Nadia and I recently gave a training course on (online) facilitation to a networked organisation operating in the water sector. The training itself was really interesting as an experience, to the participants, but also definitely to us both. Every group is different and the pacing, content, facilitation, engagement always works slightly differently with any new group or setting.
As we went through four different sessions addressing ‘facilitation basics’, ‘group dynamics 101’, ‘participation formats and structures’ and ‘collective decision-making’, we had fascinating conversations with the contributors (as Nadia rightly insists we should call ‘participants’).
Many questions that emerged are facilitation evergreens, the same issues that keep reappearing:
- What is facilitation?
- What are the trademarks of a good facilitator?
- Should a facilitator be neutral or not, and knowledgeable with the topic or not?
- How do you build and cultivate engagement?
- Why bring in a facilitator?
- What does it mean, in the room/zoom, to be the facilitator?
- How to apply your facilitation skills with confidence, in the face of power, cynicism, your own inexperience etc.?
- etc….
We addressed these questions in the sessions, but usually time was short for a fuller conversation (the training consisted of four sessions of 1.5h so it was a very light training, more like an introduction).
And so the idea came to us to address these questions in our own way. In so doing this ‘Facilitators Unplugged‘ conversation came off the ground… Our own private corner to have an off-the-record, heart-to-heart and reflexive conversation between two friends that happen to love their facilitative practice and experiences with many groups.
Our conversation was fun, easy, relaxing and interesting. And it was also helpful for us (to clarify our thoughts and pick each other’s brain), for the contributors of our recent training, and hopefully for quite a few other people. Including you, reading this blog. Knowledge SHARING is power, as testified by this quote:
“The traditional assumption that ‘knowledge is power’ and is used for personal gain is being subsumed by the notion that knowledge is an expression of the shared responsibilities for the collective well-being of humanity and the planet as a whole.”
Jeremy Rifkin
So here’s this video conversation, with the timeline of our questions to ourselves and each other, in the first comment…
…and this might indeed be just the dawn of more such conversations among us. Because it was too enjoyable to not do it again.
Let us know what you think – whether it’s worth another episode or we should call it a nice experiment 😉
agilefacil 
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