. And I just, yeah I was really surprised to find that. And I'm, yeah, very happy to be part of it. Sam: Sounds like a really powerful strong experience in terms of bringing people together. You can share stuff and share stories and kind of what they're up to. And learning from one another. I really, when, when, so at, at, there's the sessions that you meet up went after an event like that, after come together. what do you leave with? What, in terms of, not as in product or transactional, but how does it leave you feeling? Hannah audio: For me, very energised. Because I've spent the time with people other people have said they've felt very safe, which has been really nice feedback and very involved and included. People have told us that they leave feeling as though they've found their people, that they've recognised now that they're not alone in what they're trying to achieve. We have a lot of, it's probably an even balance actually, of in-house facilitators. So people who have roles like project management where they do a lot of facilitation, and then other people who are freelance facilitators or have their own business like, like myself. And I think that people have made connections with others who have similar peripheral skill sets or needs or requirements, as well as the facilitation as well. So I think people have said that coming away from it, they've made new friends and new connections that have helped support them in other aspects of their careers and their lives, which I've been grateful for. Sam: So that sounds like a really mutual experience. As as well. Hannah audio: I hope so. I hope so. Because you know when you get a lot out of something, sometimes there's a concern, like you stop and go, hang on, is this is feeding me? I hope it's feeding other people too. Sam: No, it's it feels like there's a lot of aliveness in there. I'm gonna come onto the next question in the moment, but like, whilst, whilst we're here, and this is the Sheffield meetup that you are talking about? Hannah audio: it is, yeah. Sam: about, if anybody any, any listeners who kind of were in any facilitators and listeners in kind of Sheffield, how would they find out about those, those meetups? Hannah audio: so it's any facilitators working or living in or around Sheffield or the Sheffield area? We call it South Yorkshire. If you're willing to travel, we'd be very happy to have you. You can find out about us by searching the hashtag facilitate Sheffield on LinkedIn, or I'll give my details at the end of this podcast and you ha very happy for you to drop me a line or find me on LinkedIn and I'll connect you up with the group. Sam: Beautiful, and we make sure we put that information in the links of the podcast as well. So that's a beautiful thing. So how did, what, what helped you get into this work? How did you find yourself in facilitation? What is your facilitation story? Hannah audio: Thank you. So I think I'm one of probably many people who was a facilitator before they realised that it was a defined profession, you know, a professional skillset. So I worked in change management, project management, organisation development, programme management, those sorts of peripheral fields. And I spent a lot of time helping manage complex groups of stakeholders who often didn't agree with each other or who agreed about what the outcome might be, but not the journey that we had to go on to get there, et cetera, et cetera. And I run a lot of workshops and it was after I'd set up Leadwell which had a focus of leadership to create thriving organisations, you know, leading well, leadership and wellbeing. And I met Jane Clift and she she said, well, have you come across the term facilitation? And I was like, well, yeah, in various different contexts, but how do you mean? And she explained that the IAF and she talked me through the fact that it was a profession in an in and of its own rights. And it was at that stage that I realised that was a group that I could potentially identify with. Jane told me that the next conference that was coming up was actually the Europe and middle Eastern one. This was back in, gosh, it would've been August, 2023. And so the next one was, I think it was October 23 in Berlin. And I did a load of Googling that evening, went down a proper rabbit hole, and was just, oh my gosh, I think these might be my people. I really need to get to this place. But literally just set up the business literally in August. And so I made a commitment to myself that if I had invoiced a client at all, if I'd sent an invoice, I would treat myself to the conference as a result. And I did, about a month later, my first invoice for £100, no, £400 came in, which was nowhere near enough to cover the conference. But I had promised myself. And so I went and I met the most amazing people while I was there, who, many of whom I've stayed very much in touch with, I've worked with, I've had work from, I've given work to, and have helped me grow and shape what Leadwell has become and my own facilitation kind of skillset and where I see myself on that landscape. So it was the most, it was the absolute best thing I could possibly have done at that