2 December 2008

December 08 “Wildcard: Celebrating the Experience of Facilitation”

Monday 8th DECEMBER, 2008 “Wildcard: Celebrating the Experience of Facilitation”

You are warmly invited to our next meeting on Monday 8th DECEMBER, 2008 which will run in conjunction with the ICEL conference.
From December 8-12, University of Technology Sydney (UTS) will be hosting the 11th International Conference on Experiential Learning (ICEL). 180 Delegates will be attending from 24 Countries. There will be in total 100 keynotes, papers, workshops and poster displays and field trips during the 5 days of the conference. ICEL was last held in Australia 20 years ago. http://www.education.uts.edu.au/icel/
We have invited ICEL conference delegates to join us as a ‘field trip’ to experience an experiential learning network in action. We don’t know how many will turn up. However we expect our visitors to fully participate in proceedings and share some of the wealth of knowledge and experience that comes with them.
We’ll use our trademark ‘Wildcard’ format where several guest facilitators step up on the night and share facilitation activities – aimed at reviewing, celebrating and acknowledging our diverse learning for the year.
Dinner afterwards:
There are 2 options for the annual facilitators’ network end of year meal
Option 1: Informal Thai or similar meal nearby or in George St (no RSVP)
Option 2: Guest entry to the ICEL International food fair in UTS Tower. $30. (RSVP essential) RSVP to Greg by Friday 5th Dec for the International Food Fair greg@tincanlearning.com
Venue: Room 5.580 Level 5, Building 10, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Jones Street, Ultimo corner Thomas Street. Take the lift to level 5, cross the atrium foot bridge, walk straight ahead to room 580.
Time: from 5:30pm to 7:30pm sharp

2 November 2008

November 08 - The Business of Facilitation

Monday 10th NOVEMBER, 2008 “The Business of Facilitation”

You are warmly invited to our next meeting on Monday 10th NOVEMBER, 2008
The global economic meltdown will have an impact on all of us. Some experts say that it’s a one in 75 year event. Others say that the downturn will last 4-5 years or more.
In this session we will take time out to reflect on the ‘Business of Facilitation’ including how we as facilitators can contribute to our client’s survival. We will also explore ways sustain each other and grow our practices these difficult times.
This topic is as important to independent and employed facilitators (full-time or infrequent) as well as those who hire facilitators.
Please bring your topic ideas to the meeting. Here are some possible topics:
Helping our clients (internal and external)
• How can we as facilitators help our clients through this current economic crisis? Do we have a special role?
• How can those hiring facilitators know what they are getting? How can the customer experience be measured? How can we give clients a taster of our work?
Developing our practice/business
• What do we need to do as facilitators (employed or independent) to sustain our practice and survive the crisis?
• How can we as facilitators grow our practice including selling ongoing involvement to clients after a facilitated event?

2 October 2008

October 08 - Wildcard

Monday 13th OCTOBER, 2008 “Wildcard”

You are warmly invited to our next meeting on Monday 13th OCTOBER, 2008
At a wildcard meeting, volunteer facilitators run a short session for between 5 and 20 minutes. No sessions are scheduled in advance. All entries are taken on the night.
Types of processes suitable for the wildcard include ice breakers, opening and closing rituals, energisers, thought provokers, experiential activities - anything at all that can be done in 20 minutes or less.
Wildcard is for everyone including beginners, the highly experienced and those in between.
Wildcard is fun – anything can happen when you are the guest facilitator.
The aim is to run and debrief as many short sessions as possible in the time available. Please be on time.
For further info call Greg Jenkins M: 0418 486 501, greg@tincanlearning.com .

2 September 2008

September 08 The Right to Write

Monday 8th SEPTEMBER, 2008 “The Right to Write”

You are warmly invited to our next meeting on Monday 8th SEPTEMBER, 2008
Topic: “The Right to Write” with Bridget Brandon
Explore the delights of life writing as a facilitation tool
Life writing is a tool to connect with stories from life to dissolve barriers, prejudice and preconceived ideas in a magical way. This can happen in a very short time.
Come and experience how you can use life writing as a warm up in different group contexts. Short provocations from everyday life moments can quickly create connection and intimacy in groups. You will learn from doing and then have time to address questions and concerns.
This is not about "writing" per se it is about using story and life experience to connect to yourself and to each other. Writing is the tool.
Writing skills are not required. This session is suitable for those who have never written and want to have a go at writing and those who think they don't know how to write.
Bridget Brandon is fuelled by a strong desire to bring out the creativity, fun and adventurous spirit in others. Bridget is an artist, a teacher, an actor, an entrepreneur, a mother who co-founded and directed the Drama Action Centre in Sydney for twelve years. After five years of living in a yoga community abroad she returned to Australia to set up Storyworks in 1998. Storyworks offers dynamic courses in life writing that allow you to mine the wealth of your own life experience through writing, listening and telling. Bridget has taught and performed extensively throughout Australia, New Zealand and the United States. www.storyworks.com.au .

