ABOUT THIS EPISODE
In this episode Helene talks to Andrew Spiteri, Regional Director of the IAF Europe and Middle East Region.
Andrew tells Helene about himself as a facilitator, the kind of work he does and his background with IAF.
He became regional director at the start of the year and shares a bit about the work he has been involved in so far, his roles and responsibilities as director, and what he would like to see in future for the region and beyond.
He tells us about the regional conference in Romania in November 2025 and about what he most loves about facilitation.
You can contact Andrew at: rep.europe@iaf-world.org
And Helene at helene@jewellfacilitation.com
To contact the podcast team: podcast@iaf-englandwales.org
Transcript
H.J
Hello and welcome to Facilitation Stories, the community podcasts brought to you by the England and Wales chapter of the International Association of Facilitators, also known as IAF. I'm Helene Jewell, and this episode is one of our quarterly chapter chats, where we talk to people leading other chapters in the IAF global community. We ask them how they see the status of facilitation where they are, and the history priorities, current projects and aspirations for their chapter. My guest today is Andrew Spiteri, IAF endorsed facilitator, consultant and elected Regional Director for the Europe and Middle East, EME region of the IAF for 2025-26. Andrew accompanies diverse groups, associations, entities, NGOs and also faith based organizations, and also often works in international settings, helping groups in collaboratively formulating vision, strategy and action planning activities. Andrew comes from Malta, is a resident in Brussels, and is in Italy for long stretches during the year. Welcome Andrew.
A.S
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
H.J
Every time I speak to you, you're globe trotting somewhere.
A.S
That's right. Yeah, that's right.
H.J
So tell us a little bit about you as a facilitator, and the kind of work that you do?
A.S
That's, it's always difficult because to start, because it's, it's so fascinating facilitation. And I think I was doing facilitation for many years without actually knowing it was facilitation. So I love to help groups work together, and what I really love is to give space to each and every person, because to manage to help that everyone contributes. Because I really believe everyone, even those who are apparently not well prepared, well suited or appear to be like a lot of the time. But I think everyone has a gift to gift and facing that challenge of helping take away all what, what blocks this, this, this participation, and creating climate where people can collaborate is really something I love, and so that's what I try to do in my facilitation. I work a lot with groups, associations, sometimes even with companies, but I would prefer normally NGOs or even associations, which could be very small or very big, international, with all the challenges of culture differences and cultural differences and even age differences. So, yeah, that's a bit what I'd like to do, and what I do usually.
H.J
Brilliant. And I think that thing about doing facilitation, before you know, it's called facilitation, is definitely a common theme, certainly, I think, back on all the podcasts we've recorded, and I think that's one thing that comes out in nearly all of them, fascinating. Okay, and so very international. What language do you facilitate in? Mostly, is it English?
A.S
Yeah, basically it's English. Not only, I know English, Italian, Maltese, evidently. So sometimes I do it in Italian. It depends on the group. I've just come from, Vienna. I had five sessions, very intense, and basically they were all in English. I had simultaneous translation in German. Most Viennese understand very well, and even speak English quite well. So it depends on the context, on the place, on the client, let's say, on how you organize. Yeah.
H.J
Wow. Sounds like you have a very diverse practice, which must be completely fascinating.
A.S
I remember once I was, like, two years ago, I was in Poland, and so this organization, sort of, they were, they knew a lot of Italian more than English. So I had two headphones, sort of from one headphone I would speak, a headphone with a microphone, and I would speak in English, sorry, in Italian. And they would they would hear me and translate in Polish. And from the other headphone, I would hear what the other people were saying in Polish translated into Italian. So it was like good, yeah.
H.J
Wow, that's the ultimate in a simultaneous translation. Blimey. Okay, so I should add multi-talented linguist to your list of skills, by the sounds of things. So I'd like to know a bit more about you know IAF and I know you've been involved for quite a while, so when did you become a member of IAF?
A.S
So that, yeah, yeah, it will go back to what you were saying before that for many years, or for many for some time, most of us actually don't know we're doing facilitation. Probably it's because facilitation is so new and even so not known so much. So I found myself in Italy for a long time helping organize big events, but not just the logistical part, but especially the content part, not the content in the sense of Creating Content content, but in helping like the group using their content to work together. And I was continually searching for, I was sure there was some sort of thing, some organization, some shared knowledge on this. And then when, finally, in 2018 I moved to Brussels, I got to know about the IAF Belgian chapter, and I was really excited. They have, they have, and it's still ongoing, a monthly meetup in Belgium. And it's, uh, being so particular in Belgium because, especially Brussels, because it's a real international city, because of all the institutions, NATO and the EU and 10s of 1000s of people who basically speak English as a common language. So the IAF chapter does all its things in English. And I started frequenting that. And I remember I never missed a meeting. It was like so important. And then in 2019 there was the Milan Conference. And so it was set then from then onwards, I nearly immediately became a member and and prompted onwards. It's history. It's sort of, it went on now.
