Facilitating The Inner Voice
Dry-run
____________________________
For both of us this day had a
larger significance. It represents a life work, bringing forward from many
years of working some core ideas and practices about “voice”, participation and
what really matters in developing, facilitating and leading people in
organisations. We intended to offer this workshop subsequently to experienced
facilitators through University of Surrey Human Potential Research Group, and
perhaps more widely.
We were delighted when 16 people
signed up, 13 turned up (participants’
names) and joined in to make a stimulating and eventful day.
The day was structured in 4
mini-workshops:
1.
Experiencing your
voice - the feeling of integrity
2.
Noticing voices in
the group - the sound of integrity
3.
Facilitating voices
in conflict
4.
Releasing human
potential in the organisation
What happened?
So many varied and interesting
contributions and moments – far too many to recall!
Julia introduced two models: 4
body voices (head, heart, stomach, gut) and swastika (giving the direction of 4
core emotions: joy, anger, fear and sadness). Pairs practised experiencing
their voices (happiness and the effect of fear). See flipcharts.
“My favourite piece of content was the
swastika model – simple yet eloquent – though many other pieces also resonated.
Perhaps because most of my work is with individuals I found the first
mini-workshop the most interesting and relevant.”
Tony introduced the notion of an
ancient and timeless voicing process which is routinely violated in
organisations today. This was demonstrated through various DIALOGUE exercises.
We entered a dialogue experiment
wearing blindfolds, in which some enjoyed the feeling of relating, being
joined, a larger energy in the group, a sense of a group breathing in and out,
the silence and decisions about whether and when to speak…
“The exercise with blindfolds gave me some
insight into my own need as a facilitator to look after myself when I am
working with a client group. What I noticed was, that closing my eyes
helps me to prevent 'input overload', - being present at all times using all of
my senses I find quite exhausting, so taking the time to close my eyes and
centre myself again is very refreshing.”
“Dialogue exercises were meaningful – seeing
the value of a person being aware of their input – particularly the impact
of blindfolds”
… and some didn’t like it,
losing their visual connection to others in the group brought on a feeling of
isolation.
After lunch we explored CONFLICT
and we listed differences that had been emerging in the group during the
morning, then chose one difference (liking theory vs preferring to work from
direct experience) and allowed the group to polarise. A few members of the
group were willing to step into the drama of this and demonstrate vividly how
polarising barriers go up. Caroline
described this using the word “demonise” (when others become an “obstacle, a
vehicle or an irrelevance”) and we noticed how easily this happens. Being
facilitators by temperament and vocation, skilled in conflict resolution, we
did not dwell in this place for long and quickly found our common ground (“both
are important, part of what happens at different stages in our lives, it’s just
where we are right now…”)!
“Standing out at present are lots of new insights about conflict
and the value of really hearing other points of view, and the surprise with how
arbitrary my choices about where I 'stand' on an issue - it depends on what my
current process of developmental thinking might be and the conclusions I am
currently reaching about ideas. All this and much more from deciding whether I
need theory or not.”
The workshop plan had been to
try out all sorts of ways of working through conflict including fishbowls, and
different forms in inquiry in pairs and groups…. But this appeared
unnecessary, so instead we reflected for
a minute then pooled our learning about conflict using the flipchart to record
key points during which Jo told us a story about how conflict was handled positively
in a school using non-violent communication principles. See flipcharts.
The final mini-workshop provided
an opportunity to put our earlier insights about voice work into the context of
an ORGANISATION, in this case a school under pressure to perform. 3 sub-groups
(teachers, heads of dept and school leaders) all had feelings, needs and a sense
of responsibility but the pressures on the school made if difficult for them to
listen, receive and work with each other. We looked at what each group would
value from a facilitator. See flipcharts.
“I have lots of half formed ideas and
impressions that need a jolly good reflection to sort out.”
As
“It feels ready to go to me. The course
feels to me as if it would work for all sorts of sectors. I think it
would be important to keep groups to a maximum of 20, as there is a lot going
on for the facilitators to notice/comment on. “
”I couldn't believe how fast the day went - I
had no mid-afternoon energy low - too much going on and lots of positive energy
in the room (thank you Julia), so I was definitely engaged!”
“You worked together elegantly – your openness
about not knowing at times meant that that the not knowing was not a problem –
indeed it gave the message that know knowing was OK”
“A lovely day with some great people and a real feeling of
community, something I value even more currently. You held the day so well with
a pace and content that relaxed and energised and enabled connections to
develop.”
“Really enjoyed your grace as a facilitator
too.”
“Great connections within the group – Julia’s
bit really made sure of that – enabled us to get more out of the rest from this
place.”
“I enjoyed this, it left me with lots to think
about. The flow from beginning to end was just right. This work is important.
Keep going with it. Take it into organisations.”
“I found the workshop really stimulating and
believe that you have something very special to offer clients. I had some
really good aha’s during the course of day”.
