Re: facilitation | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Lynn Nadeau (welcomeolympus.net) | |
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 11:10:01 -0600 (MDT) |
>Also, do most groups have a core group of facilitators or does anyone who >wants to facilitate? > >Becky >Tucson, AZ Absolutely do not rotate facilitation among "everyone" or "just anybody". We used to do it and it was not successful. A would-be facilitator might learn something from using the group as a guinea pig, but the loss of efficiency is significant. (In 1986 I spent much of the year on the elected City Council of the 500-person Great Peace March for Nuclear Disarmament, as we walked 4000 miles cross country, with meetings of many hours, often daily. With the same group of Council members, we had various facilitators on different days, and it was dramatically apparent that it made a difference in what we accomplished and how we felt afterwards.) Most groups have people who are naturally better at this, because of their previous experiences and training, or their natural skills. If so, let them do it, and recognize this as valuable work, equivalent to other tasks serving the community. Give them a budget for training, too, so they can go to useful workshops, buy appropriate books, and so forth. They then can administer organizing workshops for the group as a whole. They can also focalize the process of choosing a standard format for your agenda and decision-making. We have been using the process outlined in CTButler's "On Conflict and Consensus", modified slightly from group input to address concerns as they are listed instead of after generating a whole list, when it seems helpful. After switching to more qualified facilitators, we made another big improvement, on Rob Sandelin's advice, and made the facilitators a team, rather than a pool of individuals who took turns doing the job. So even when A is facilitating, B and C are in the room consciously supporting and observing. A can call a break to consult with B and C. The team meets between meetings to strategize and evaluate, looking at the specific issues, individuals, and potential problems. The facilitation team also periodically holds discussion circles about things like group process, meeting process and so forth. We had an interesting one recently to address tensions between the "expediency" oriented, and those who want more discussion, more thoroughness, and more process. We still have various tolerances and desires, but we now understand each other better. Overall, our process has improved steadily, and I think it is in large part due to the efforts and educational outreach of our facilitation team. (It has 4 members; our meetings usually have about 20 participants.) Lynn Nadeau RoseWind Cohousing , Port Townsend Wa http://www.olypen.com/sstowell/rosewind > _______________________________________________ Cohousing-L mailing list Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org Unsubscribe info: http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l
-
Re: facilitation Vivian Volz, June 16 1997
- Re: facilitation Lynn Nadeau, April 19 2001
- Re: Facilitation & Facilitator Training Opportunity Albert Schinazi, April 22 2001
- Facilitation Holly McNutt, October 24 2012
- Re: Facilitation Eris Weaver, October 25 2012
- Re: facilitation Alan O'Hashi, September 2 2021
Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.