Facilitating High Performing Teams in the Age of Complexity with Allison Tsao | Mon 09 Mar | 5:30PM

Many organisations and communities are operating in an age of complexity, where problems are poorly defined, change is constant, and resources are scarce. Gone are the days where problems are predictable, solutions can be drawn from past experience, and one person’s technical expertise can be drawn upon. More and more, complex problems rely on people to harness diversity and problem solve together to find creative solutions.  So why is it that so many teams struggle to do this? As humans, we are drawn to others similar to us. However, in order to generate creative solutions, we must work in teams that also value differences. Teams that can share knowledge and solve problems together by celebrating similarities and differences are what will create our future high performing teams. In this session, we’ll talk about the core foundations of what it means to operate in complexity and practice some foundational facilitation techniques that begins to build a high performing team. About Allison Tsao Allison’s career has spanned previous lives at Merrill Lynch, Deloitte Consulting, Accenture, and American Express. She has worked as a Human Capital Consultant and as an HR Business Partner. Her global curiosity led her to move to Australia in 2014, joining Veldhoen + Company as a Senior Workplace Consultant helping organisations transform the way they work through Activity Based Working (ABW). Allison’s consulting experience has enabled her to work alongside some of the greatest companies in the world (25+ organisations and counting) across various industries, geographies, and sizes, addressing some of their most pressing business and people challenges. Throughout her 14 years of consulting around people, process, and culture, Allison has continued to experience the world changing at a rapid rate. This rate of change is impacting all organisations, and organisations must focus on creating real value through innovation and creativity. This results in a need to shift the way we currently manage and lead our teams. Allison believes that the way we can support this shift in leadership is by creating a more human way of leading – one that invites authenticity and emphasises trusting relationships. Her experience and intuition has led her to create Humans Who Lead, a global Leadership Development platform and consultancy dedicated to shifting the leadership paradigm and helping people grow into the type of leaders that can lead for the future.

Venue: University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Building 10 (cnr Jones & Thomas St), Level 5, Room 5.580 Take the lift to level 5, cross the atrium footbridge, walk straight ahead to room 580 on your right. Time: From 5:30pm to 7:30pm | No RSVP - Just turn up | Donation $5 Contact: www.facilitatorsnetwork.blogspot.com Eoin Higgins  eoin.p.higgins@gmail.com : 0407 411 684 Monday April 20th Facilitating for Sustainability with Lina Mbirkou Monday May 11th People Pleasing / Recovering Boundaries with Anick Patry

SFN 2020 got off to a wonderful start in Feb when Charlie Trindall facilitated a lively discussion on the different cultural perspective on time.  We got many inquiries as to where Charlie might be be offering a session next. Charlie is offering a 1-Day event on March 18th, titled: Understanding and Applying Aboriginal Perspectives in Facilitation. Details available at the Eventbrite Site. Alternatively, Charlie can be contacted at Mobile: 0428394497; email: mailto:charlestrindall@optusnet.com.au

Let Go of Your Plan with Johanna de Rutyer | Monday June 19 2017 | 5.30pm

“Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.”

Structure and planning can provide useful frameworks to guide and contain action but sticking to our plans can also limit action. How often have you been in a meeting and the convenor is doggedly following a pre - arranged agenda that is not responding to the dynamics of the audience? Ever felt like a deer in the headlights, startled and frozen in front of an audience, instead of the competent person you usually present – particularly after an unexpected question or challenge?

The unplanned moment is full with creative possibility, spontaneity, excitement, playfulness, energy, focus, challenge – it is dynamic to say the least. A range of possibilities emerge and your ability to respond and then navigate within this dynamic involves taking a risk in not knowing, courage to be open and explore and practice. Some are more well versed and comfortable than others in this dynamic space. Johanna de Ruyter has been practicing the art of navigating the emerging and unstructured process for over 25 years. She is a long term ensemble member of Playback Theatre Sydney a theatre form that blends story sharing, Improvisation and Communication. Over her 30 years engagement in theatre making Improvisation has been at the centre of her creative process. She is experienced in navigating the balance between being in the planned and unplanned, structure and unstructured which ultimately takes us to a relationship between mind and body.

This will be an experiential and playful session so if possible wear comfortable clothes and shoes. Johanna will invite you meet to yourself and others in the present and emerging space of being in the unplanned.

Between stimulus and response there is a space and in that space lies our freedom and power to
respond – Janice L Marturano, Finding the space to Lead.

About Johanna de Ruyter
Johanna is passionate about the complementary relationship of communication and the performing arts. She has been working for over two decades as an actor and collaborator on various award-winning theater projects both nationally and internationally.

For Johanna the central core of theatre has always been about authentic communication – which is encompassed in the process of creating a show, in the performance itself and also in the specific style of theatre I practice, Playback Theatre. For over twenty years she has worked as an improviser, facilitator and trainer at Playback Theatre Sydney - a rich and dynamic communication forum that uses improvisation and personal storytelling to explore, expose and illuminate specific issues. Since 1981 Playback Theatre Sydney has been commissioned by Government, Corporate and Community organizations to perform roles of trainer, role play and performance.

