On being a novice – again
18 August 2014There’s an activity I sometimes use with groups to find out what expertise is lurking amongst the participants: it asks people to nominate themselves as a novice, practitioner, expert or ninja for a particular skill or knowledge of a particular topic. There’s a lot of kudos given to being an expert yet for me I…
Who me? Yes. You are your own best resource
16 May 2014Over the years I have learnt and collected lots of processes, activities, a few frameworks, ideas and games. When facilitating, I draw on these choosing what I think might be best for this group at this time to do this task. Here’s the question I get asked most often: “How do you choose?” The answer,…
It doesn’t take much
24 March 2014It doesn’t take much to do things differently. It doesn’t take much to influence others. And it doesn’t take much to break out of entrenched habits. It just takes a nudge. Forget advice. Forget complicated instructions and planning. Just nudge, yourself, or others, to try something a little different. Here’s a few for you to…
But what would you do instead?
19 February 2014That hoary (yes, I like to use archaic words sometimes, it sets the scene for the post I’m writing) old saying (and yes, I know hoary and old mean the same thing and so this is a tautology – it’s about emphasis) , “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is often used as an…
Facilitation training workshops
18 February 2014Back by popular demand is Creative Facilitation: Bring Your Meetings To Life, a one-day workshop on Tuesday, April 29th, full of processes and tips on how to get people involved and keep them engaged. If you’re frustrated with standard meeting procedure, come along and find simple ways to enliven meetings and workshops. And – drum…
Three ‘new’ group processes
17 February 2014There’s probably no such this as a new process – variations on a theme maybe. Nonetheless, I’m excited to have used these over the last couple of weeks. Recorded here as much as a ‘note to self’ as well as something others might find useful. Wave Analysis Evaluation The Wave Analysis uses the metaphor of…
Passive or active?
10 February 2014I used to edit other people’s writing. I remember one time editing a rather long, scientific article. The author came back to me and said I hadn’t done my job. Nothing had changed. I had changed a lot, he just hadn’t noticed because I hadn’t changed the meaning, or his message in any way. I…
A games-free zone?
28 January 2014A couple of things got me thinking this week (and that’s no mean feat during the summer holidays – much easier to just forget about everything and enjoy the beach). The first was a request from a facilitator for ideas about working with a group on one of those super hot Melbourne days where it’s…
Better meetings
9 December 2013As I write this, it’s Monday morning in my part of the world. Have a look at your diary for this week. How many meetings are scheduled? Are they all necessary? Are you looking forward to them? Will they be worthwhile? Do your meetings look somewhat like this picture? Maybe you can cancel just one…
What is the ONE huge mistake that organisers of community meetings make?
14 November 2013Last night I attended a community meeting. It was great. Lots of really useful information and a great simulation activity to enable all of us to relate to our own situation. Sure the powerpoint had bullets and the handout was a copy of the slides (why that matters is the whole point of Insanely Great…