Full Circle Associates

This weekend in our Sunday paper there was an op-ed, Relief groups can create unintended chaos. Working in international development, I recognized the problems stated by the author. I also recognized them in faciltiation. Take a read and see what you think. Here is a snippet.

"Unfortunately, my approach to relief work seems to unsettle potential funders. Beginning with my first experience of this sort (Gaza, 1991), I have realized that the people I am training know far more about the situations they address than do I. Thus, my 'training' is actually collaboration -- brainstorming, if you will. I share what I know and they share what they know and together we come up with new ideas for the current situation.

I too, have run into funders who did not want to fund collaboration or coaching or brainstorming. There was an assumption of a "right answer" and "expertise and authority." When I facilitate with that frame, I'm doomed to failure. But funders don't feel so comfortable when someone says, "I don't know, lets find out WITH the community!"

Funders understandably like to know what they are buying with their money. I can't say what the product will be until we develop it. Further complicating things is that our program also brings practitioners from war zones and other locations that are experiencing 'complex emergencies' to Olympia for three months of collaboration (read: 'training'). While a considerable amount of funding exists to treat refugees living in the United States, bringing practitioners from other countries doesn't qualify."

Complexity is another element. When we oversimplify a situation we facilitate, we can really screw up. Recently on the AOK list, there was a wise comment about distinguishing between simple and simplicity. If we make things too simple, we can screw up. If we value simplicity, we can find ways to make sense together better.

I'm rambling. Better go do some work!