What my heart is leading me to know

Thanks to Nick Smith for suggesting this blog topic.

I remember being laughed at by my mother and her friends. It wasn’t malicious. In fact I think my mum was secretly proud. I was probably about eight or nine years old and I’d just announced in response to that patronising question that adults are wont to ask children regarding what they want be when they grow up, that I wanted to be an astronomical photographer. I wanted to travel into space and take photographs of stars and planets and asteroids. It never occurred to me that this was impossible, or even improbable. I couldn’t figure out why they were laughing. I was serious.

When I was in my 20s I worked with an editor called Harry Pobjoy. That’s what he did, helping others craft their writing without changing the meaning or the writer’s own style. I could probably do with Harry looking over my shoulder right now! Harry said to me once that I write best when I write from my heart. I’m not sure I knew what he meant. Then.

Following my heart has taken me to surprising places and unearthed passions I never would have expected – snow skiing, playback theatre, social history, diving, indigenous art, screenwriting, maps, architecture, design, bushwalking, photography (still), the night sky (still), blogging… Maybe not so surprising for that young girl who dreamt of celestial imaging.

So what my heart is leading me to know is the power of taking a leap into the unknown, and giving in to the experience. And what makes it all worthwhile are the people who share the journey along the way.

What to write?

I’d like your help – what should I write about? I’m up for the challenge – you name the topic and I’ll write something. Deal?

Great advice from Dave Pollard

This great poem by Dave Pollard is too good to miss. Make sure you visit Dave’s how to save the world blog for lots more thoughtful posts about the world we live in and how we choose to live within it.

my advice to you

my advice to you
is simple: find out what you are meant to do
and do it, and
find out who you really are,
under all the junk that has been attached to you
by those who would make you
everybody else,
and be that.

what you are meant to do is at the sweet spot
where what you are good at
(better than anyone else you know),
and what you love doing,
and what is needed in the world
that you care about,
all intersect.

the hard part is not the finding of the intersection
but in knowing yourself: knowing what you are good at,
and knowing what you love to do
(when you have done so little!)
and knowing what you really care about

(for there is so much needed in the world —
that part is easy to find).

do not worry about objectives, or outcomes of your work:
simply practice —
there is no mastery, there is only the trying,
and learning, and getting better.

the stuff you are meant to do
does not have to have a name;
it is not a job description.
it is just what you are meant to do.
don’t worry about how this stuff fits together
or doesn’t — just practice.

the people who need what you are meant to do
do not care what it is called.

if you’re not sure what you do uniquely well
or what you’d love to do
or what you really care about
just try some things:
you learn what you are meant to do, sometimes
by discovering what you were not meant to do.

what you are meant to do
and who you really are
are not the same thing:
what you’re meant to do is learned, discovered,
but who you really are has always been there —
it is a matter of unlearning
who you have been told to be,
or told you are,
or should be,
until all that is left is the knowledge
of who you are and always were:
nobody but yourself.

At home & on-the-road ‘must have’ tools

Here’s my top 10 things (that’s a technical term) that have made my life easier as a self-employed facilitator working from home:

Skype
Enables an easy (and a cheap) way to talk with people anywhere in the world, from anywhere I happen to be. Great for conference calls too.

iStockphoto
Fantastic high-quality and inexpensive photos to download for any purpose – great search facility and huge range to choose from.

Wireless at home
Now I can work anywhere, including outside, and still be connected.

Google Docs
Makes collaborating on documents and slideshows easier

Twinings green tea with peppermint
Refreshing, tasty, low caffeine (so I can drink lots of it).

Slideshare
A place to share and see (some great) slideshows.

TED talks
Entertaining, inspirational, informative – and access to people I may never hear speak in any other forum.

Comet
My dog. Gets me out of the house. Never talks back. Never criticises. Always pleased to see me.

Google images
For a pic of just about any one or any thing.

The off button
…on my phone, computer, iPod, television – so as I can enjoy the place where I live, and the people and creatures I’m fortunate to share it with.

And here’s five tools I would never leave home without

Coloured Post-It notes (various sizes)
Useful for just about every low-tech process I know, and for engaging people in conversation, focusing attention, for open space agenda setting – way too many uses to list here!

Visual Explorer cards (playing card size)
The two decks of playing card-sized VE cards are easy to carry anywhere (including overseas) – and to use on the spur of the moment.

Smiggle fat pens
Bold colours, can be used for thick or thin lines – great for those times when I have to use a flip chart (although it’s just about impossibe to hold more than one at a time)

Tibetan temple bells
Nice sound, gentle or loud, best way I know to gain people’s attention, especially in a large, rowdy crowd.

MacBook Air
My window to the world – light, robust and does everything I need it to do, including blogging.

Sometimes this is all you need

After a full day of listening, questioning, processing, analysing, holding space, humouring and travelling this is just the tonic I need. Maybe you do too? Enjoy.