H.J
Once you start finding out about all these things that go on within IAF and the wider community, you sort of slowly become more and more involved. Nice. And I realize, although I'm going to ask you in a bit about your role as regional director, I'm not actually sure, are you part of a particular chapter, given that you sort of, you're a little bit of a nomad. You move around quite a lot.
A.S
Yeah, actually, I still am part of the Belgian chapter. Actually, I got elected together with others on the IAF the Belgium board, so I'm a member in absentia, because, I mean, I know they meet regularly. I don't have lots of time, but I do give them all the support needed, like all the others, actually, but I have a soft spot for Belgium, I must confess, evidently, yeah, so, so that's, that's what I do.
H.J
Great. So officially, part of IAF Belgium. And what kinds of things have you been involved with? So obviously, you've been going, you know, you started going to the meetups in Belgium, and it sounds like you went to the Milan Conference. What else have you been involved in, either as a participant or part of organizing?
A.S
So, so yeah, these official meetings. I mean, the Belgian reality is quite interesting, because the meetups are like, there are two or three different types. Like the basic is where there is someone who specialized in some methodology or something he's been doing, or she's been doing for many years, and they hold a session where they share all their knowledge. And another type of session would be where there's someone who's learning, maybe a new method, and would create a safe space, where they use us as guinea pigs, sort of and, and then at the end there's also, there's always a debrief. And then the in both of these, it's so interesting, because you get to widen your knowledge of how to help groups with facilitation, yeah. Another point I forgot to mention, in my activities, I am finding myself staying quiet for long stretches in Italy, because most, some, most of my clients, are in Italy, actually. And the Italian chapter, I'm very much in contact with them. I know them, most of them, personally. They've just had this Friday and Saturday, their annual conference. It was a real big success. I had a work in Vienna, so I couldn't go there. But last year I went. It's always a really interesting event. So they don't hold monthly meetings. But for example, I got to know there is a group in Padova, in Padua, which meets every two months. They call it Facilitator Playground for one morning, and they do many the same as we do in Belgium. So every time I can, I go up and stay with them and support them, participate. So yeah, it's giving this back up is really essential. Because in these meetings, you find big community building between facilitators. You find a pool of learning with shared knowledge between facilitators and you and encourage each other, you get to know, maybe you get to know, people with whom you could actually work later on. But on the whole, you become friends with others, and I think that's a real big it's something. It's not nothing. It's a when we help each other, and you get to know differences, which can become a gift, because you widen your your personality, your knowledge, your approach to things, yeah.
H.J
Yeah I really love that about the IAF and just the sort of wider community as well, hanging out with other people that really love to talk about facilitation and, and all its kind of broad, you know, broad aspects, different aspects of it, and, and, yeah, you're right. You sort of, you do start to make friends and start to build up those relationships, and it's really nice. And I think, well, I guess for you, particularly, working across different countries, actually, you get to sort of have a foot in a couple of different camps, which must be nice, so true. And I really like the idea of the I think I've heard them called, like, Facilitation Labs, that kind of thing, where you talked about, with Belgium, you bring a sort of something to try out with the group. That sounds really interesting as well.
A.S
It's because we're all in different phases of our professional life. There are those who maybe are already quite expert in some some methodologies, and have had many experiences, you know? I mean, one thing which really strikes me about facilitation is that often we describe it as an art and a science. And I think with these things, we do exactly that, and we learn that. So science is quite precise, and you need to get to know precise things. And there are aspects of facilitation which are very functional, very specific. But it's also an art, and an art you cannot foresee it. You you do it only by experience. You can learn by experience because you never, you cannot say, okay, there will be 10 people, and I will do this, this and that. There are always so many variables and unforeseen things. And how do you respond to that? So experience helps, sharing experience helps as well, and training in this thing is really important,
H.J
Definitely. I think that's one of the things I love about it. You're never quite sure what's going to happen, and I know that terrifies some people. Okay, so I want to ask you now a bit more about your, the fact you are the director of the Europe and Middle East region, and I think you started, or you stepped into that role at the beginning of the year. I just wanted to know what, what that entails, what are your main responsibilities?
