The Traps Facilitators Fall Into: The State of Facilitation 2026

Every year, SessionLab publishes insights and information about what is changing in the world of facilitation and workshop design. Their latest report found some stark gaps in how many facilitators approach their work. 

• Facilitators tend to focus on performance, not impact. 

• Fewer than half of facilitators assess their own work for the purpose of improving their own performance. 

• Fewer than 1 in 3 facilitators define outcomes. 

• Fewer than half of facilitators follow up with their clients after the workshop. 

• Newer facilitators especially don’t tend to follow up with clients. 

What are YOU doing to avoid these traps?

Challenge your Assumptions

Last week, I was teaching a workshop, and I used the word “tem” as a verb to mean “discuss something to an excessive level of detail.” A couple of the participants looked confused, and another helpfully shared that “tem” is actually an acronym for “technical exchange meeting,” common in the federal engineering space where deep experts talk at length about the technical details of an issue. 

I had no idea that “tem” was an acronym. I had always just heard in the context that I had used it: discussing something past the point of diminishing return. As in, “We don’t need to tem this,” or, “I think we’re temming. Let’s move on.” 

It was a piece of jargon and inspeak that I had no idea was jargon or inspeak. I had been in or around engineering discussions in the federal government for the last twenty years, and to me, “tem” was just a word everybody used. 

It was a good reminder: be aware of the assumptions and biases you’re bringing to the table. Like that joke about the old fish who swims past two younger fish and says, “Morning, fellas. How’s the water today?” And after the old fish swims off, one of the other fish turns to his buddy and says, “What the hell’s water?”