Some nice\u00a0tricks for facilitators<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I\u2019m always looking for way to improve my facilitation practice. Here\u2019s a few recent discoveries, plus some other things that have inspired me lately. And\u00a0a note on upcoming training.
\nBest wishes – Les<\/p>\n

1) A short sharp diversity exercise<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Sometimes project teams can\u2019t see who\u2019s NOT in the room. Here\u2019s a nice exercise that nails it:
\n\u201cEveryone please stand up. Now sit down if\u2026
\n\u2026you grew up in a non-anglo saxon culture or bi-lingual home,
\n\u2026you don’t have a university degree,
\n\u2026you have a disability,
\n\u2026you are under 15 or over 55,
\n\u2026you’re an artist or performer,
\n\u2026you\u2019re a member of the target audience of this project.\u201d
\n\u201cNow look around and see how many are still standing.\u201d
\nTHEN: ask them how they could\u00a0obtain the missing perspectives they need to move forward.
\n(Thanks Ute Diversi)<\/p>\n

2) Great icebreakers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For facilitators, a beautiful LinkedIn thread is \u201cWhat\u2019s the best icebreaker?\u201d It\u2019s full of excellent ideas.
\nhttps:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/grp\/post\/43838-6039033086413455362<\/a>
\nA selection:
\nFrom Karen Simpson:<\/em> Ask everyone to come up with 3 things about themselves one will be a lie. Ask others to guess the lie.
\nFrom\u00a0Lynette Johnson:\u00a0<\/em>As a person who loathes ice breaker games. The best ice breaker I’ve ever done is to get the group in pairs and one tells their life story. In 5 mins. Their pair tells the group what the story teller has to offer the group. Unbelievable talents uncovered in the room beyond their job description. And respect.
\nFrom Darren Gough:\u00a0<\/em>Break the group into 2 or 3s. Give everyone a sheet of A4 paper and ask them to work out how they can all stand on it. I saw this done at an event of 500 people once and it worked because;\u2028 There’s no right answer, in fact there isn’t really an answer or point but people like to figure stuff out\u2028\u2028\u2026it breaks down inhibition and instantly removes personal physical boundary.\u2028\u2028..it’s funny and daft – everyone is at ease.<\/p>\n

3) A vital\u00a0strategic question: \u201cwhat shouldn\u2019t<\/span> we change\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Just finished reading The Logic of Failure: Recognising and avoiding error in complex situations<\/a> by Dorner Deitrich, which is a fine mental workout for anyone doing strategic planning.
\nHe suggests a brilliant question that\u2019s routinely forgotten in innovation or change programs:
\n\u201cWhat features of the current situation should be retained?\u201d
\nI almost felt dizzy when I read this section. What human catastrophes and waste would be avoided if this was the first question reformers asked themselves!
\nI recently got a chance to build it into a workshop for a national health agency that was retiring its major campaign and building a new one. It turned out to be perfect: rapidly identifying the relationships, assumptions, objectives and tactics that deserved to be passed intact into the new program. More at:
\nhttps:\/\/changeologyblog.wordpress.com\/2016\/02\/02\/one-question-to-avoid-disaster\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Pope Francis and the 15 diseases of organisations<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Pope Francis is at it again, being the world\u2019s coolest management consultant and giving stick to Vatican administrators as narcissistic, out-of-touch, self-gratifying, and so on \u2026like so many other bureaucracies in our world. It makes beautiful reading.
\nhttps:\/\/hbr.org\/2015\/04\/the-15-diseases-of-leadership-according-to-pope-francis<\/a>
\nJust like Laudato si<\/a>, the\u00a0language is memorable and uncompromising. Here\u2019s an example.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe disease of closed circles, where belonging to a clique becomes more powerful than our shared identity. This disease too always begins with good intentions, but with the passing of time it enslaves its members and becomes a cancer which threatens the harmony of the organization and causes immense evil, especially to those we treat as outsiders. [This] \u201cfriendly fire\u201d from our fellow soldiers is the most insidious danger. It is the evil which strikes from within. As it says in the bible, \u201cEvery kingdom divided against itself is laid waste.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Concept of the month: \u201cCognitive Bandwidth\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