A.S
Okay, I'm still trying to find out. I mean, we're still in the end of March, so just the first quarter. First thing, I'm still alive, so that's quite something. I find there are two faces of this responsibility, of the service. So one aspect is like the grassroots, sort of helping all those facilitators in our region in any way possible where they need help, evidently, but help is such a big word, and it has so many different possibilities and connotations, so this would be one aspect. And the other aspect is representing all these facilitators in our region with their wide diversity, I think we're one of the, not the, but definitely one of the most diverse regions and all of IAF and so representing them on the wider world context, where we meet as a board, as a global board where we set directions for IAF globally. And in this sense, bringing this specific characteristic, which is ours as a gift to the rest of IAF, and also learning and and receiving the gift of the others and their cultures, their ways of approaching things, and sharing and and, and trying to bridge that with IAF regionally. I think it's, it's a very interesting experience. Yeah, these two aspects.
H.J
And quite challenging, probably as well. Because, I guess when I think about it, we are a very diverse region. I mean, you know, Europe and Middle East in itself is a mixture of quite a lot of different countries and cultures. So that must have a few challenges as well, I presume?
A.S
Oh, definitely, definitely yeah. For example, soon we're going to have Facilitation week now, and evidently, finding a slot during the year where that could be ideal is not, is not so simple, because we have so different, how do you say, cycles, different cultures and then the holidays and weathers and things which are which characterize then our actions and and how we organize ourselves as societies. And for example, in Europe, or if you say we're going to hold something in August, people would say, Oh, forget it. I mean, it's a non-starter, but if you do that in India, it could be probably quite good, or in other parts of the world. So when we meet as globally, like even when we meet regionally, actually, we're really challenged to live by what we preach and be good facilitators so that we find consensus and try to understand better what is the best solution by hearing each other well.
H.J
Yeah that's really interesting, sort of practicing what we preach, I suppose, and living that experience of being part of that sort of quite diverse group, and perhaps that helps us think about, you know, groups that we're actually working with, hadn't thought of it like that. So it's March, and you've only just really started the role. Is there anything particularly significant that you've been involved in so far, or is it still very much Finding your Feet?
A.S
No, definitely. One very significant and very important thing which I've been involved in is the annual face to face board meeting which the global board does. So we usually meet on Zoom. Previously, it was once a month. Now we've decided to do that once every quarter, and there are other meetings as well. So it's not that just once every quarter, for example, very soon we'll have this, we call it The Big We, where we as a global board, meet with many other people who are normally quite involved at a local level in bringing about and helping facilitation worldwide. So it's not just four times a year we meet. But usually all these meetings are on Zoom. So having a global face to face meeting is so important because, evidently, meeting face to face, it has its own characteristics. You cannot equate it to a Zoom meeting. Both are good, but they have differences. And so it's so nice to actually physically meet those people with whom you work with and get to know them. Get to know them much closer. Get to know what they like, how they go about, what are their characteristics, what they like, what are their challenges and together, maybe find out how we can dialogue and bring about, help each other in those challenges. Yeah, it was, we've just had this three weeks ago in Lisbon for basically three days, and it was so enriching. So personally and even as a group, I would believe, from what I heard afterwards, very, very enriching.
H.J
And that's the global board, and so presumably attended by regional directors from other regions as well. Who was there?
A.S
Yeah, definitely. So we had one type of member would be the regional director. So apart from myself from Europe and Middle East, there was one from Asia, who's actually from India right now, but it's such an enormous region, and actually we dream of eventually trying to find a solution, like creating more regions out of that region, because it's like half of the world. But anyway, myself and the Asian representative, a representative from Oceania, a representative from Africa, Central and South America, and then the North America. And then, apart from these regional directors, there was the executive committee. So that would be the chair, and the Vice Chair, where the Vice Chair actually is currently, is our ex Regional Director, Tamara, most of you know her. We had a representation of the executive administration, because we're based right now in Canada as an office. And then we had some directors for specific competencies, like, for example, we have one for learning and all the certifications, one for big events and activities, one for communications and one for member experience. So, so we're, we're quite, quite a group, and but it's, it's really interesting, because you learn a lot from each other.
H.J
Yeah, and it's really, really good to kind of hear or get a bit of a flavor of what that global boards and what IAF at a global level actually looks a bit more like as well, because obviously we perhaps focus on our chapters or even our region, but we are part of that much larger organization as well. So aside from that place in the global board, we also, and I say we because I am also on the Europe and Middle East leadership team. We had a face to face get together in Istanbul in November, didn't we? And that was us creating an action plan. So I guess that's the sort of, perhaps other side, or one of the other sides of your role is leading the leadership team.
