Groupwork Centre Blog articles categorised 'Management Gems'

Living Democracy: An Ecological Manifesto for the End of the World As We Know It By Tim Hollo New South Publishing, 2022 As facilitators and collaborators we tend to focus on our workplaces, our households and the community groups we belong to. But what if we scaled up and applied the principles of connection, participation […]

“Whether we arrive at YES or NO after October is beyond our control although we may be able to influence it by the way we show up. “ The campaign for the Voice has begun; potentially the most significant event this century in defining who we are and what we believe and stand for in […]

“Land them gently,” a colleague once said to me, “and all the good work will pay off.” Facilitated workshops and meetings unfold in a similar way to a great story. They get off to a good start by creating connection, build to a crescendo of activity and land well. A strong end to a workshop […]

Steve Ray “Fundamentally, leadership is not about the results.  Leadership is about taking care of the people who are responsible for the results.  It’s a human job.  That’s what leadership is.” Simon Sinek The days are coming to an end where people need to be controlled, managed and watched as a standard practice thought to […]

We all have our own understanding of what creates good teamwork and good relationships at work, but sometimes we can get stuck when others don’t think the same way! In some organisations it may sound controversial to include ‘workplace relations’ as a ‘Key Work Area’ in work plans. We at Groupwork Centre think it is […]

Several years ago I changed roles in my organisation, which meant I had three new direct reports. I quickly discovered these people were dissatisfied in their roles and others were dissatisfied with their work. This posed a problem as they were the heads of vital organisation-wide portfolios that were all going through big changes. I […]

How big is too big? Size matters in group work … and so does a thoughtful process. I worked with a group of 30 recently constructing a strategic plan. Ordinarily so many voices in the room collaborating on a planning exercise might have been daunting. Not this time! That’s because the group had put a […]

This is Volunteer Week across Australia, when many organisations and groups go out of their way to celebrate and show appreciation to their volunteers. I really like this year’s theme “Better Together”, how Groupwork Centre friendly is that! I am, and probably you are too, part of the roughly quarter of Australians aged 15 and […]

Just in case you missed this on our socials … Have you noticed that people can take on certain roles in groups? Sarah Norton introduces you to Role Theory and how it can help facilitators to recognise and harness group dynamics. If you’d like to learn more, Role Theory is one of the many great […]