time. And then shortly after Jane and I founded Facilitate Sheffield, and it's gone from there. Sam: What an incredible story. And like when you're talking about that first invoice, you can relate to the anxieties of the first client and the first invoice Hannah audio: Yeah, right, that very first one. I was so thrilled to get it over the line. Sam: That you make. And I wanna ask you a little bit about the themes that you've noticed emerge since for you. But just before I do, just tell me in terms of the, what do you feel were the conditions or what enabled you to help you step into that space? You've touched on them in terms of like discovering your way in your jour in your journey, but just say, you know, is there anything you could sort of say a little bit more to in terms of what enabled, what were the enabling factors there? Hannah audio: Yeah I think it, to an extent, it comes down to, I've said the word generous before. I think that the facilitation profession and the people that are members of that profession are incredibly generous. But I think that facilitation has such a huge scope. It's such a broad tapestry, a landscape. You know, we were playing with words before we join, before press record, you know, spectrum, landscape map, what are the words that you might use? And there's space for everyone who is comfortable leading a workshop. Essentially different styles and approaches and topics. But you can really be yourself. You can be authentically you so long as you are in a place where that authenticity helps bring people together to solve the problems that they have in front of them. You can do that in the way that you feel most comfortable. And I think that is a wonderful opportunity. 'cause it means that we can constantly grow. We're always gonna be meeting new people. We're always gonna be inclusive. We're gonna be able to embrace diversity, move forward, be agile, change with the times, adapt. You know, it's a, it's something that's gonna be around forever. And I think that was the thing that made it easy for me to join and embrace and be part of it. 'cause I was welcomed with open arms. And I try now to do the same thing for others. Sam: Right. So it's about how people are creating space for you to be you and find yourself within that, as well as discovering rather than feeling sort of, a performative, Hannah audio: Yeah. And you see that, right? If you go to any of the conferences, the range of topics that are available for you to get involved in while we're all together, it's astounding. Like I've never seen, I've never been to another conference that's focused in that way, that on a topic that then gives you such a huge spectrum of different activities you can be involved in. I don't know if you have. Sam: Yeah. and we're talking here about the IAF conference that runs each year by kind of volunteers and having experience in myself, it is a welcoming space where there is just so many gifts, passion skills, and gifts that are being shared amongst facilitators. And it's like a treasure trove of what people do. You know, I sort of, the, my analogy is like when you go to a, a kind of a music festival and there's loads of acts on that you wanna see at once, and it's like, I can only see that one because I can't see that one. But the, the shared experience is really a really wonderful thing as well. Hannah audio: I love treasure trove, but I've always talked about it being like a sweet shop. You go in and you're like, and you know those Yee Olde sweet shops and you suddenly, you've got the sweets from your childhood. You've got sweets that are your favourite, and then you've got sweets you've never seen before. That's what the IAF conference is like. Sam: That's a nice, that's a nice plug. Beautiful thing. Thank you very much, Hannah. We're gonna nail it there. So within, within this sort of world, in your journey of facilitation, Hannah, what have you sort of found or discovering is a commitment that's important for you to honour in your work during this journey? Hannah audio: So there's a couple of things I wanted to touch on here. There's one I just want to talk about briefly and then the kind of the main one I wanted to answer with. So I think it's really important to recognise that facilitation is a profession, it's a professional skillset and that doesn't mean that we are not really welcoming the people who wanna try the hand or get involved. Of course we do, right? Because if you love it and you wanna explore it and you wanna become kind of professionally capable in it, then come one come all with, it's super welcoming and I think it's important not to lose sight of the fact that it has its own defined definition and its own space. And we can play with that. You know, you have facilitative coaches and you have trainers who use facilitation techniques and all of these different peripheral kind of professions that interrelate with facilitation. But I think it's important to honour the fact that there are some people who are purely facilitators and that is their professional skillset. And yeah, we just need to recognise that it is its own profession in its own right. I dunno if you've