What does good collaboration look like? Nancy Nuñez reflects on a maternal health project in Melbourne’s west that could be a model for others

Doom scrolling the other day I noticed not for the first time, the high-voltage passion with which people engage in content that has some kind of social change conscience to it. There are strong opinions, judgments and deep concern about a range of issues, the most recent being the human tragedy of Palestine.

Who wants to be normal? It was a question I often asked myself in my youth. Normal to me meant straight, mainstream, suburbia. As a queer kid growing up without any role models, I didn’t know too much. But I knew this was not my thing.

We have a way, we humans, of breaking things into parts, as a way to understand what’s happening.

Many of our group interactions and encounters happen within social media platforms these days. Depending on the forum, there is often a set of rules that members sign up to when they join the group and there are “admins” or “moderators” who have the job of addressing problems and complaints raised by members.

We've just completed the third module in our Advanced Facilitation Course, and what a journey it's been. The setting for this immersive experience was the earthy CERES in Melbourne, a backdrop that perfectly complemented the deep explorations we undertook during these three days together.

We all have breaks in our facilitation practice and I’ve found recently it takes some effort to get the wheels in motion again when we return to working with groups.

I worked with a client recently who turned up at my session with a heightened energy, unable to focus on one thing at a time – it felt quite stressful! She was completely task-focused. The list of her responsibilities was so long (work, family, community etc) she felt completely overwhelmed.

When a lone piper pierced the cloying summer air outside the venue where my colleague Sarah Norton and I were facilitating the other week, my microclimate rose instantly from warm to hot and bothered.

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.

The days are coming to an end where people need to be controlled, managed and watched as a standard practice thought to improve productivity. Not surprisingly, a self-fulfilling prophecy plays out when management is run in this way. When we expect that people are going to do the wrong thing, why are we surprised when people fail?

After a long period working in the public service and community sector, I’ve been consulting for the last few years. I’m lucky to have work come to me, and I’ll often do shortish employment contracts along the way.  The ability to combine self-directed consultancy work alongside structured traditional employment works like magic for me – I love to pick and choose the work that I like, combined with the rigour of traditional workplaces. Lucky me! I mostly work in disability policy and elder abuse, but I’ll give anything a go.

When we’re discussing providing facilitation services with new clients there can sometimes be push back about the time we devote to setting up the activity, to establishing the group.

Meet Our Community - Tanya Edlington