By Greta Rossi
Dear Facilitators,
Welcome to the fifth newsletter from The Facilitators in 2026! As we continue our exploration of decision making and problem solving, we turn to the wisdom of diverse experiences to help you grasp the nuances of this skill.
A conversation with practitioners
We invited two practitioners for a regenerative conversation on decision making and problem solving to transcend traditional definitions, explore their potential for facilitators, weavers, and stewards at a time of increasing complexity and tensed social dynamics. It was a highly resonant and restorative conversation and we hope you will find it inspiring to listen to.
Abhishek Thakore is an explorer of edges, a bridge across different worlds and a purpose-driven initiator. With over 20 years of facilitation experience, he has worked with over 100 organisations in various sectors across the world. The work has expanded into an ecosystem that includes local action (Blue Ribbon Movement), capacity building (Wisdom Tree), a national collective (Bodhi Sangha), and a city-level framework (WISE Mumbai). Abhishek is also the founder of The Blue Ribbon Movement and co-founder of Wisdom Tree and Bodhi Sangha.
Francesca Pick is an organisational explorer, ecosystem builder, and facilitator supporting organisations and teams with participatory governance, shared leadership, self-management, collaborative decision-making, and budgeting. Francesca gained her experiences with new ways of working as a core member of the self-organised communities Ouishare and Enspiral. She was the co-founder of Greaterthan and now of Common Ground.
An audio of this conversation is also available on Spotify.
Key takeaways
- Decision making and problem solving really become alive when you are faced with sticky, undecidable decisions that require you to take a leap of faith and connect to your deeper being. They are much more than cognitive endeavours; they are embodied practices that require you to examine your perception, cultivate discernment, and make room for creativity.
- In complexity, the invitation is to make small moves, notice what is unfolding, and respond to what the situation is asking of us. The Cynefin Framework offers a simple way of recognising when this way of working is needed.
- There are innumerable potentials that open up when you follow the energy in the group (rather than sticking to the original plan or course of action) and ask: What wants to be born? Is this decision / proposal ripe?
- A few questions to sit with: What is implicit right now that we could make explicit? What are some of the rules, norms, guidelines that are there but that we haven’t named? What wants to happen through us? What are we really up to?
Find out more about Abhishek and Francesca
- Abhishek Thakore: Blue Ribbon Movement
- Francesca Pick: Common Ground
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That’s all from us!