CF CF Ethics & Professional Standards 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which behavior best demonstrates a facilitator operating within their professional competence boundaries?
- Declining to facilitate therapy-like trauma processing and referring to a professional (Correct answer)
- Handling all group issues regardless of complexity
- Using any method clients request without question
- Expanding scope mid-engagement without client agreement
Correct answer: Declining to facilitate therapy-like trauma processing and referring to a professional
Competent facilitators recognize the limits of facilitation and refer participants to appropriate professionals when needs exceed those limits.
Question 2: Informed consent in facilitation means participants:
- Understand the process, their role, and how their input will be used before engaging (Correct answer)
- Sign a legal waiver before the session
- Are told the expected outcome before the session begins
- Agree to abide by the facilitator's decisions
Correct answer: Understand the process, their role, and how their input will be used before engaging
Informed consent requires that participants have clear information about the process, their role, and data usage prior to participating.
Question 3: A facilitator discovers after a session that a participant was coerced by their manager to attend. Ethically, the facilitator should:
- Raise the issue with the sponsor and discuss how to address voluntary participation going forward (Correct answer)
- Ignore it since the session is already complete
- Contact the participant directly to apologize
- Refuse future work with the organization
Correct answer: Raise the issue with the sponsor and discuss how to address voluntary participation going forward
Voluntary participation is an ethical principle; discovering its violation requires the facilitator to address systemic issues with the sponsor.
Question 4: Which action would violate the IAF's principle of confidentiality?
- Posting specific participant quotes on social media without permission (Correct answer)
- Using anonymized examples in facilitator training
- Sharing general process observations in a published case study with client approval
- Discussing session logistics with a co-facilitator
Correct answer: Posting specific participant quotes on social media without permission
Publishing identifiable participant quotes without explicit consent is a direct breach of confidentiality.
Question 5: When a facilitator is asked to facilitate an outcome they believe is harmful to some stakeholders, the ethical course is to:
- Raise concerns with the client and, if unresolved, decline the engagement (Correct answer)
- Proceed neutrally since the facilitator is not responsible for outcomes
- Facilitate but document objections in writing
- Alert affected stakeholders outside the process
Correct answer: Raise concerns with the client and, if unresolved, decline the engagement
Facilitators have an ethical duty to raise concerns about potential harm and may decline work that conflicts with their professional values.
Question 6: The IAF Code of Ethics applies to which of the following situations?
- All professional facilitation engagements including pro-bono and internal facilitation (Correct answer)
- Only paid client engagements
- Only international or cross-cultural sessions
- Only sessions involving more than 20 participants
Correct answer: All professional facilitation engagements including pro-bono and internal facilitation
The IAF Code of Ethics applies universally to all professional facilitation practice, regardless of compensation or context.
CF CF Ethics & Professional Standards 2
Which behavior best demonstrates a facilitator operating within their professional competence boundaries?