What do facilitators need to know?

How does facilitating vary from other meeting roles – such as chairing, mediating, moderating and emceeing? While there may be some elements of these other roles in facilitation, the main difference is one of intention. Facilitators need to be clear about their intention – why they are facilitating at all and who for, why they are using this particular process or activity, and what experience they intend the group to have. This is very different to having pre-conceived outcomes and takes courage to let go of what you think the group may need to do and take your cues from the group itself.

Why then have a facilitator at all?

I think it’s about changing perspectives and giving people permission to go into unexplored territory. It can be hard for a leader of a group or organisation to signal that THIS meeting will be different, when everything remains the same. Participants may fall into habitual behaviour simply because ‘this is how it always is’. By bringing in a facilitator from outsode the group or the organisation, it signals that THIS meeting is indeed different. For one thing, someone else is leading it.

So that’s a big responsibility for a facilitator – to use that ‘endowed power’ to be useful for the group.

Sometimes it’s simply a matter of setting the scene, asking a few questions and getting out of the way. Other times we need to shift perspectives or the frames through which people view their worlds. To be able to do this requires far more than the traditional facilitator toolkit of processes and activities. It requires an ability to see what might be helpful for the group – at this particular time – through a broad lens. Which means facilitators also need a kit-bag full of models and frameworks; to sometimes share as a way of illuminating particular behaviours and dilemmas the group might be exploring, or more often, to illuminate their own thinking and understanding of what the hell is going on!

And that old saying is ever so true: the map is not the territory. Like maps, frameworks and models can be useful guides but are no substitute for the real thing.

Here are some of my favourite models and frameworks.

Splash and Ripple

Developed by Plan:Net in Calgary, Canada, this model helps not-for-profits plan outcomes-based projects. You can read about it here in this pdf document Splash and Ripple: Planning and Managing for Results. I’ve found it useful in those situations where groups entangle themselves in planning language and arguments get in the way of any actual planning. It’s basically a metaphor based on inputs (people and rocks), activities (throwing rocks), outputs (splashes), outcomes (ripples) and impacts – what difference all those inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes actually make. There’s more to it than this, of course, but it’s useful to have this framework handy for those times when people talk about activities as outcomes. In many of the not-for-profit and government agencies that I work with, activity-based thinking is the norm and it takes a different lens for them to see their activities in a broader context.

Bennett’s Hierarchy

This is a program logic model, and one that I like using because it is people centred. Bennett’s Hierarchy was developed by Claude Bennett of the USDA to help describe what was expected in agricultural extension programs where some sort of behaviour change was wanted. It is based on seven levels and describes a causal chain of events. It can be used for planning and for evaluating a program.

Cynefin Framework

This framework explores the relationship between that which is simple, complicated, complex and chaotic – and importantly, how we might respond. A lot of my work is with groups who are operating in a complex environment. Often they will try to use tools from the simple and complicated domains to make sense of that which is complex. Using this framework can help groups explore other ways of making sense of the complex worlds in which they operate – and do so so more effectively. The drawing of the framework used here is courtesy of Anecdote. 

The Groan Zone

When a group is struggling the temptation is to jump in and help them. After all, isn’t that what facilitators are supposed to do? Make it easier for groups? Not always. From Sam Kaner’s Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-Making is the concept of the Groan Zone – a phase that a group needs to work through, sandwiched between divergent thinking and convergent thinking. Holding space for a group to struggle is some of the most important – and difficult – work a facilitator can do.

Getting serious about collaboration

I’ve been talking about collaborating for a while – now it’s actually happening. And it’s VERY exciting. Projects underway include a fantastic (even if I say so myself!) presentation skills workshop; a book about facilitating with confidence; and yet another book on facilitating and improv. These collaborations are happening locally, in NZ and in the USA. Which has meant I’ve had to quickly decide on how best to collaborate on line. Skype chats have been great for setting things up, but now we’re down to business, and the limitation of some tools become apparent. For co-writing and editing I’m using google docs. Wish there was something like this around when I was an editor! If, like me, you have no idea how google docs works, check out this video from the CommonCraft geniuses.

Sharing evaluation data

Regular readers will know that I attended this year’s Applied Improv Network (AIN) conference in Chicago in October. Using SurveyMonkey we asked participants to respond to a feedback survey so as we could continue to improve on previous conferences. After all, that’s why you get feedback, isn’t it?

Today I spent the morning analysing the data. There’s some basic quantitative data, but it’s mostly qualitative – comments, reflections, likes and dislikes. I’ve put the analysis together in a slide show, which you can see here. I’d be interested in your comments as this is the first time I’ve presented evaluation results this way.

LOL

Hat tip to Cindy Tonkin

The paradox of great facilitation

The best facilitators get out of the way. 

Getting out of the way is harder than doing something.