People can’t change unless they have free space and time to think, to gather the willpower, resources and courage to act.\u00a0That COGNITIVE BANDWIDTH\u00a0is speedily degraded by scarcity of time, money, relationships, or health. The effect is less willpower, less attention and less active intelligence. \u201cOne study revealed that simply raising monetary concerns for the poor erodes cognitive performance even more than being seriously sleep deprived: 13-14 IQ points!\u201d wrote Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir in their book In their book Scarcity, The True Cost of Not Having Enough<\/a>.
\nSuccessful change projects find ways to gift their actors the cognitive bandwidth they need by reducing the pressure of time and money by, for example, free child care, low rent housing, free food, or services that do stuff for them.
\nMore at:\u00a0https:\/\/changeologyblog.wordpress.com\/2015\/08\/04\/in-the-tunnel-how-scarcity-changes-minds\/<\/a>
\nI seriously recommend their book. Buy a copy now. It\u2019s one of the most important easy-read\u00a0texts on behaviour change published in recent years (apart from my book<\/a>, of course …and anything by Chip and Dan Heath<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Changeology and Facilitation Skills in 2016<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Here are the details of the next round of training in Sydney and Melbourne:<\/p>\n

CHANGE<\/span>OLOGY (2 days)<\/span><\/h3>\n

The complete toolset for devising behaviour change projects, including innovation skills, buzz-making, and lots of inspiring examples. Plus plenty of stimulating conversations and great company. Really engage a community in change.
\nWhat it covers<\/a>.
\nBook a place<\/a>.
\nSYDNEY:\u00a0<\/strong>2-3 May 2016
\nVenue:\u00a0The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability, 2 Balls Head Rd, Waverton
\nMELBOURNE:\u00a0<\/strong>16-17 May 2016
\nVenue:\u00a0CERES Environment Park, Cnr Roberts and Stewart Streets, Brunswick East
\nTiming:\u00a0<\/strong>8.45 am for a 9.00 am start, 4.30 pm finish.
\nCost:\u00a0<\/strong>$795 incl GST. [Discounts:<\/i>\u00a020% discount for self-funded participants, NGOs, and buddies – see\u00a0The Buddy Effect<\/a>]
\nYummy lunch and 180 page training manual provided. Numbers limited.<\/p>\n

FACILITATION<\/span>\u00a0SKILLS\u00a0<\/span>(1 day)<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

The foundational skills to productively facilitate almost any group in almost any situation.
\nWhat it covers<\/a>.
\nBook a place<\/a>.
\nSYDNEY:\u00a0<\/strong>5 May 2016
\nVenue:\u00a0The Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability, 2 Balls Head Rd, Waverton
\nMELBOURNE:\u00a0<\/strong>18 May 2016
\nVenue:\u00a0CERES Environment Park, Cnr Roberts and Stewart Streets, Brunswick East
\nTiming:\u00a0<\/strong>8.45 am for a 9.00 am start, 4.30 pm finish.
\nCost:\u00a0<\/strong>$495 incl GST. [Discounts:<\/i>\u00a020% discount for self-funded participants, NGOs, and buddies – see\u00a0The Buddy Effect<\/a>]
\nYummy lunch and 80 page training manual provided. Numbers limited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some nice\u00a0tricks for facilitators I\u2019m always looking for way to improve my facilitation practice. Here\u2019s a few recent discoveries, plus some other things that have inspired me lately. And\u00a0a note on upcoming training. Best wishes – Les 1) A short sharp diversity exercise Sometimes project teams can\u2019t see who\u2019s NOT in the room. Here\u2019s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facilitation-2","category-strategy-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pac6ss-fC","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enablingchange.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}