I more often share how I think, rather than how I work. This week, I shift that around a bit. I’ve been facilitating for decades, and learning and adjusting what that looks like constantly. What I’m finally (mostly) comfortable with is what’s in my kit. These are the essentials that I won’t go into a meeting room without. To some, it may be overkill, but it’s how I go in prepared.
Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys
There’s a lovely expression that I came across a few years ago, that has helped me through some difficult and challenging situations: “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” Or, in the original Polish, “Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy.” The origins of the phrase are a little uncertain, lost to the mists of time and […]
Facilitating In-Between Spaces
The space in-between where we have been and where we are going is where change and transformation occur. The challenge is that while navigating liminal spaces is challenging enough on an individual basis, it gets exponentially more difficult when we try to do this in groups. Whether planning navigating change or planning strategy, facilitating the creation of an in-between space that genuinely allows for creative exploration is a significant undertaking. Liminality provides some insight into how to make that happen.
Structure Helps To Manage Uncertainty
We have a deeply ambivalent relationship with uncertainty. In part, we are hard-wired to like clarity, and black-and-white world-views are as tempting as they are dangerous. So when we are faced with situations where there are no clear answers or easy choices, we find ourselves squirming in acute discomfort.
The Challenges Of Facilitation
Facilitating, when you do it well, is a challenge. It isn’t easy taking a group where they need to go, particularly when you aren’t certain where that really is, or the process that will get them there. You can plan, you can contemplate, you can design—in the end, however, it is just you and the […]
Moving Forward, Looking Back
It’s a new year, and as the old one closes, so do a number of chapters that have remained open — their endings not fully written — for quite some time now. It is an interesting feeling finally putting those to bed. Possibly the most significant closing is the completion of my thesis, which has […]