Facilitation - Viv McWaters

Jumping in

September 20, 2020

I live by the beach in Australia. Swimming in the ocean is something you either love or hate, and it sometimes depends where you live. In southern Australia, even in summer, the water is very cold. Really cold. On a hot summer’s day, there’s nothing better than diving into this cold water for immediate relief […]

What I learned about facilitating by doing stand-up comedy

July 16, 2018

Earlier this year I co-hosted an experimental event called Radical Acts. The premise being that we need to do things differently – maybe not big things, sometimes the smallest of acts can make a huge difference. For many people attending Radical Acts was just that – a radical act of stepping into an experimental event, […]

Facilitation resources updated

November 17, 2017

I’m updating my RESOURCES page. About time too! You can find it just up there, on the menu – between About and Learn. If you click on FACILITATION RESOURCES you will find a long list of processes, games, and activities that I use in my facilitation. The names help me remember them. Sometimes the same […]

Screenwriting and facilitation: it’s all in the cut

September 12, 2017

“It’s all in the cut.” This is a description of where the magic happens in movies. It starts with a writer, and an idea, a story, and a screenplay. Then the director gets their hands on it, the actors do their stuff, and finally it is cut together into a movie that we will watch […]

There’s training, and then there’s Creative Facilitation training!

June 22, 2017

There’s lots of things I can’t do well – way too many to list here – but I can cook a pretty good risotto and I can host facilitation training that’s memorable. I know this to be true because I love designing and delivering training that rocks. Yes, it’s just as well I’m not offering […]

Games connect

April 28, 2017

On our recent trip to Mongolia, in winter, I knew we’d be spending a lot of time indoors, with host families and with each other. It seemed like a good idea to take some table-top games to play. I chose games that did not require any understanding of English: Ghost Blitz and Skip-Bo Both games […]

Imagine if you were the type of leader YOU would want to follow

December 15, 2016

Fancy three days of fun, engaging learning on a theme of leading creative teams? Johnnie and I are bringing our Creative Leadership workshop to Melbourne, February 7th to 9th. Here’s some reflections from those who came to this workshop in Cambridge earlier this year. Lots more info and bookings here

‘Easy and safe’ is over-rated

October 26, 2016

Working with groups generates lots of dynamics. I want to focus on the dynamic between the facilitator and the group. There’s a long held position about facilitation that the facilitator needs to make the task easy for the group, and to create a safe space. I disagree. When I’m tired, feeling a bit vulnerable, and […]

The two not-so-secret secrets about Creative Facilitation

October 24, 2016

There’s no big secret to Creative Facilitation, it comes down to two things: using creative processes that allow people to really participate, and showing up as a facilitator that people feel able to trust. The hard part is letting go of all those practices that squeeze the life out of meetings. We are social creatures, fundamentally […]

Best summer ever!

September 15, 2016

I’ve just had the best summer. Yet it wasn’t summer. Not here. And I wasn’t here. I was there, in the UK, hanging out with my friend and business buddy Johnnie Moore in Cambridge. There’s many reasons that it was a great summer, and one was the fun and connection we had in making a […]