Hateful comments: Defensive or Curious? Posted by Steve Ray on March 27, 2018 in Working as an independent facilitator, Working well with others, You could read a million books, but they will all be flotsam and jetsam in the wake of the state that we’re automatically transformed into when accosted by a hateful attack. Read more
From desire to go deeper to benchmark facilitation training Posted by Ed McKinley on December 13, 2017 in Facilitation, Working as an independent facilitator, How our Advanced Groupwork Facilitation Course came to be Our co-founder Glen Ochre long harboured a passion for working with people at a deeper level, over an extended period of time. Glen was a great cook; she would take recipe books and magazines to bed and conjure up meals that looked nothing like the originals, but were specco. […] Read more
6 Tips for scribing: A key facilitation skill Posted by Ed McKinley on November 29, 2017 in Working as an independent facilitator, It’s powerful for people to have their input written up for all to see. Visually sharing input in a meeting helps you sort priorities, include everyone and create an accurate record of the process. Read more
Group culture: The magic of facilitating group agreements Posted by Steve Ray on October 27, 2017 in Facilitation, Working as an independent facilitator, Working well with others, “How can we work well together?” Last year, we worked with a group of IT professionals who were blown away by our use of group agreements when working with a group for the first time. Many of them had specialist technical expertise, but didn’t have the skills to work well in their project groups. Their […] Read more
What do you say to them? Our top 5 tips to starting with a new group Posted by Ed McKinley on September 27, 2017 in Facilitation, Working as an independent facilitator, Working well with others, You’ve been asked to facilitate a group. How do you make an engaging start? The way you begin can put people off participating before you have even got to your intro activity. You want people to be actively present, contribute with confidence and to listen to understand others in this group, but how? No pressure, […] Read more
Groupness: A facilitator’s guide to helping a group connect Posted by Steve Ray on August 10, 2017 in Facilitation, Working as an independent facilitator, We all LONG to hang out with other people. We just can’t help it. It’s locked into our DNA. We are social animals, and being a part of a group in some way is just a healthy survival imperative. Naturally, some of us are more gregarious than others, however even if we like to be […] Read more
3 Deeper traps to avoid at your next meeting Posted by Ed McKinley on June 21, 2017 in Facilitation, Working as an independent facilitator, Working well with others, There’s a lot of benefit to be gained in digging a bit deeper into why you may be finding your meetings frustrating. People instantly get it when we encourage structure around meetings by emphasising the importance of Beginning, Middle, End and allowing enough time. But we’re often met with some surprise at our emphasis on […] Read more
Contracting Controversial Facilitation Work Posted by Ed McKinley on July 25, 2016 in Working as an independent facilitator, Being asked to come in and help around a controversial issue, takes us to the deep end of facilitation. It can be exciting to be invited to provide facilitation for such work, and it is very rewarding to see it through to successful and sustainable outcomes. However, we are regularly gathering stories of how such controversial work can be de-railed… and we have our own experiences to add to the mix! Read more
Are you over the way decisions are made? Posted by Che Biggs on July 18, 2016 in Working as an independent facilitator, Collaboration is in right now. From the design hub to the boardroom to ‘public engagement’ – collaboration is invoked as essential to solving complex challenges. Organisations are moving away from top-down decision making approaches to more collaborative ones as a way to better manage projects, drive innovation and change, and increase productivity. Read more
