Investing in new solutions for life on Earth means investing in creative facilitation. This is a lesson from the Luc Hoffmann Institute - and many groundbreaking ideas have been incubated as a result. Now, the institute’s efforts, along with those of long-standing collaborators, have been internationally recognised.
On Monday 26 October 2020, the Luc Hoffmann Institute proudly co-accepted a Gold Facilitation Impact award from the International Association of Facilitators (IAF). The award is for its collaborative facilitation efforts, together with external facilitators Gillian Martin Mehers and Randall Krantz, on the Luc Hoffmann Institute-led Biodiversity Revisited initiative.
In the warm-up to the virtual ceremony, the IAF released a short film featuring our Head of Programme (ad-interim) and experienced facilitator, Melanie Ryan. In this film, Melanie - who led the Biodiversity Revisited initiative - explains why facilitation is so important in our mission to provide a fresh perspective on critical conservation challenges and develop new approaches and solutions that will deliver biodiversity gains in policy and practice.
Over a period of 24 months, the Biodiversity Revisited team convened a diverse range of stakeholders to develop a new Biodiversity Revisited research agenda, helping spark new ways of working for and thinking about life on Earth.
Stepping away from PowerPoint presentations and traditional facilitation formulas, Biodiversity Revisited used creative, participatory methods such as art and fiction to engage diverse people from around the world, virtually and in person. These facilitation methods fostered trust and encouraged courageous conversations to enable new voices to be heard and chart innovative ways forward.
The Luc Hoffmann Institute’s director Jon Hutton, who has recently been appointed as WWF International’s Global Conservation Director, says: “Great ideas don’t just happen. To encourage diversity of thought, bring in new ideas, and incubate inclusive agendas where everyone in society has a part to play, you need a special kind of great facilitation. The Luc Hoffmann Institute is bringing that together with a suite of skills into the WWF Global Conservation Division to catalyse innovation and transformative change within WWF for nature and all people.”
To learn more about the Biodiversity Revisited initiative, please contact Melanie Ryan at: melryan@wwfint.org