“I particularly liked the space you gave us to
receive, process and ground the information”.
“The content itself is not new - the way you
have presented it is! I think the approach is very practical (important
for busy and stressed out organisations). Participants will be able to
take some very personal learning and use it in their day to day work - I
believe it will resonate and be of practical use to them. As I am writing
this, I suddenly thought again, the process is very empowering,
because at what ever level of the organisation you sit - there are some tools
to use to move beyond the particular box that people either place or find
themselves in”.
“I was genuinely surprised that you had not
worked together! You compliment each beautifully. I felt very comfortable
with you both - I sensed a really respectful, supportive and collaborative
energy between you - which made it very safe for me. This allowed me to trust
very quickly - and I think this was also supported by your honesty about what
you did and didn't know - for me that means speaking your truth.”
”I liked that you both paid attention to all of the participants. “
“Don’t wait just go and do it! The whole thing
works for conflict management and team development.”
We also received constructive
suggestions about how to polish, develop and improve the workshop…
“You need more time. It’s a lot to squeeze
into one day.”
“The group would really benefit from some more
of Julia's wise observations of what she is seeing/feeling/noticing happen in
the group or with particular participants.”
“Move away from having 4 mini workshops to
having one workshop with 4 elements. Carry the content from each session
forward into the next so that having found my voice in the first session I
would end by expressing it in the organisation.”
“For leaders I believe it would be important
to have more time and take each workshop deeper.”
“More on accessing the voice & getting
hidden voices heard”
“More of Julia”
“Still not sure fully of specific leadership
value, though people running businesses need this awareness”.
“Wanted more involvement to individuals, from
either of you but particularly for Julia to bring her awareness to participants
– direct interventions to individuals during the course of the day”
“Overall the voice of the heart was not heard
much. Wanted more of this and less speaking from the head”
“I gained the impression the day was mostly
about an individual finding their voice and less about the social working of
voice against voice, or the dynamic of the group. Not sure this is what you
intended.”
“I’m not sure the conclusion from the school
simulation showed us anything about voice – just the usual consultancy prescription.”
“Think about using the school simulation to
bring up and dramatise the conflict in the group”
What
we learned?
We gained huge value from the
dry run. It was a big confidence boost, and much more. We had a highly
discerning group who were on our side, willing to throw themselves in, test
things and give high quality feedback.
It was the first time, apart
from a 1 hour mini-rehearsal, in which we had worked with each other. Julia
(whose practice is usually 1-1) had shared her material with Tony but Tony
(whose work is with groups) had not been able to do this with Julia. By the end
of the day we had discovered a lot more possible connections and
interweaving we would introduce to
strengthen and reinforce the “facilitating inner voice” theme and tie the day
together.
Julia is eager now to increase
her level of contribution throughout the day and take the opportunity to call
time-outs to get individuals to focus on “did you notice your voice then…where
were you speaking from… would you try this…”. Through bringing Julia in to do
this and balancing out our contributions as facilitators during the day we
believe the fuller potential of this approach might be released.
After the day Tony’s
pre-occupation was with the mode of engagement in the group. Whilst he very
much enjoyed and appreciated the level of enthusiasm and contribution, he
experienced something missing that was hard to put his finger on, and can
wrongly come across as a criticism of the facilitators, the participants or
what happened on the day. It is not a criticism, but the direction he wants to
take in developing this further.
How to put this into words? For
much of the day there was a joyful sense of excitement, busy-ness, lots to say,
shortage of time, sometimes competition to speak. There was a tense and
strained feeling while we were polarised in conflict. These different moods are
part of what the day is about. A different, deeper, more harmonious quality
started to appear in the blind dialogue, and momentarily at one or two points
during the day, but was quickly lost. It is in this place of peace and
understanding that a group sometimes finds, when they get beyond voices
“popping into the room”, that Tony notices a potential as people seem to gain
special experience of human contact and healing, to grow into new behaviours,
releasing habitual patterns (eg. people become present in a different way such
as the quiet people open up, the talkative ones enjoy silence), deeply trusting
the group, becoming comfortable to be and behave differently. Tony wants to
dwell, explore, and learn from this place - this is the “collective/community/social”,
a dimension beyond the “individual” aspect of voicing and his focus for
facilitating the inner voice.
To get more easily into this
place we discussed the use of groundrules at the outset (such as “equalise
contributions”) but found that since we are dealing with a mature group of
experienced facilitators the key is to realise at the outset that we each take
responsibility for making our own contribution to what happens while respecting
others. Next time Tony wants to try out some ideas for getting to this “place
beyond”, by inviting greater attention towards some subtle aspects of presence
in the group.
What’s happening next?
We’re looking for a date to run
this with University of Surrey, and to continue to have opportunities to
develop this exciting work with different groups, particularly with some groups
inside organisations.
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Many thanks to all
participants for helping us with this, and to
Tony & Julia