Article by Lizzie Crudgington, Bright Green Learning When helping clients design online meetings and workshops, we often face all sorts of assumptions about what you can and cannot do online. Usually we find that you can do MUCH more than you first assume. What you need is some creativity and thoughtful planning! Here I share […]
Our last post in this series of Suggested Facilitation Strategies is on ensuring that you valuably and dependably guide the process and the group; and that still hand over to the group, fostering ownership and self-reliance. This is a critical skill for any Facilitator. Consider the following: (1) Checking-in with the client and group is […]
As the Facilitator, how to you make sure your desire for harmony doesn’t skew the process when debate may be beneficial / necessary? Or you might be just the opposite – how do you make sure your desire for debate doesn’t hinder agreement and moving forward? Here are some things to consider: (1) Explore potential […]
Some Facilitators find it a challenge to keep track of group maintenance (how they’re feeling) when they themselves are getting swept up in the content of discussions; and others find it hard to focus on the task and content of discussions when they’re getting swept up in the group dynamics. Maybe you have experienced both […]
For a Facilitator, there is definitely an art to knowing when you should summarize and synthesize discussion for the group; and when it would be better to have the group summarize and synthesize. Here are some suggested strategies for how to work with the difference: (1) Summarize progress in the process towards achieving desired outcomes […]
As the Facilitator, how do you go about striking the right level of visibility and intervention in your workshop – walking that fine line between saying enough and not saying too much? Here are some suggested strategies: (1) Prepare a script for yourself (and edit this during the meeting). Whether you tend to say too […]
How can you have confidence in achieving the desired outcomes when you’re not a subject matter expert; and also when you ARE a subject matter expert (but your role is as facilitator)? Consider the following: (1) Remember that it is better to know little about the subject matter but all about designing a great process […]
How do you feel comfortable with a group you know (too) well; and create rapport with a group you don’t (or barely) know (without making it all about ‘you’)? These strategies might be interesting to explore: (1) Be really clear about your role as facilitator (see above points about building confidence and contracting). If you […]
Sometimes it is the methodology that is a challenge. How do you go about choosing methodologies that (a) are appropriate and motivating for the group; and (b) interesting for you? Here are a few strategies to consider: (1) Work with your client (and potentially the participants in advance of the event) to learn about the […]
This set of suggested strategies aims to help you in designing a thorough and detailed agenda that is (a) structured, logical and outcome-driven; and at the same time (b) flexible, allowing for flow and emergence. Here are some things to consider: (1) Make sure you are really tuned in to the detail of ALL of […]
This set of suggested strategies is focused on building (a) your stature and confidence as facilitator; and (b) building the confidence of others in you as facilitator. Here are some things you can try: (1) Model good facilitation practice from your earliest conversations with clients, building confidence from the start. Prepare for your conversations with […]
There is no one perfect Facilitator profile. Whilst the International Association of Facilitators (www.iaf-world.org) describes 6 Competencies of a Facilitator that we must all master, when it comes to our profiles we can be extrovert or introvert; we can be thinkers or feelers; we can be debaters or peace-keepers; and so on. What is key […]
Gillian’s recent sharing of TEDx talks reminded me that it was high time we share an excellent talk that couldn’t be more relevant in the lead up to Rio+20 later this month (for which a lead theme is the Green Economy) … not to mention the fact that yesterday was World Environment Day! If it passed […]
How do you capture the reflections of participants on ideas shared during your event? At the end of the TEDxEcoleHôtelièreLausanne programme, we scheduled the university’s music committee to perform a musical interpretation of the event. We knew that they would need up to ten minutes to get their instruments set up and ready to go […]
The first TEDxEcoleHôtelièreLausanne event took place on Monday 16th of January 2012. Here is a summary of the great ideas shared, based on tweaked tweets from the event, to whet your appetite in anticipation of the videos 🙂 Live Speaker: Mike Hatrick – “Tales of the Unexpected” How do you cater for customers’ racehorses? Considering […]
How do you go about creating a Pecha Kucha? Well, growing experience with them is teaching us that the process is often quite the opposite of what we usually see when people begin a traditional PowerPoint presentation. Are you among those who start by annotating blank slides with key words and messages and then let […]
Let’s take an example. Imagine you want to have a conversation about future meetings in a large team or organization with a view to – no surprise here – improving them. You likely have opinions about meetings and how they need to improve in the future. All well and good; but in order to get […]
Watch this video of Nancy Duarte talking about sparkline. I have often found myself making reference to the ideas of Nancy Duarte. She spoke to me and a group of TEDx-ers on a pre-opening backstage tour of TED2011 early this year about storytelling and presentations that “Resonsate” – the title of her recent book. In […]
Well here’s what I found at TEDActive 2011: The Rediscovery of Wonder. It was heavy to carry home, but worth the weight! And I think there is some interesting gift bag inspiration for others of us in the future. Of practical use during (and after) the event:– A special limited edition design JAMBOX wireless speaker […]
We’ve written a number of posts about both facilitation and the use of online tools for virtual and face to face events. See, for example: ● “The Connected Facilitator: What’s in the Online Toolbox?”, ● “Look Behind You! The Webinar Facilitator’s Non-Technical Checklist”, ● The Two-Day Total Twitter Immersion: Using Twitter for Social Learning“, ● […]
Following part one of this blog post (which shares some examples of tools that are either free or have a “freemium” model and which we think can be usefully used in online facilitation), this part two shares some ideas about how you might adapt facilitation methodologies to an online environment using tools that are either […]
In February, I had my first “TED-ache” at TEDActive2011. TEDsters know all about TED-aches. They come with the “mind-mash” that is a TED conference. One minute its talks on quantum mechanics, biochemistry or brain science. The next its the latest in information technologies. And then you’re plunged deep into the ocean, taking a swim with […]
Attending TEDActive 2011 back in February – and joining a couple of hundred other organizers of TEDx (independently organized events under license from TED.com) for workshops, back stage tours, talks and tips – I tweeted about my TEDx learning. For posterity, I’m now sharing the tweets here: Began #TEDActive 2011 with pre-workshop of TEDx organizers. […]
If you’d like to keep up with my highlights from TEDActive 2011, I’m tweeting @lizzie_BGL. Blog posts to follow once the dust settles!
