Stephen Thorpe

Stephen Thorpe is a facilitator specialising in the online domain and trains others in online facilitation. Working with Zenergy, he has been researching ways to enhance the effectiveness of online groups. His PhD explores facilitation as a vital domain in assisting online groups with a focus on the benefit of story and narrative in online relationship development.

Stephen is the Secretary of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) and the Editor-in-Chief of the IAF’s Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal. He is on the Advisory Panel of of the Global Facilitators Service Corps (GFSC), Heart Politics, The New Zealand Computer Society, Toastmasters (District 72: Club 7686) and the Participation Community of Practice - part of New Zealand's E-government Strategy.

Stephen holds a Zenergy Diploma of Facilitation and a Bachelor of Business with first class honours from Auckland University of Technology (AUT) where he has a background researching computer-assisted group work. He was part of a team who researched, developed and commercialised a multi-site large interactive digital whiteboard. Stephen has also managed projects developing online and cd-rom based tutorials for systems modeling. He is a part-time lecturer at AUT teaching on the Human Computer Interaction paper in theBachelor of Business degree.

Stephen has recently written a chapters on The Use of Storytelling in Building Online Group Relationships in the Handbook of Research on Computer Mediated Comminication, and a chapter entitled Facilitation Online in The Art of Facilitation and has previously co-written a chapter on Facilitator Values and Ethics in the IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation with Dr. Dale Hunter.

The Short Story

My first encounter with the online group dynamics was in 1999 when I was studying Intelligent Business Systems at the Auckland University of Technology (NZ). One of our class projects was to work online in a small team with three other students at the University of Uppsala in Sweden using a Lotus notes based system. We had fights and flaming and fun and drama - I was hooked!

The following semester one of my professors kept trying to get me to join his research lab that was starting up. I wasn't really that keen on turning my online fun into serious work, but after being conned into going to several meetings I figured they might as well start paying me! I worked on a range of projects setting up systems usability testing and researching, developing and commercialising a multi-site large interactive digital whiteboard. I also went on and managed projects for the lab developing online and CD-ROM based tutorials for systems modeling.

While I was studying I started part-time teaching in 2000 on user centered design at AUT and became more and more interested in the skills and practice of usability and group facilitation. Particularly its potential with online systems and online learning. I was really grateful later that year to get the opportunity to present some of my own research at the National Federal Council in the United Arab Emirates at the E-ducation Without Borders Conference - what a blast!

Shortly after I joined the team at Zenergy to learn more about group facilitation. I completed the Zenergy Diploma of Facilitation, joined the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) and started attending and presenting at facilitator conferences. I became involved in the IAF Ethics and Values Think Tank - a group of about 80 facilitators around the world who joined together over two years to develop a Code of Ethics for Facilitators. I also became an Associate Editor of the IAF's Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal.

After meeting Dr. Gil Brenson-Lazan when he visited for the Australasian Facilitators Network Conference in 2004, I became involved with Global Facilitators Service Corps (GFSC) and helped with early online tools research and testing for the global virtual organisation.

More recently I've been engaged in completing my PhD exploring the benefits of storytelling in the development of relationships in online groups. The study involved a co-operative inquiry with a group of 18 facilitators from 7 countries across 12 time zones. Shortly I will upload a summary paper to share some of my key findings.

And most recently I lead the Zenergy Online Facilitation Skills programme Mar-June this year. It's a great programme based on using the Zenergy facilitation framework. Over the programme participants explore facilitation using email, forum, blogging, audio and video conferencing and in Second life. Click here for details on the next programme.

Stephen