Convergent Facilitation can bring about dramatic and breakthrough shifts in groups, even when they have been stuck for a long time.

A group comprised of Minnesota legislators, lobbyists, lawyers, advocacy groups, judges, and child development experts. The issue they were facing was child custody legislation. They were about as divided on the issue as any group could be. So much so that it took a major effort to get them all to agree to be in the same room together. Two years later, the group approved unanimously, sixteen different changes to their state’s legal system that they all thought were an improvement on what previously existed.

Parents, staff and board of Amares, a successful preschool in Cologne, Germany, changed the organisation’s legal structures, while maintaining the integrity of its values and pedagogical approach, involving parents as much as they wish and as little as is necessary, reducing costs for all families and making it more accessible for families on lower income.

In just three days, a team of Convergent Facilitators helped transform a situation among groups of people working on this issue, at loggerheads with each other for decades. In this video, Neil Howard shares with Lisa Rothman about what happened during and after their gathering in Florence.

Convergent Facilitator and Nonviolent Communication (NVC) Certified Trainer Aya Caspi used the Convergent Facilitation process at Ghidotti High School in California to change their tardiness policy into one that reflects care for everyone affected by it. Tardiness rates in the school decreased significantly. The first video is an excerpt of a longer video below which provides additional context about NVC – the foundation for Convergent Facilitation.