A.S
Yeah, and that's, that's very nice, because we as a region are organized with this. So normally we're organized at chapter level. So in a nation or a space, a geographical area, 5-10 members put themselves together and create a chapter, and they help each other. They do some training activities, some social activities, some learning activities, as I was saying. And normally, we meet regularly, once a month, with all the chapter leads from all the region. And it's very enriching. Some can come, sometimes some can come another time, but it's always really enriching. Now to help these persons, to help all our members, we created some years ago, a leadership team, sort of some members who have experience and who can help the regional director. So with the regional director, there is this team, and my experience before and even now, is that we really work together and try to find out solutions, try to understand what's happening where there is necessity of health, and how to promote as much as possible, even outside the the idea of of the practice of facilitation. So like two things, helping those who are already members, and helping spread the notion, the idea of facilitation.
H.J
It's a really nice group to be part of as well. For me, who tends to mostly stay in the UK, it's nice to be part of such an international group. And I'm surprised you have time to do any work.
A.S
Even I
H.J
So thinking, thinking forwards about, you know, your next couple of years as regional director, what are you looking forward to, either personally or for the region?
A.S
Well, definitely for the region, I'm really passionate about trying to help as much as I can. And as much as we can, because I think here I can speak for all the team, and I think we are really helping each other in the sense we really want to do those two functions I was mentioning before. Like trying to help facilitators in all the region and growing them as well, because we know that if people join IAF, then they can help the local, the local and the global community with what they bring inside and learn and from an international experience, all the knowledge which there is to learn and take, to apply to your work, to your situation. So it's always a two way exchange. So one, really, one big thing I wish is to help as much with with the team, with the leadership team, to help as much as possible this aspect of our members. We I don't know you are going to ask this later on, but I can already say it, we're like 600 roughly, IAF members in our region, which makes us quite one of the big, big regional groupings, very varied. And we have, I don't remember well, but at least 40 different languages across our regions, and I don't know how many time zones we have. So there's a very big different culture and social situations, but with some very common trends, like, because human interactions are, in some ways, are always the necessity to help people listen to each other, to create space for the other, to appreciate differences, to work at solutions and where people can feel comfortable with them and fully represented. These are common trends which and necessities which cut across all the region and probably all across the world. So we have a lot of things to learn from each other, and even how we face them, what solutions we bring, even sharing those is already very enriching.
H.J
And that is so true, isn't it? We do think about that diversity, because it's quite obvious, I suppose, as you say, there's 40 different languages. I had no idea there were that many languages, and all the different members and different cultures and time zones, et cetera. But actually, there is so much that brings us together, and so many commonalities as well. And I guess when you get together, you meet those people, whether it's online or, you know, in real life. You sort of notice more I suppose, you start to talk about those things and what brings us together and what binds us as a community I guess.
A.S
Yeah, so true.
H.J
The other thing I wanted to ask you about is your hopes, anything else in terms of your, what you'd like to see?
A.S
Yeah, so I'd love to see facilitation getting a wider spotlight on it. From a social point of view, culture point of view, I think we're very young. 30 years is just a few three decades so, but we have lots of responsibilities, because I think many social problems, many work problems in other organizations, could really benefit from our help and from the way we can contribute to better understandings between persons, to better work between persons within organizations, any type of organizations, better understand reception of gifts and sharings between each other more well, all these things, I think, could be put on spot a bigger spotlight. What is the contribution of process? How can a process help us be better? Or I would word it in this way, processes have proven to help us be better, to be more functional, to arrive at better, more solid solutions. So why don't we learn from these? Why don't we learn from Why don't we put that on a spotlight? and all that is necessary to make those processes happen, like the ground rules most people like, forget that we need to be prepared for a process. They imagine that it's a machine. You press the button and out comes the coffee. But like, so all this, my great desire, my great dream, would be that this gets more appreciated, gets more talked about. People desire it, understand it. Understand this necessity, and we grow our membership so as to give an answer to this necessity.
H.J
I hadn't really, I mean, it's, it's, we all know that facilitation is not that well understood, I suppose. So I think, yes, shining a spotlight is so important. But I hadn't really thought about the fact it's young or that 30 years, three decades, is young, I suppose, compared to lots of other occupations, that was something that hadn't really occurred to me. So it's interesting hearing you describe it as that. I wanted to ask you about something specific, and that is the regional conference I believe we have at the end of this year. I know it's still in its infancy a little bit, but could you share a little bit with us about the conference?
