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Category Archives "Facilitation"

The essence of effective conversation

March 22, 2006 By Chris Corrigan Art of Hosting, Conversation, Facilitation, Stories, Youth One Comment

My friend Toke Moeller and I are running an Art of Hosting training this week with 12 Aboriginal youth here in British Columbia. We are having a marvelous time so far with one day behind us and two ahead. There have been some good insights as we head deeper into the essences and practicesof hosting conversations that matter. Today we spent time in a natural circle of trees in Cathedral Grove near Port Alberni, which is a pokect of nearyl 1000 year old douglas-fir and cedar on the Cameron River. These old ones make good teachers, especially when we bring them questions about confronting our fears.

I had one or two insights myself today about the essence of effective conversation. Both arose in an appreciative conversation with Toke. For me, a powerful one was that effective conversation creates in the spaces in which true offerings of the heart can be made. The results of the best conversations include having the participants in that conversation able to give gifts of their time, attention and commitment to the result. All good action arises as a result of this kind of free, heart-based offering.

And we also noticed that good conversations contain the seeds of stories which are repeated for years afterwards. It is, in fact, nearly impossible to know these seeds untila later time, when we pull them out of a bag and tell them as stories. But for sure, an effective conversation is one that conceives these seeds that later brith in the momentof telling. Who is to know what any of these seeds will become?
What can you add to this list?

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What musicians can teach us

March 15, 2006 By Chris Corrigan Facilitation, Music

My friend Viv McWaters sends this note from Australia:

“I’m just back from three days at the Port Fairy Folk Festival where I immersed myself in great music and bands and came away with lots of thoughts about how facilitators can learn a lot from musicians.

The stand out performer was Harry Manx – a Canadian Blues/folk performer who combines traditional blues, amazing slide guitar, mohan veena, mandolin and harmonica and vocals with traditional Indian music. He says on the CD notes “Mantras for Madmen”: ‘When the silence between the notes says as much as the notes themselves, like the gap between the breaths, it’s all good. The way I see it, Blues is like the earth and Indian music is like the heavens. What I do is find the balance between the two.”

I’d be happy if I could facilitate half as well as he performs – seamlessly collaborating with his harmonica player and percussionist; connecting with the audience; reading the mood; improvising when a guitar string breaks; changing the pace; being silent; and making everyone feel privileged to be alive and here, now. That’s what I aspire to be able to do when I facilitate.”

Yup, me too. Here’s Harry, a fellow Gulf Islander, hailing from Salt Spring Island to the south of us here.

mp3: Harry Manx – Song for William

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Facilitating emergence

March 15, 2006 By Chris Corrigan Appreciative Inquiry, Emergence, Facilitation, Learning, Stories, World Cafe, Youth 3 Comments

On Monday I was up in Kamloops taking part in an annual gathering called the “Stop Sexual Exploitation of Children and Youth” Conference. That’s a mouthful but it’s a truly wonderful annual gathering hosted by The Justice Institute of British Columbia (itself a great thing we have here in BC).

I was asked to come and deliever a workshop on dialogue and deliberation methods with youth, and so I showed up to do that. In my design I though it would be cool to see if I could give people a tast of what it feels like to be engaged so deeply that we experience emergence. I wanted people to experience what it feels like to work from their strengths and have something appear about youth engagement that no one person brought into the room with them. And I had 2.5 hours.

I began where I always begin, telling the story of the quadrants, and mapping the four open space practices in some detail (link opens a .pdf). Instead of filling in my own practices, I asked people what their practices were and we filled in the map together. This is important, because people truly do know how to do opening, inviting, holding and grounding. It’s just a matter of turning their attention to how they do it.

After that, we moved into an opening practice, with a bit of an Appreciative Inquiry experience. I invited people to pair up and interview one another on the question of “Tell me a story or two of a time when you felt deeply engaged by others. What might we learn from that about engagement in general?” People spent a very short time interviewing – 10 minutes each – and then they returned to the circle.

Next I gave them a taste of The World Cafe and we moved into fours to process some of this learning. The question for the first 20 minute round was “What can we learn from these reflections about deeply engaging youth.” After the first round was over, the groups mixed up and continued exploring the question. At the end of the second 20 minutes, I asked them to remain in their spots and turn their collective minds to discerning “What ideas want to hatch now?” The third round was quieter and more deliberate.

Finally we reconvened in a circle and I invited reflections about where we were at after spending this time thinking through this work. We got a number of ideas, including thoughts about deep listening, about approaching youth where they are, both physically and emotionally and about showing up completely authentically in engagement and with curiosity about where the process might lead. There were also a number of “aha’s” about detaching from outcomes.

In just over an hour and a half, using nothing but the resources and stories of the people in the room we did experience a little bit of emergence and a I think everyone got some good ideas out of the session. If we had had more time, I would have then worked with the most interesting ideas (as determined by the group) and perhaps split people up into little design teams to figure out how these principles might work in a grounded engagement process. Then we could have melded these conversations together into some tools and approaches that might be useful.

I think the biggest learning for people was just how fast learning can take place when you are engaged in deep conversation about stuff that matters. And how the most important person in that kind of process is not the facilitator or the teacher, but the experts you are surrounded by, and the stories and experiences of your own life, seen in a new light.

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Open Space Resources

March 11, 2006 By Chris Corrigan Facilitation, Open Space

As I have been updating my website and moving things around I have finally gotten to re-organizing the Open Space Resources page.   The page now contains resources on the nuts and bolts of of Open Space and deeper learning organized by practice area.   There are also links to articles, books, stories and internet resources to support practice and learning about Open Space.

I’ll continue to update the page (having it in a wiki makes that a LOT easier) and I’ll be adding a lot more stories of my own.   I’m also looking at giving that page it’s own RSS feed soe folks can track changes.   Feel free to stop by and use what you can.

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InterChange Principles

March 5, 2006 By Chris Corrigan Art of Hosting, Facilitation

I am proud and lucky to count Toke Moeller as a friend, colleague and teacher. The other day, as I was checking his site for some information for some upcoming Art of Hosting trainings we are doing, I stumbled over his page of principles and assumptions for his work. They are worth reprinting here

Some of our assumptions

  • Organisations have more to do with living organic systems than machines
  • Learning is a core competence in the network society
  • Learning, change and transformation involve a degree of chaos
  • The world is too complex to be led by individuals
  • Sustainable solutions emerge through conversation and collaborative endeavour
  • Conversation and dialogue opens the collective intelligence, wisdom and action
  • Diversity is a gift – not a problem!
  • New insights and understanding are at the heart of reflective living and wise acting

Some of our design principles

  • What is meaningful must always be at the center
  • The combination of good theory, methods and bold practice creates learning
  • Engaging many of our intelligences brings about learning of a higher quality
  • Going from participation to contribution enhances learning
  • Plan for emergence
  • Conscious choice is a precondition for learning
  • Clear context and purpose brings clarity and focus
  • “Less is more!”

Toke is a remarkable host. Seeing these principles in practice is a treat.

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