End of the year
Moment of peaceLook forward and rear
To challenge and bliss
Yes, the end of the year always offers a prime opportunity to take a meta step back and reflect critically and self-lovingly at what has emerged in a year of work and connections of all kinds.
In this post I want to look back at all the posts I published on this blog in 2023 and at some of the defining moments in my practice.
A year of connections
This year I’ve been even more actively seeking contact with my friends, peers, mentors, clicks. It’s been so enriching and rewarding to connect in mind and heart with all of you beautiful people, and also to connect you with each other, as is the case with e.g. Convene becoming a hub of some of my favourite human beings.
From getting to know each other (most recently Adriana, Theresa and Lucy) to reconnecting (with Carlos, Ben, Aryanti and Nur), doing business together (with Marc, Jeremy, Myriam), working in parallel with each other (with my fellow Linda Howard), sharing anecdotes, tips, dreams, it’s been one of the things that has kept me sane!
And of course, throughout the entire year, I’ve deepened my amazing connection with Nadia who has been such a wonderful partner in the many adventures that have taken us. And with Amanda too! We finally got to properly work together on various projects including an ambitious proposal we submitted a couple of weeks back!
And I’m not mentioning the many many many more people that I’ve had the grace and pleasure to chat with throughout 2023!
I hope 2024 will bring as much valuable connection between human beings. That is what makes life vibrant and brilliant!
A year of friction
2023 has been the year of launching my bimonthly ‘Friction Lab’ residency sessions on NeverDoneBefore (#NDB). Any cringe-worthy topic related to facilitation and collaboration is a potential theme for those sessions. And with 4 sessions delivered and as many already planned, plenty of useful friction to expect in 2024 also. Here are some posts related to the sessions:
- Session #1 (challenging communication styles): “Gosh will you just shut up?!!!?” Unpacking ‘challenging communication styles’ in NDB’s Friction lab
- Session #2 (the tango with sponsors/clients): Friction lab: Lovely milonga or ‘tantrum tango’ with your clients?
- Session #3 (the groan zone): Yes to a ‘safe space’, and HELL YES to a safe and brave space (the next logical step) where the groan zone is not mentioned but very much related to this post
- Session #4 (our inner demons and saboteurs): Structuring our liberation (LS under the lens): Turn your fears into fun (and agency) with ‘tiny demons’ and The power of ‘will’, how we (can avoid to) sabotage our way to our own greatness
Of course there’s been various personal and professional frictions too, but nothing that has not been unresolved to date, so I prefer to turn to the future for now.
A year of Liberating Structures
In 2023 I’ve continued to further explore the amazing world of Liberating Structures with an immersion early in the year and the Liberating Journey in the second part.
And throughout the year I’ve been posting about some structures, to unpack what’s magical about them:
- Turn your fears into fun (and agency) with ‘tiny demons’
- Finding our go-to listening and supporting ‘styles’ with Helping Heuristics
- Find answers, ideas, courage, comfort, challenge, connection through ‘Spiral Journal’
- When Liberating Structures becomes a lot more than ‘a toolbox’ and reveal their true transformative power…
- Wicked Questions, /confusiasm/ and diverse richness at their best
- The why, what and how of ‘9 why’s’
A (half) year of group facilitation skills and multi-stakeholder collaboration
This means two things: I’ve continued doing what my Ikigai dictates: to help people understand and master the art and science of collaboration and facilitation (strengthening their collaboration/process literacy) through training, coaching, co-facilitation.
As such I’ve posted on a number of topics that were directly inspired from the work I’ve done with various amazing groups. My posts include:
- Time / topics / depth: The Bermuda triangle of sunk expectations around any gathering
- A few ideas for non-facilitators to ‘process design’ your next event
- The ‘toolbox obsession’ and why it’s only the emerged part of the facilitation iceberg…
- Welcome to the facilitation zoo!
- ‘Facilitation’ as a life skill – another amazing reason to invest in it
This heading also means I’ve been finally looking back at Community At Work and at their impressive body of work, and after chatting with its founder Sam Kaner I’ve decided to finally revive that important part of my practice and to make space for it. So expect incredible stuff coming from that side in 2024!
As part of that revival effort, I’ve rejoined the amazing ‘Multi-stakeholder collaboration’ study group that Sam and his crew are hosting. It’s been invaluable and I can only recommend to check their workshop schedule in case a new course emerges in 2024.
A year of introspection to prepare for next year
Through the various NDB sessions I was involved in (whether as [co-]facilitator or acticipant), chats with my connections and my own meditation practice, I’ve been reflecting on myself, what I bring along with my practice and how I can be even more aware of my own biases, tropes, strengths and improvables.
It led me to publish this one post: How you show up as a facilitator, with all the ‘micro-ecosystem’ you bring along but there’s a lot more ground covered which I’m not bringing up here because this is already a long post.
2024 will be the year of the Dragon (my sign) and as it has been in the past, I really hope next year will be giving as much as the previous dragon years have been to me.
This year I’ve been preparing for the future too indeed, not least by sharing my reflections on (#Facilitation #trends) What’s been bubbling up and what’s coming to the surface in the facilitation bubble bath?
I’ve also been preparing for another phase of my practice among others through the help of an informal coach (or two) who has challenged me to look at what I do, what I can do and where I should focus, also on the way to run my business.
So all in all, with all this work, an incredible body of work, reflections, connections, ideas, dreams, challenges and wonderful things to unpack in 2024.
I hope I’ll be seeing you interact here and on LinkedIn next year. And in turn, let me know how your year was.
And since this was a retrospective post, no point sharing ‘related stories’ here, they’re all mentioned in the post 😉
Have a wonderful festive season and see you in 2024 (if not before, as I might still be able to publish a post or two)!
agilefacil 
Leave a comment