My Facilitation Week 2024 Learnings

Every year when the International Association of Facilitators celebrates Facilitation Week, I (and other members) volunteer my services to do conduct 90 to 120 minute sessions pro-bono for Educational Institutes, NGOs, Government organizations and Corporates.  Some of the members also offer their learning in the form of short open sessions to the members and non-members.  

I am always grateful for this opportunity because it allows me to exercise my facilitation design muscles on topics that I may or may not have done before.  I've been participating in Facilitation Week or Facweek since 2018. 

Some of the topics I have covered in the past include, Team collaboration, Resilient Leadership, Focus Group Discussions, Consensus building, Conducting Effective Performance Development Discussions, Unboxing Microaggressions, Building Online Engagement, and others.

Here are the sessions that I conducted for Facilitation Week in this year 2024.

Smiling Participant faces and some comments from them on the session

While both sessions went well for the participants, there's always room for improvement and / or reiteration.

Overall there's a lot of learning for all of us, not just our participants.  As a facilitator, here are some points that get reinforced for me, frequently:

• Think and plan your session based on the inputs you take from the client. Probe for clarity and understanding instead of taking anything at face value.
• Keep backup processes and tools eg. Google Slides as backup.  Your participants may not be as comfortable with online tools (eg. Mural, Miro, Zoom, Teams, Kahoot, Padlet) as you might be.
• Be ready to flex your approach and session, keeping the desired outcome in mind.  This means being reading to shift a process or drop a topic to ensure that the outcome is achieved within the given time.  Don't be married to your session design.
• In the online space, a rehearsal with tech check is necessary, even if you or the client are comfortable with the platform.
• In the online space, be absolutely clear with the client about things the participants have to do or not do, whether it is keeping videos on or sharing a desktop / laptop.
• In the online space, time moves differently, mostly faster than you have anticipated.
• In line with the above, the deeper you frame the discussion question, the more time participants need to assess and discuss the question. This goes back to planning.
• As with technology, your participants may not be completely aware of technical terms related to the topic, so ensure that these are clarified as much as possible during your session.  This also eats into your allotted time so plan to communicate as simple as possible.  
• It's more important for participants to understand the topic than to marvel at your brilliance during the session.  Participants will definitely appreciate this aspect.

Gratitude to #IAFIndia for the opportunity to do these sessions and spread the #PowerOfFacilitation 

I'm also grateful to my co-facilitators, Monica and Varsha, for bearing with me and supporting me before, during and after the sessions.

#Facilitation #IAFIndia2024 #IafIndiaConference2024 #Sustainability #facilitationweek 

Thinking Out of the Box - Some Musings

Credit - Cottonbro studio

The phrase "Thinking Out of the Box" has been around for a while now.

It was taken to mean that you should try and think beyond what you already know, or think in a different way than usual, or as mentioned in the Collins Dictionary - "to think in a different, innovative, or original manner, esp with regard to business practices, products, systems, etc."  

There are two contenders (that I found) about who originated the concept. I've no idea which is accurately the creator.  

1) From Wikipedia - "According to The Creative Thinking Association of America, Mike Vance popularized the phrase "thinking out of the box". Moreover, it is claimed that the use of the nine-dot puzzle in consultancy circles stems from the corporate culture of the Walt Disney Company, where the puzzle was used in-house."

2) From the Blood Project - It is said to derive from a famous puzzle created by an early 20th century British mathematician Henry Ernest Dudeney. The puzzle asks one to connect nine dots on a three-by-three grid, using four straight lines without the pencil leaving the page.

We know that the analogy of the box is a reference to the boundaries (preferences, dislikes and biases) within which we think, plan and work with the world around us and those people in it.

However, the phrase has been so overused over the past decades in today's world that it sounds jaded and doesn't generate as much excitement (or results?) as it should.

Some years ago, I came across this line by Terry Pratchett who said “I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it."

This line brewed within me since then and I came up with a few more enquires around this phrase, such as-

1. Where exactly is the box? Where does it start and end i.e. how big is it?
2. Who owns the box? How much did they pay for the box? Is it for sale now?
3. How much of thinking is allowed inside the box?
4. What kind of thinking is going on inside the box?
5. Who's paying for all the thinking going on in the box?
6. How much thinking will be allowed outside the box?
7. How much time should be spent thinking out of the box, before you go back into the box?
8. What happens to business as usual if everyone is thinking out of the box?

Well, that's a lot of "boxed thinking".  Should we consider these and other questions like them when we are asked to "Think Out of the Box"? 

I've no answer to any of these questions, and if you do, please write them here.  If you want to add your questions to this list, please do and I'll give you credit.

You may find these questions strange, but just perhaps, they may help you think with more clarity and purpose.