FAQ’s

A current CLF®, CCF®, CSF™ or CAVF™ will receive credit for the 10 sessions submitted to certify, as long as the application for CMF® or CMLF™ is submitted within the required time frame.

Facilitators who have received the Certified Professional Facilitator™ designation from the International Association of Facilitators receive credit for 10 sessions for CMF® and 7 sessions for CCF®.

The experience requirement can be met based on sessions completed over the three-year period immediately preceding the date of your application.

If more than 50% of the attendees are not in the same room as the facilitator, the location listed on the application should indicate “Virtual”.

Virtual sessions will be considered for those applying for CMF®, CCF®, CSF™, CMLF™, CLF® and CAVF™. Only 15 of the required 30 sessions submitted by the candidate may be virtual. If applying for CCF®, CSF™, or CLF® 4 of the required 7 sessions may be virtual.  For CAVF™ applications, ALL of the sessions are required to be virtual.

A virtual session is defined as:

• Involving at least 5 people in addition to the facilitator.
• Including both audio AND video, in which all participants are observable for the full length of the video session.

Virtual sessions must meet all other requirements of a “distinct” facilitated session

Primary Facilitator

• A primary facilitator leads 100% of the discussions/dialog with the client and contributes 100% to the design of the session.
• The primary facilitator leads the group for 100% of the facilitated sections of the submitted sessions.
• Session must meet the definition of “distinct.”

Primary Facilitator with Multiple Facilitators

In cases of multiple facilitators in a session, the candidate would be considered the "primary" facilitator if:

• The candidate is leading the group for 50% or more of the facilitated sections of the session.
• If there are more than two facilitators, the requirement is that 40% or more of the facilitated sections of the session must be facilitated by the candidate.
• The candidate leads the discussions/dialogue with the client and contributes 50% or more to the design of the session.
• The session must meet the definition of “distinct.”

A maximum of 10 co-facilitated sessions of the required 30 sessions is allowed for evaluation purposes.

Efforts have been made to provide parameters to consistently define whether a session should qualify as one session or multiple sessions. Though the parameters may appear arbitrary, an attempt has been made to establish criteria that in the typical case would define “distinct” sessions.

A distinct facilitated session must meet the following five criteria:

• last at least 90 minutes and
• include a minimum of five participants, not counting the facilitator and
• result in a shared deliverable (e.g., action list, decision, priorities, next steps) created by participants through collaborative interaction and
• involve the participants speaking at least 2/3rds of the time and
• involve the facilitator leading the session by guiding participants through each agenda item.

Example:  a session with three people or a session lasting one hour would not be considered distinct facilitated sessions for the purposes of this certification process.

Training class

The typical presentation or training class would NOT be considered a distinct facilitated session because the participants generally speak less than 2/3rds of the time, and the participants generally don’t create a shared product as a result of the session.

One session - multiple days

A session with essentially the same participants over multiple days would be considered a single session, unless there is at least a 24-hour break between the end of one session and the start of another. 

Example:  a session from 8:30 to 5:30, three days in a row would be considered one distinct facilitated session.  A session every Monday 8:30 to 5:30 for 3 weeks would be considered three distinct sessions.

Multiple sessions - on the same day

Multiple sessions on the same day – with similar or different agendas - would be considered a single session unless the new attendees in the subsequent session made up at least 50% of the audience. 

Example:  a session in the morning with 7 managers, followed by a session in the afternoon which included the 7 managers, and 3 employees (30% new) would be considered one distinct session.  However, if the second session had the 7 managers and 13 employees (65% new), it would be considered a second distinct session.

Project Sponsor

A project sponsor is defined as the person of highest authority responsible for the outcome of the session.

• To achieve 10 different project sponsors, you must count only one sponsor per session.
• Project sponsors who are no longer with their organization can still be indicated if current contact information is provided.
• If the project sponsor cannot be located, a different contact name can be provided if that person (a) was a participant in the session or (b) is currently with the sponsoring organization and is knowledgeable about the session.

Organization

An organization is defined as a distinct legal entity. Facilitating sessions with five different departments or divisions of the same corporation would count as only one organization but would satisfy the requirement for “five different departments within one or more organizations.”

At the federal government level, each agency can be considered a distinct legal entity.

The mission of the International Institute for Facilitation is to advance mastery in facilitation that helps individuals, groups and organizations around the world achieve collaborative results.

We offer support to Fortune 500 companies, government organizations, nonprofits and others with our Partners in Facilitator Development program, which certifies internal facilitators at the highest level.

The Find a Facilitator section of our site allows anyone to search for and find all levels of our certified facilitators across the globe.