Synchronicity. That is the best word I can come up with to describe my first introductions to ‘Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionairies, Game Changers, and Challengers’ – simultaneously via my neighbours the Ortelli’s who know lead author Alexander Osterwalder and rightly thought it was a book I would love, and via my Hub […]
As learning practitioners, we are always looking for new ways of engaging people and helping people learn. When it comes to helping people learn about what we do, we have a handful of cards up our sleeve. Moo cards. We love them – and we think that you will too. Moo cards = business cards […]
As learning practitioners, we are always interested in reflecting and learning for improved performance. Here’s a little summary of some recent research in performance development trends. Approaches to performance development in organizations are shifting significantly. A clear trend is emerging, moving from ‘evaluation’ or ‘assessment’ – which has historically focused greatly on the achievement (or […]
Where do we stand in the work to save and improve lives around the world? What changes have taken place in the last decade? What does the future hold? Listening out for some learning for the future, here are some highlights I took from TEDxGeneva’s TEDxChange event: The Future We Make. 1. Learn to save […]
When preparing to give a presentation, how do you get started? A list of bullet points? Opening a PowerPoint and jotting down a key message for each slide? Browsing your folder of favourite images to highlight your ideas? Or perhaps like me: with a large table, a big blank sheet of white paper, and an […]
Some top tips for managers from my first day: • Invite her to a ‘welcome back’ one-to-one meeting with you and brief her on key ‘must know’ information before she delves into the delighting deluge that is her inbox • Present her with prioritized objectives and actions to get stuck into… things that you just […]
Gillian, I decided to write a little poem,To mark this time, whence from IUCN you are going,To new bright and green pastures and beds,That I know, for you, lie just ahead,As you take to your garden with gusto and strength,Whilst flourishing as Balaton Group President,Sewing new seeds of learning,As round each corner turning,And taking inspiration […]
“…Find out what it means to me,” began Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot in a speech (Boston, November 2008) which re-resonates with me as I reflect on it, thinking about core values. What are our core-values? Is respect amongst them? And what does respect mean to each of us? Do we confuse it with civility – with habit […]
Remember how you learned to walk? Most of us don’t. For the large part of our lives, we take for granted our bipedal fluency having forgotten the process that first got us there. Observing children learning to walk may remind us. Or watching the scene in the Wizard of Oz where Scarecrow is taken down […]
Everyone waits for the other guy to change before changing themselves. You first my dear Gaston! After you my dear Alphonse! – reads the cartoon by Frederick Burr Opper. Not so in the case of Vanessa Kirsch, founder and president of New Profit, Inc., as we learned from her and Diana McLain Smith, partner at […]
The Pegasus Conference 2008 kicked off last night with a World Café session led by co/founder David Isaacs. Joining newcomers and regulars to the conference, we took seats at small, round, red gingham cloth–covered tables, each with red carnation, accompanied by a duo of Novascotian musicians and visual artists decorating our surroundings. Using the well-known […]
How can we talk about applying learning without turning off those who are petrified by talk of taking action? This challenge leapt out and stared me in the face last week. When we take time to interact with business people on the topic of business and biodiversity, we hope that they will be energized and […]
I have been working in my organization for almost five years. How much do I know about the work of my + 1’000 colleagues in different technical programmes and offices around the world? I would say more than most (thanks to the designing diverse workshops with a variety of teams) and still much less than […]
In our organizations, who are the people igniting the passions of those around them? Who mobilizes the talents of the people they work with and builds collective as well as individual strength of others? Who are the ‘Thought Leaders’? And how are they leading thought? (See Robin Ryde’s short video which inspired this post.) In […]
31 out of 40 workshop organizers prefer quick reminders two days before a deadline – or so my learning from last week tells me. In preparation for a week of ‘Learning Opportunities’ during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, October 2008, I am in regular contact with 40+ organizers of workshops. All are busy […]
“The new Al Gore presentation on climate change at Ted’s talk is an inspirational, bright and optimistic approach worth a look at” wrote Nicole Thonnard Voillat – and so I did online at World Changing. I really appreciated his comments on optismism being not about belief but behaviour which goes beyond our choice of lightbulbs […]