In addition, she facilitates Leadership Presence training programs throughout the Asia Pacific region, with The Ariel Group, a leading US and more recently Australian based Executive Training Company. Johanna draws on her theatre and communication experience to design and deliver her own experientially based Training, Coaching and Presentations programs for a range of clients in the Community and Corporate sector.

Venue: [We will be at UTS]

University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Jones Street, Ultimo corner Thomas Street. Room 5.580 Level 5, Building 10, Take the lift to level 5, cross the atrium footbridge, walk straight ahead to room 580.

Time:

From 5:30pm to 7:30pm sharp | No RSVP - Just turn up | Donation $5

Enquiries | Eoin Higgins  eoin.p.higgins@gmail.com ; 0407 411 684

Call for Guest Facilitators:

If you have an idea or know someone who has an idea for a session at a Facilitators Network meeting in please contact Eoin Higgins 0407 411 684 eoin.p.higgins@gmail.com

Facilitation in the Age of Complexity with Greg Jenkins | Monday October 10, 2016.

There is no denying the fact the world is getting ever more complex - Brexit, Trump, Hanson, the ever changing federal leadership, global warming, debt, and the refugee crisis etc etc etc. Complexity at a political level translates directly into workplaces, classrooms and communities - where most of us facilitators work.
Have you noticed changes in the facilitation experience? Are blame, fear, mistrust, anger, burnout, inability to learn from the past and being overwhelmed the new normal? What do you do when you don’t know what to do?
For us facilitators this is the opportunity of a lifetime. To paraphrase Malcolm Turnbull " there has never been a more exciting time to be [a facilitator]"
This session will contain tools and tips on how to change the game through facilitation:

• How to facilitate collaboration and trust
• Essential strategies for dealing with blame, fear and grief
• The secret to successful high stakes project facilitation
• A systems approach facilitation including 5 stages, 4 principles and 1 rule
• Any thing else that emerges

About Greg Jenkins

Greg has been an active member of the Sydney Facilitators Network for almost 20 years, including 12 years as the Network Coordinator.
Greg is a highly experienced facilitator and coach. He works in complex facilitation across a full range of areas and industries including business, government, education and community. He specialises in high stakes projects and collaborative leadership. Greg’s sessions are highly experiential, practical , fun and most importantly - game changing.
Greg is the author of the ‘Changing the Game’ toolkit launching in later this year. 

Venue: [our usual venue]

University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Jones Street, Ultimo corner Thomas Street. Room 5.580 Level 5, Building 10, Take the lift to level 5, cross the atrium footbridge, walk straight ahead to room 580.

Time:

From 5:30pm to 7:30pm sharp | No RSVP - Just turn up | Donation $5

Enquiries | Eoin Higgins  eoin.p.higgins@gmail.com ; 0407 411 684

Call for Guest Facilitators:

If you have an idea or know someone who has an idea for a session at a Facilitators Network meeting in please contact Eoin Higgins 0407 411 684 eoin.p.higgins@gmail.com

An Introduction to System Dynamics and Organisational Constellations with Sarah Cornally | Monday July 11, 2016

As our world is becoming increasingly complex and our clients need ways of working with this, our capacity to understand, access and work with systemic intelligence is an important to cultivate. This work enables us to see the whole system, the complex web of relationships, the hidden dynamics, multiple perspectives and an expanded range of possible ways forward. It reveals harsh truths that may need to be faced and healthy ways to respond. Systemic Intelligence works on three different levels – the personal the collective & evolutionary.

In this session we will cover some basic principles of system dynamics and explore them in action. Sarah will facilitate a case in point from someone in the audience.

About Sarah Cornally

Sarah Cornally has been studying systems dynamics and organisational constellation work in Europe for the past seven years and has found this a particularly powerful way to quickly access solutions and useful outcomes in the face of complex and challenging dilemmas. Sarah’s work focuses on enabling leaders to collectively create successful businesses and organisations where people thrive whilst achieving the organisation’s purpose. She has a special interest in developing greater capacity to respond insightfully and effectively to uncertainty and complexity by exploring adaptive responses.

www.sarahcornally.com

=======================================================

Call for Guest Facilitators:

If you have an idea or know someone who has an idea for a session at a Facilitators Network meeting in please contact Eoin Higgins 0407 411 684 eoin.p.higgins@gmail.com

=======================================================

Venue:  [Our usual venue]

University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Jones Street, Ultimo corner Thomas Street. Room 5.580 Level 5, Building 10, Take the lift to level 5, cross the atrium footbridge, walk straight ahead to room 580.

Time:

From 5:30pm to 7:30pm sharp | No RSVP - Just turn up | Donation $5

Blog www.facilitatorsnetwork.blogspot.com

Enquiries | Eoin Higgins  eoin.p.higgins@gmail.com ; 0407 411 684

=======================================================================

To either Join or be removed from this list email to Sydney.facilitators@gmail.com
with either ADD or REMOVE in the subject area.