A.S
Yeah, definitely. I mean, the concept of a regional conference is very important for us. Conferences by chapters are so good, I think. As I was saying, just a few minutes before, the Italians have just finished theirs. It's always a big success, more than 100,120, 150 people passed by. It's something which really invigorates the community, gets people to get to know about facilitation. It puts facilitation in a spotlight in that region, in that area, in this country, in the chapter. So it's always a big thing done already in a Chapter wise. I remember I personally helped organize, together with Marie from Belgium and we were in three working on this project. And we did a very small but in, it was the first time, Forum we called it in Belgium, and I think it was so important because we kick started a process. So now talking about a regional conference, it is definitely more challenging, because we, you open up, you expect more people. But it is also more, it produces, it can give more because it can help even in this wider beyond regional confines exchange and putting a bigger spotlight on facilitation. So this year, this coming year, we've had our colleagues from Romania who have been so great. The Romanian chapter right now is doing a golden moment. They have got many, many members, increasing every, every day, basically. So and they're really enthusiastic, even though it is a big challenge, but they decided to go in for it. So they're talking about something around the first weekend of November, if I'm not wrong, the dates are being confirmed in these days, but we're definitely talking about November in Romania, and it's a it's the main topic will be about facilitation, and in a wider sense, what use it has, Why, how it can be used, and what benefits it gets to both to those who need it and also to those who are participating. So yeah, and we're really enthusiastic. There is this team. We met them recently, their young team, working with great enthusiasm. And I think it's going to be a very nice event.
H.J
Yeah, I'm quite excited about it, and I know from having spoken, we did a chapter chat with Bob Dan a little while ago, and obviously I've spoken to him a few times, and I know he just kind of exudes enthusiasm. So I'm hoping it's going to be a very exciting conference.
A.S
Yeah, I remember in a very small experience, the local one I was mentioning before, in Belgium, with Marie and Laura. It was such an invigorating experience. And we had like people who were in Consultancy or a facilitation for 20 years and even more. And then we had these young professionals, maybe working with a big accountancy firm, but doing like serving small or medium sized companies who were really keen to know about the principles of facilitation, because they really needed to put them in practice. And when you put these people together, and everyone is learning from each other, and everyone is practicing, and we did this in a small scale, in Belgium, you can imagine what happens when you do it on a regional level.
H.J
Yeah, sounds fascinating. And, you know, quite fantastic to think about all those different people coming together. And of course, we have our conference coming up next month as well, the England and Wales conference.
A.S
I'm coming
H.J
Yay. I was gonna say that's exciting enough, but it sounds like actually, we have got a few people coming from outside the UK, which always makes it really exciting. So I look forward to seeing you there.
A.S
I will, and even me. I look forward to seeing you there and all the others.
H.J
Fantastic. So just one last question to wrap up this podcast. What is one thing that you most love about facilitation?
A.S
Oh, this is, I love this question, because I think it's a bit what we started off with. I love it when I see people fulfilled, because they have managed to work together well, not withstanding the challenges. Probably they would have started thinking at the beginning that they would not have achieved anything with the type of people there with, they were going to work with. And I really love it when you see the expression of their faces and the way they're speaking at the end of the facilitation, and you see that something has happened. We don't know exactly what, but yeah, there are concrete things which have come out, but something more profound in every person has happened. They've become friends, they've become but it's beyond that. They've, something happened which we are in a difficulty, actually, to formulate well, but that type of reaction, I really love it, and I think it's one of the things which really I like about facilitation.
H.J
Brilliant. Thank you so much for sharing that. So we are going to draw the podcast to a close. Thank you so much, Andrew, for joining me.
A.S
Helene, thanks. It's been a real pleasure.
H.J
It's been lovely to talk to you. I just wanted to quickly ask how people could get in touch with you if they want to? Do you have an email address that you could share?
A.S
The official email address is rep.europe@IAF-world.org
H.J
Brilliant. Thank you very much, and we will put that in the show notes as well. Thank you very much.
A.S
Thank you and all the best for all the listeners. And thank you as well for doing all this.
Outro
H.J
So listeners, we've reached the end of another episode of facilitation stories, the community podcast of IAF England and Wales.
N.W
If you'd like to find out more about the IAF and how to get involved all of the links on our website facilitationstories.com
H.J
To make sure you never miss an episode, why not subscribe to the show on whatever podcast app you use.
N.W
We're always on the lookout for new episode ideas. So is there a fabulous facilitator you think we should talk to?
H.J
Or something interesting emerging in the world of facilitation you think listeners need to hear about?
N.W
Then send us an email at podcast@IAF-EnglandWales.org
H.J
We hope you'll join us again soon for more facilitation stories.
N.W
Until then, thank you for listening.