got any thoughts on that before I lead into my second idea. Sorry. I did come up with a part two for this answer. Sam: and see indeed. I think my, my journey of facilitation, discovering as, as a word and what it's, has almost been part of discovering what I do and how I do things. And I guess if you are asking me that question back is almost seeing facilitation as this umbrella word. And then there is a continuum of different approaches. And I find myself leaning into different ways of doing things. And from where I've started, my background is in youth and community work from 20 / 30 years ago. So I guess from way back then, I've always thought, well, I'm doing facilitation. So when I discovered facilitation as a work, I was thinking, well, this is what I, I have been doing. But then ever since then, I've been more focused using the word facilitation. I've gone on to discover lots of different skills. And I think what I've found is that I have shifted from maybe a, well, this is the only way of doing things to, there are so many ways of doing things, and you follow your passion and then find the different skills that work, work for you. And it's ever and it's ever changing in, Hannah audio: It's never gonna be stagnant. It's never gonna stay still. It'll always evolve. That's cool. Sam: in, in that set. So, so what else is coming up for you in the world of facilitation and that you're, you are noticing and is important to you? Hannah audio: So the, the other thing that I've been thinking about a lot is the use of Ai. And I've been encouraged quite a lot by people to use chat, GPT and others to speed up my processes. So I get a lot of consultants saying things to me like, it's all about how much you value your time, and if you value your time, you'll use these tools to make things quicker. And I don't know, some things just never sat completely comfortably with me in that, in that regard. It's not criticism of anyone that does use it in that way, then that's great. But for me personally until I came across a term, I was speaking to my colleague Steve here, and he talked about accountable grounding, and I realised that's the kind of the term I've been, I've been searching for. So I will use copilot really comfortably to kickstart my ideas to check timings on workshops. I might plug in some analysis and say, can I check? Like, have I missed anything in this? Or if I presented this to you, what might be your responses so that I can prepare well? But what I will never do is use it to design workshops end to end, or plug in outputs from client workshops and ask it to do the analysis without me also separately having done the analysis. And the reason is because I think my ability to present any valid arguments and enter into conversation about conclusions I've drawn in design or in delivery or in like closed down, that's the minimum a client should expect, right? That if someone says to me, I've got a question for you. I won't just be able to answer it because someone has spat out an answer and given it to me. But I'll understand the logic model that sits behind it, and I'll be able to validate, challenge or change my mind and understand how in changing my mind that will affect the rest of the workshop or the interaction that I've created. That does not make me the cheapest facilitator on the market. And it doesn't mean that I have the largest profit margins, but it does mean that my quality and accountability will always high. And that for me is the commitment that's important to honour in my work day to day. Sam: Oh, thank you Hannah. And just sort of, just to follow up on that almost is why, tell me and when I ask this, it's not because I don't think it is, but tell me why. Tell me why that is important to you. Hannah audio: It's because we talked before about authenticity and it's about me being able to stand up and say, this is me you are interacting with, and I will use tools to hone my craft. But when you see someone standing in front of me, I will have taken the time to understand your needs. I will have taken the time to design something that I think will meet those needs, and I will be held accountable to the decisions I've made, the actions I take, the thoughts and ideas I share with you. And I think that there are lots of ways that you could erode that accountability, that AI's just one off them. And I think it's really important to make sure that you can, you have that, that accountable grounding when you are interacting with clients, if you're going to maintain a level of quality. That for me is what LEADWELL stands for. Sam: Yeah. And you're being transparent and you are, you've kind of honouring the relationship, the human to human relationship that you have with a client, whoever it is you are working with. And then, and through working in that way, what I'm hearing is you are building trust and that trust, you know, builds at the speed of relationship, which you are nurturing from the first conversation Hannah audio: Certainly hope so. Sam: That's lovely. So, moving on to our, our little feature of the, the guest question, which has come from a previous guest is, so this is the question that