Help your groups get moving when they get stuck. As facilitators, at one time or another, we will run into a situation where our groups get stuck dead in their tracks. By getting stuck, I mean that the group’s progress seems to have slowed down or stopped, energy is low, participation is spotty, and you get [...]
Use Mistakes as Tools
November 29, 2011 By 7 Comments
Each week after sending out this ezine, I sometimes receive a grateful response to the ideas I share, or a personal story or situation that relates to them. With many issues, I’ll not receive any responses. I’m not complaining. I know we’re all inundated with Internet information and can’t read and respond to everything, nor [...]
The Art of Not Doing
November 21, 2011 By 1 Comment
This holiday week I want to continue my heretical body slamming on the culture of doing…the already frenetic pace of which seems to increase this time of year. It’s a common view that if we’re not doing something, we’re failing or lagging behind. Everything in our world is about growing, progress, and production. This movement [...]
Getting to the Bottom of Yourself
November 15, 2011 By 5 Comments
Feel the Fear and Facilitate Anyway
October 31, 2011 By 2 Comments
With Halloween just passed, I thought this a good time to look deeply into the fears we face as facilitators as well as those of our shivering subjects. In this week’s article, Feel the Fear and Facilitate Anyway, a host facilitators express their greatest fears in doing group work, fears most encountered by their participants, [...]
What is Facilitation?
October 25, 2011 By 4 Comments
Facilitation as a discipline has been around since the 60’s and 70’s It is used by organizational development consultants, facilitators, trainers, business coaches, project managers, meeting leaders, clergy, and other group leaders. Still, it’s not well known by the majority of people who meet every day in groups. Even among its practitioners, a clear definition [...]
Facilitating Mega-Groups
October 17, 2011 By 1 Comment
This week’s article, Facilitating Mega-Groups, offers some suggestions for working with very large groups. This scenario sometimes occurs with in the case of public meetings or in organizations proposing sweeping changes where all the players need to be involved. Most of the tips from this article came from Barbara J. MacKay, Principal for North Star [...]
The Triumph of a Joy Junky
October 10, 2011 By 5 Comments
This week’s article, while a bit long, tells a potent true to life story about how a friend, who asks to remain nameless, helped facilitate significant change from the inside of a very oppressive organization. You’ll want to share this article with friends, clients, and associates who might be up against similar challenges. Please read, [...]
Facilitate the Voices in Your Head
October 3, 2011 By 5 Comments
I once designed and led a teleclass entitled , “Not Just Another Meeting,” for a group of 10 UN/AIDS workers in Geneva and it didn’t go all that well. I had a difficult time teasing out their issues and challenges. I prepared a great guidebook with everything I knew and could find on meeting facilitation. [...]
Earthquake Trumps Kaddafi
September 26, 2011 By 3 Comments
In my experience, the more thoroughly I prepare for a group engagement, the smoother it usually goes. But in some arenas and job roles, we don’t have the luxury of extended preparation. Sometimes, we are called to be emergency facilitators, or at the very least, we are challenged to grapple with unexpected surprises. This week’s [...]
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