How transformation involves a process of letting go

New Discussion Paper „Facilitation as composting the self“

By Thomas Bruhn and Amit Paul

What does it really take to facilitate transformative processes? In many contexts, facilitation is still understood as a set of methods: tools to structure conversations, techniques to guide groups, or formats to achieve predefined outcomes. These approaches are valuable. At the same time, they often leave something essential unaddressed.

In our recent RIFS Discussion Paper, Facilitation as composting the self, we explore a different perspective: facilitation not as a method, but as a relational and existential practice.

Moving beyond methods

When working in complex and transformative contexts, facilitation is never simply applied to a group. It unfolds within a relational field—a dynamic space shaped by the interactions, tensions, and presences of everyone involved.
This includes the facilitator.

We cannot step outside the process we are guiding. Our presence, our assumptions, our intentions, all of these shape what becomes possible in a given space. Facilitation, in this sense, is less about controlling a process and more about participating in its unfolding. Facilitation becomes a practice of enabling and serving the emerging aliveness of a field, in which the facilitator is embedded.

If facilitation is relational, then the question shifts: What is the inner posture from which we facilitate? Our work points to a set of often underexplored dimensions:

• the willingness to stay with tension rather than resolving it too quickly
• the capacity to sense and articulate what is present but not yet spoken
• the ability to navigate power, projection, and expectation, both in the group and within oneself
• and ultimately, the readiness to be affected and changed by and through the process itself.

These are not techniques. They are conditions of practice.

Composting the self

We use the metaphor of composting the self to describe what this kind of facilitation asks of us. To compost means to allow something to decompose so that new life can emerge. Applied to facilitation, it points to a willingness to let go of:

• control
• a fixed sense of identity
• attachment to specific outcomes
• the need to “be the one who knows”.

This is not about becoming passive or invisible. On the contrary, it requires deep presence and responsibility. At the same time, it also asks for the ability to step back when the space becomes capable of holding itself. In that moment, facilitation has done its work.

An invitation

The Discussion Paper does not offer a theoretical analysis, a conceptual model or a set of prescriptions. It is written as a practice-based reflection, an invitation to engage with facilitation in a different way.

Rather than asking “Do I agree?” or “Does this answer my question?”, we invite readers to ask:

• What does this evoke in my own practice?
• Where does it resonate or challenge me?
• What does it reveal about how I show up in transformative spaces?

The paper speaks to ongoing debates in transdisciplinary and transformative research about process knowledge and particularly the role of facilitation and the facilitator. It highlights that the effectiveness of collaborative processes cannot be reduced to methods or design alone, but is deeply shaped by the relational conditions in which they unfold. By bringing attention to the facilitator’s role within these dynamics, the paper contributes to a growing understanding of transformation as something that emerges through relationships rather than being engineered through tools.

Read the full paper

• Paul, A., & Bruhn, T. (2026). Facilitation as composting the self: A practice of dying into the emerging aliveness. RIFS Discussion Paper, April 2026. 10.48481/rifs.2026.007