we've been offered, "Is can you tell us about a time when it all went wrong and what did you do? What happened? " And the person who's offered this has said, " I'm happy if it's a great example.Or if they're comfortable sharing one that didn't turn out well we all might learn from it." So that puts you on a bit of a pedestal, Hannah. So kind of, is there anything you know, I'm sure we can all kind of share these stories, but if there's anything that you'd like to you know, respond, you know, in terms to that question, what comes to mind? Hannah audio: Thank you. I'm, I won't lie. I was glad I got a little bit of time on this one in advance, so thanks for that. So I think one thing I'd say is I haven't had any major disasters yet, and I say that yet because I kind of liken this to driving a car, right? If you drive a car every day, if your entire life, at some point you're gonna get, you're gonna get into some sort of, hopefully very minor, but some sort of smash, you're gonna reverse into something or someone will crash into you. It's gonna happen because of the time you spend on the road. So the longer I spend facilitating, the more likely is that some point something is gonna go wrong. And so I don't hold myself up on a pedestal. As you said. Nobody is perfect. I'm very lucky that I've had no out and out disasters. But I have had several segments go wrong, individual activities, exercises that I thought, oh God, even in the moment, I knew it wasn't working. So I'm happy to share a few of those. I once dropped off an online workshop I was hosting and I just couldn't get back on again. Absolute like nightmare. And I did eventually after about, I don't know, 20 minutes managed to rejoin and the group had just sort of carried on chatting generally around the topic. They'd waited for me, thank goodness, but that could have been a disaster if I joined in. All the clients have just left. The thing I learned from that, always have a second facilitator online. That's an absolute hard line for me. I will not do an online facilitation now without a second facilitator on the call. That's absolute, like non-negotiable. I once had a really icky experience when I was running a constellations exercise and I'm quite high energy, quite tangible focus when I'm doing my workshops. And I, no, that's not for everyone, but that's my style. A lot of fun, a lot of interactivity. And this particular exercise required quite a lot quiet reflection. And it just, as I was doing it, it felt over earnest. I felt it felt too slow. It wasn't, it, I could tell people were looking at me and they were doing the things I was asking, but something just, it felt like I was trying too hard. And afterwards on, I always do a feedback session on the board and I did get the feedback that exercise when we were standing up and moving around the room felt a bit, a little bit over earnest. And I thought, yeah, it did. I knew it did. The thing I learned from that is not to try to use tools or techniques that don't fit with me and my personality. I can always have a second facilitator with me if I think it's something the client really needs. And if I'm not right for a commission, I pass them on to other people. I don't try and keep hold of them. And then the last one I would say is I had somebody and I'm, I'm really ashamed of this, so it's, it's something that I'm, I'm bringing it. I had someone feedback once that they felt physically excluded by an exercise that I had done which required quite a lot of moving around the room. And I'm, I'm someone who prides themselves on trying to design with inclusivity in mind. And I just, I dropped the ball on that one and I was really ashamed. I reached out to them to apologise and to say if they had any suggestions for how we might improve it next time to let me know. But the thing that I've learned is that when I'm designing any exercise in any workshop I take, take the time to think about how different diverse needs might be impacted by the choices that I've made. And I make sure I've got alternatives. That does take time. It does. But I think it's so important to make sure that on the day I can anticipate additional needs. People don't have to come to me to say, I can't do this. How are you gonna adapt? I have to think on the fly. I can say, this is how we're gonna do it. If you'd like to, you can do it this way or this way too. And I've learned that now, and that's something I build into my practise as standard. So there you go. There's three things that went wrong that I've changed my practise as a result. Sam: Hannah, thank you for such a human response to that, question. And I'm sure there'd be some listeners like, nodding, nodding along or kind of beginning to kind of resonate. With that. And I was kind of, you know, relating a little bit whilst on sort of, you know, whilst being kind of present in terms of what you were saying. Hannah audio: Thank you. Sam: it was yeah, really nice to hear how you, what I was, what I was hearing. There was a deep sense of, of, of awareness and also in terms of how you discovered your presence within each one, each one of those. But also how you kind of identified how