Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless put together their brilliant collection of participatory methodologies called “liberating structures” a few years ago. I had occasion to visit their website this week and notice that it is even more brilliant than before, containing detailed descriptions of the structures tools and processes and elegant minimal instructions for using them. For seasoned facilitators, this is a gold mine of reference, and I’ve added it to my Facilitation Resources page.
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There are conversations I don’t want to have and there are conversations I show up in and where I don’t like how I show up there. How to change these? We are always inside the conversations we don’t want to have. We cannot leave them. We always have to host from inside this place. At some level you can never leave earth. You belong here and to every conversation that is happening here. You are invited to host it all. That is your obligation for being given the gift of life.
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My friend Peggy Holman is about to write a short series of posts on how to manage the tension between hearing from luminaries and hosting participation in gatherings that aim to: Make the most of the knowledge and experience of the people in the room; Support participants to make great connections; Bring the wisdom of luminaries – respected, deep thinkers – on whatever subject drew people together; and Deepen collective understanding of a complex topic. Peggy notes that: A common design challenge with such gatherings is to work the tension between hearing from luminaries and engaging participants. When the mix …
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I don’t know how I missed this hash tag: #shitfacilitatorssay but I plead guilty to some of these. And if you have ever worked in front of a group, I’ll bet you do too!
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Here at the Art of Hosting in Chicago working with 70 people fromthe restorative justice field and the early childhood education world. Inspired by a design from Tenneson Woolf and an invitation from Teresa Posakony, my new friend Anamaria Accove and I hosted a lovely exploration of the Cynefin framework using movement and physical embodiment to help people understand the difference between the domains. The exercise went this way: We taped the framwork on the floor, which is the standard way I teach it. Before we talked about it at all, we invited the group to divide into four …