Monday Video: Sandy Schuman Facilitators should not be Neutral

Oh how happy I was to come upon this on Sandy Schuman’s blog. I have long struggled with the perspective that facilitation must/should be neutral. I struggle with the fact that it is HARD as a human being to be neutral. In fact, I can’t pin down the range of practices required to be and stay neutral, especially when facilitating. Neutrality has long been preached by the International Association of Facilitators.

I came to the conclusion then, that I was either a bad or a renegade facilitator. For me, it was about being AWARE of my influence, power, position and opinions and not letting them distract me from serving the group. And at times, yes, using my opinion, with clarity and transparency (I call it “taking off my facilitator hat and putting on my citizen/subject matter expert/Nancy hat!) Take a look…

And thanks, Sandy. I knew I have been right to admire and learn from you all these years!

via IAFNA2012 Fast Talk Sandy Schuman Facilitators should not be Neutral.mov – YouTube.

Amanda Gibbs on Creativity

amandagibbsToo great NOT to share this from Amanda Gibbs…

And now, at what I might call mid-career, all my assumptions about creativity, about who is a creative and a maker of meaning have changed. I’ve started to view creativity as the ability to support participatory spaces and in particular, a drive to support public participation in disrupting and shaping the places where we live. I believe that cities are the ultimate machines for creativity — people living and sharing ideas in close proximity. Urbanity — being an engaged, alert, connected citizen — can provide the perfect conditions for creativity.

I am inspired by projects that unite people — design professionals (artists, makers, videographers, graphic designers, architects, urban planners, technologists and web specialists) with community-based advocates and researchers (organizers, government officials, academics, service-providers, policymakers, and citizens). I think there are some fancy new terms being thrown around for this work: social innovation, community-based social marketing, and public engagement. But at the end of the day, it is about creating opportunities to break down the complex systems that shape urban life and to share and create knowledge to make those systems understandable and useful to more people.

via CreativeMornings/Vancouver • Amanda Gibbs – Profile and Q&A.

On My Path for Creative Destruction

Flickr creative commons from Christopher Robbins

I am becoming obsessed with the challenge of “not enough time” that I am seeing with ALL my clients, friends and colleagues. We are doing more, and it seems, getting less out of this frenzy. I am riveted to the concept of “creative destruction” to help understand and decide what tot STOP doing.

As a consequence, I’m seeing ideas everywhere. Here is one from Kevin Cashman from his book, The Pause Principle: step back to lead forward.  And expect to hear more from me on this topic!

1.  Pause for understanding.  Certain that you know the answer?  That’s a good time to step back, gather more information, ask another relevant question, listen to someone else’s perspective, consider alignment with values and purpose. ..
2.  Pause for growth.  Schedule time and invest in your personal leadership growth through self-awareness and learning.  Help others grow and develop their talent… Step back to reward risk-taking; celebrate and appreciate failure for the learning that emerges.

3.  Pause for teams. Lost your focus? Feel like you’ve gotten off track?  Take the time to give everyone opportunity to express concerns, share their genuine feelings, ideas and listen authentically in the spirit of real collaboration…

4.  Pause for resilience.  Step back from the hurried, hectic pace, the onslaught of information and demands for energy, clarity, and fresh perspective.  Go for a walk or run.  Sit by the river… New ideas and innovation emerge in the spaces between the doing.

5.  Pause for significance.  Engulfed in hyper-speed and productivity?  Next time you pick up your mobile device for a stream of transactions, pause and ask yourself, “What is really important today?”  When you step back to reconnect with what you really value, what will you choose to do or not do?

via BK Communiqué Author Lists Blog: Five Non-Traditional Ways to Pause.

Thanks to Christopher Robbins for creative-commons-ing his beautiful photo so I could share it again.

Shahab from #CommProj12 Interviews Me About Online Facilitation

IMG_07112012_160533We are deep into week 5 of the Project Community course. The course explores the role of online communities and networks in open, innovative design engineering. (See previous posts here and our shared Faculty blog.)

Shahab, one of my co-faculty, and I did a Google hangout on online facilitation. Here is the short 12 minute version. You can find the longer 19 minute version here. I mentioned the Community Roundtable about half way in and want to share the link so viewers have an easy link to follow! The week’s reading on online facilitation is here.

via Nancy white on Online facilitation – YouTube.

New Westminster BC Next Tuesday: Practice for Engagement in Learning in the Classroom

They have 20 free slots still open if you are up in the Vancouver area!

JIBC is hosting a World Café style Speaker Series on Tuesday October 16th, 2012.

Description:

There are many practices from the field of facilitation that can engage individuals quickly and meaningfully into learning processes. When we shift process, shift the locus of engagement from “teacher to learner,” we also shift away from simple transmission of information into discovery, ownership of learning and, most important, meaning making. Come experience some of these practices and see if they have meaning and application in your classroom.

Facilitator:

Nancy White is going to facilitate this great session. Nancy is the founder of Full Circle Associates. She helps organizations connect through online and offline strategies. She is internationally recognized as an online interaction designer, facilitator and coach for distributed learning, teams and online communities. For more information check out: http://fullcirc.com/wp/about/about-nancy-white/

For registration contact: Tracie Gavriel, facultydevelopment@jibc.ca

Date: Tuesday October 16th, 2012

Time: 5:00 – 5:30 Food | Refreshments, 5:30 – 7:30 Collaborative Session

Location: JIBC Café. 715 McBride Boulevard, New Westminster, BC.

via Practice for Engagement in Learning in the Classroom «.