you were feeling and what was coming up about that. And particularly when I guess those emotions and feelings and when that last one. And I've been in sort of maybe been in similar situations where you feel that sense of like, how I let someone down and kind of what that can do for us. And I think what also your stories there demonstrate is as facilitators, it's quite tough out there, 'cause you are, are you on there on your own and like you're wanting to make things work and then, you know, you're trying to find your way with those things as well. Hannah audio: A hundred percent. Sam: Thank you. Thank you for your vulnerability with those questions, Hannah. Hannah audio: Thank you. Sam: so we're coming to the end of our conversation. So be before, before, before we do, I just wanna ask you if in any, if anything at all is what, if any meaning has been made for you through the course of this conversation. Hannah audio: You know what actually springs to mind, I wondered about this because I know this is a question that you ask, and I thought, well, gosh, what if we get to this point and I can't think of anything or I can't think of anything profound. Sam, what if I say something embarrassing? But Sam: no, there is nothing is a perfectly acceptable answer to this question. Hannah audio: Well, thank you very much. But I think it's kind of, it's even more meta than that, Sam. 'cause I think the answer is, I am talking about authenticity and the fact that it, this community of facilitators, this profession of facilitation enables people to come and be themselves. And I felt like that on this podcast. So I said I was nervous before this side. I don't feel nervous. Now I feel very accepted and welcomed. And listening to the other podcasts or the other kind of sessions that you've hosted and that your colleagues have hosted, that comes across I think, and I think that's the thing that's really kind of resonated for me and that I'm gonna take away from today's conversation. That as facilitators, we are, we try very hard to be a really inclusive community. And the people really are welcome to be who they are and to express that fully. And you've given me that opportunity today, Sam. So thank you. Sam: Thank you, Hannah. Thank you for sharing that. And so we shall finish with a question where I invite you to offer a question to a future guest in facilitation stories. So Hannah what is your question to a future guest? Hannah audio: Thank you. Okay. So granted what we've said already about authenticity and being able to be our real selves, but obviously when we're working with clients, we've got them from lots of diverse different backgrounds. And to be inclusive, we need to adapt in order to make them feel safe in the space that we're asking them to operate in. So my question is, what part of yourself do you have to hide, suppress, manage, or dial up to be an effective facilitator? Sam: Thank you, Hannah. That's a, a beautiful question. It's a strong one and it's gonna give our future guests something to chew on. so Hannah, before we finish, is there anything else that you'd like to say or share that has not been said? Hannah audio: Only that if people are interested in hearing more about facilitate Sheffield, they can contact me on LinkedIn. Hannah Boneham, you should be very easy to find. There's not many people with my surname and I look forward to meeting more people in the profession over the coming years. I meant what I said. I'm extreme extrovert. If you fancy a chat or you'd like to connect with me, drop me a line. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna wish that I hadn't offered that. I love meeting new people, so please do say hi and thank you very much for your time. Sam: On that. Thank you ever so much for being my guest today, Hannah. Hannah audio: Thank you, Sam Sam: We have reached the end of today's episode of Facilitation Stories, the community podcast of the IAF England and Wales. If you'd like to hear more about the IAF and how to get involved, please head over to our website, ww dot facilitation stories.lipsy.com to make sure you never miss an episode. We are always on the lookout for new topics to discuss, so if you think there is a facilitator that we should talk to or you would like to share what's emerging in your world of facilitation, send us an email at podcast at IAF ew co uk. We hope you join us for more facilitation stories again soon. Until then, thank you for listening. Todays guest - Hannah Boneham Hannah Boneham on LinkedIn: Hannah Boneham | LinkedIn CEO of Lead Well: Home - Lead-well.org And if you'd like to come along to #FacilitateSheffield, drop us a line at hello@lead-well.org Todays host: Sam Moon Community Facilitator. Director of Sam Moon Facilitation Ltd www.linkedin.com/in/theboymoon123 To find out more about Facilitation Stories and the IAF: 🎧 https://facilitationstories.libsyn.com/ 📧 podcast@iaf-ew.co.uk 🌐https://www.iaf-world.org/site/chapters/england-wales To find out more about Facilitation Stories and the IAF England & Wales Chapter: 🎧 https://facilitationstories.libsyn.com/ 📧 podcast@iaf-ew.co.uk 🌐https://www.iaf-world.org/site/chapters/england-wales
