Glimpses from 10th IAF India Facilitators Conference 2026

As October 2026 started, I took myself to Chennai to attend the 10th IAF India Conference 2026, the annual gathering of around 200 facilitators from India, and a few beyond.  For most of us regulars (they call us conference junkies especially if you have attended more than 4), it's our way of rekindling relationships, building new connections and learning about how facilitation processes can be used in a variety of topics such as AI, conversations, relationships, and business problems that are designed with alignment to the conference theme.

At this conference, there were far more first - timers than we normally have.  They definitely added to the energy in the room.  They were surprised if not stunned (as was I in my first conference 10 years ago) with the manner in which the opening plenary and all other plenaries were conducted.  In IAF conferences and Hub sessions, you are not really allowed to sit down for too long - this stops you from checking messages on your phone, and invites you to be present and participate in discussions on the current topic. Fun, laughter, smart and insightful comments are generally the norm over the two days.  This can startle those who expected the formality of other conferences, and spend some time during the day looking at their phones for entertainment or business reasons.

You don't have to wait for a break to network with someone across the room ;-)

Then of course there's the learning.  During the breaks there was a lot of buzz from participants about the sessions they attended, what they loved, liked and didn't really like, questions that came up for them, and the learning they were taking away.  Trust me, there's loads of FOMO since you cannot attend all the concurrent sessions and have to make hard choices.  So to relieve your FOMO, you gotta make friends and promise to share your learning from your session with them and vice versa, after the conference.  By the way, all the conference organizing work is done by volunteers who are IAF members themselves.

Volunteers hard at work preparing the participant kits on the eve of the conference

Here are some of the topics that I am going to explore in more detail based on the fabulous sessions I attended:

• How to use the ORID tool differently for deeper conversations on different topics - run by Danish Shaikh
• Ken Wilbur's Integral Theory and Psychodrama - run by Murali Padmanabhan
• Reimagining how AI can be partnered to improve human relations while communicating, celebrating and resolving conflicts - run by Kavi Arasu and team
• The Codevelopment Action Learning session, where we got to practice with a live case, generously provided by kind participants - run by Jawad Ahmed and Bharti Maru
• Ideas on how to engage a large group of 200 people to interact and meaningfully share their learnings  - these were the large group plenaries run by Jawad Ahmed, Sanjay Duggar, Yateen Gharat, Kavi Arasu, Shuba Rajan, Shyam Iyer and Kala Diwanji

All the facilitators generously shared their knowledge and answered every question posed to them, both inside the session and outside.  This is the most giving community I have ever known or been a part of.

Here are some pics from the two days from the participants. Awaiting the official camera pics.

 

WOW

Cards to evoke conversation and more

 

I haven't a clue, but I will find out.

The gang's nearly all here

I have to say that this is one of the best conferences I have attended and I thoroughly enjoyed myself as a participant (I co-facilitated sessions at a few earlier conferences in addition to being a participant).

Thank you to the organizing team and all the volunteers for putting on such a fantastic and fabulous conference.

I came - I had a blast - I learned, and the journey continues.

See you in Goa for the IAF conference next year.

Five steps: How HR can pass the ‘Octopus Test’ before agentic AI gets its tentacles into everything

Here's a meaningful and thoughtful article on how the HR team can go about incorporating Agentic AI at the workplace.

There are several thoughtful questions in this article, along with thought provoking lines. For eg.: 

"The fact that a system can access something is not the same as it being appropriate to use."

"Data management sounds dull until the wrong answer tells a manager they can take an action they cannot legally, ethically or contractually take. Suddenly, it becomes very interesting."

"AI can prepare, organise, compare, suggest and flag. It should not quietly become the decision maker because nobody stopped to ask where the line was."

Read the entire article here.

Pic source - pexels-tara-winstead-8386437

Reflective Knowing Vs Doing

I was recently thinking about (WOWs) the ways of working that we create in our sessions (whether process facilitation or training). As you know the WOWs are about agreeing how the participants and the facilitator / trainer would behave for the duration the session / workshop. We are familiar with the regular ones like Participate, Listen, Switching off the phone / laptop, etc., where the overall idea is to co-create an environment  so that some focused learning can take place.

Credit - pexels-pixabay-247819

Here is something additional that I thought of which can and probably should be applied by trainers, facilitators and participants.  I call it "Reflective Knowing and Doing".  The text (sound byte) to the participants could go like this:

"During this session, you may come across items of information about knowledge or behaviours or ways of thinking, that can trigger this thought in your mind "Yup, I know / knew that".

When this thought "Yup I know / knew that" comes up in your mind, I'd request and encourage you to make a quick note of the point and consider:

• How well do I really know this information / topic?
• What have I actually done with it after realizing that I know this?
• What results have I got from applying this particular piece of knowledge or insight?
• Is there another way of looking at the topic? i.e. another perspective that I am not aware of or have dismissed?

This curious, learner mindset approach would definitely help enhance our learning on that topic.

Credit - pexels-srijonism-32074781

Here are some more questions you may want to reflect on when considering the topic that you know:

• Were the results (after I applied this learning) in line with my / boss's / organization's expectations?
• What else might help me apply what I know in a more effective manner with improved results?
• Where else can I apply this bit of knowledge that I had already known? 

Please let me know what happened if you try this.

P.S. What if we try this outside the office in other areas of our lives? What difference would it make?

Happy Learning / Training / Facilitation / Living!

IAF Conference 2026 - Will you be there?

Cos

IAF Conferences are always on my radar.

Last year it was in Pune, now it's in Chennai.

See you there...  Looking forward to new relationships and rekindling old ones.

Never Grow Up Podcast - my views on Strengths, Performance and Culture

Happy to be invited to this podcast hosted by #nevergrowup where I shared my thoughts about #strengthsatwork #strengthsbased #performance #teamperformance #teameffectiveness and #culture, along with #recruiting people, and what GenZ can do about getting hired.

Do let me know what you think.

Happy Independence Day 2026

 To all my fellow Indians...

Make Anger Your Ally

So it's (Mon)day - EOD, and things haven't exactly gone your way. You feel perturbed, miffed, maybe aggravated (All of the above?). This matters more if you lead a team than if you are an individual contributor.

Here's a fascinating article on what you can do about the anger you feel at any time... make Anger your Ally. 

Read on... and share your thoughts about how you manage your #anger.

pexels-nicola-barts-7927261