2 August 2008

August 08 - Nonviolent Communication in Business

Monday 11th AUGUST, 2008 “Nonviolent Communication in Business”
You are warmly invited to our next meeting on Monday 11th AUGUST, 2008
Topic: Nonviolent Communications in Business with Shari Macree
The words we use are powerful. They can support a culture of teamwork, connection and trust… or create hostility, submission, guilt and fear.
Nonviolent Communication (NVC) by Dr Marshall Rosenberg is a way of communicating which is transforming workplaces the world over. It is also being used by world leading coaches and trainers to support the high performance in their clients.
Nonviolent Communication is a simple but profound tool which simultaneously shifts our individual and collective patterns of thought and the way we communicate with each other to supports a culture of willingness. It naturally stimulates generative thinking to take individual and team performance to whole new levels.
By learning 4 simple steps you can see beyond previous ways of viewing problems - including “challenging” staff and customers - and instead transform these issues into new opportunities. Performance, trust and emotional intelligence is built in your teams.
In this experiential session you will experience the shift NVC can make in your organisation and with your clients.
Shari Macree is an inspirational business woman and highly skilled facilitator. An internationally certified Nonviolent Communications trainer, Shari is known for her perceptive, challenging and inspirational style. Shari works widely with business managers, owners, organizational teams, schools and women in business. www.fullyalive.com.au

2 July 2008

July 08 - Notice

Monday 14th JULY 2008 there will be NO Sydney Facilitator’s Network meeting

As this is the start of World Youth Week events, we have chosen to have a mid-winter break and look forward to our next Network meeting on August 11th, refreshed and ready to participate.

Special Notice for Facilitators with an interest in Experiential Learning
ICEL 2008 - 2nd Call for Papers, Workshops, Posters
11th International Conference on Experiential Learning
8-12 December 2008 | University of Technology Sydney
SECOND CALL FOR ABSTRACTS FOR PAPERS, WORKSHOPS & POSTER PRESENTATIONS
Theme: The Identity of Experience – Focuses on current and future challenges for experiential learning. Challenges include:
1. The challenge of integration
2. The challenge of difference
3. The challenge of research investigation
4. The challenge of application
Key dates
• Refereed Papers (abstracts) - June 30 2008
• Non-refereed papers (abstracts) – August 30
• Workshops- Sept 30
• Posters - Sept 30
Previous countries: UK (2), USA (2), India, South Africa, Finland, Slovenia, Australia (1989), NZ (2000).
Early bird registration before Sept 9, 2008
www.education.uts.edu.au/icel/index.html

2 June 2008

June 08 - Discrimination Game

Monday 16th JUNE 2008 “Discrimination Game”

You are warmly invited to attend to a joint meeting with the Games and Simulations Network meeting on Monday 16th June.
Monday 16th June 2008 “Discrimination Game” with Susan Hayes
June’s Games and Simulations Network session will be presented by
Susan Hayes. Susan is an Induction Trainer at CityRail’s Petersham Training College
Susan’s role includes addressing a number of legislative compliance issues including anti-discrimination legislation. How does she do this successfully with such a diverse group of participants?
Experience a game that raises awareness of all types of discrimination!
There is also a discussion session to discuss the success of games in breaking down barriers!
Venue: Room 5.580 Level 5, Building 10, UTS, Jones Street, Ultimo corner Thomas Street.
Take the lift to level 5, cross the atrium bridge and look for room 580
Time: from 5:30pm to 7:30pm sharp
About Sydney Facilitators Network:
The Sydney Facilitators Network (Est. 1992) is a self-organising Community of Practice requiring no formal membership apart from a closed email list. Meetings attract between 25 and 40 participants including independent facilitators, trainers and consultants, volunteers and those employed in business, public sector, not for profits and the community sector. A donation of $5 per participant covers outgoings.
Meetings are held on the second Monday of the month from February to December (*unless a public holiday falls on the date in which case the meeting slips back 1 week). Dates for 2008 are Feb 11, Mar 10, April 14, May 12, June 16*, July 14, Aug 11, Sep 8, Oct 13, Nov 10, Dec 8. (* Third Monday due to public holiday)

9 May 2008

20/20 Summit Success by Greg Jenkins

Bennelong Mini Summit - Facilitators Network ideas get noticed in Canberra
Greg Jenkins spoke to 180 people at the Bennelong Mini Summit hosted by Maxine McKew in West Ryde on Wednesday April 30. Here is the text of his report to the Network’s Core Group. It seems that we were heard. Point 5 in Topic 9 was mentioned as one of the best submitted ideas in the governance stream. We get traction in Canberra.
“Dear Core group
Here is the submission that I put in to the summit on behalf of the network. Sorry for not sending it earlier. I just typed up what we wrote up at the meeting, sent it off and didn't think much about it.
Last week I heard about a local summit in the seat of Bennelong that was to be hosted by new member Maxine McKew. I called the number to get myself an invitation.
During the conversation with the organiser I mentioned our Facilitators Network submission, which I was asked to forward to Maxine McKew's office. This got me a speakers spot (one of 20) at the Bennelong local summit in West Ryde last night.
The topic area they gave me was on the future of Australian governance and the topic leadership. I had to reread carefully what we had sent to the summit and I have to say I was most impressed with what we came up with.
The meeting last night was opened by Maxine McKew. Senator John Faulkner Special Minister of state was also there. In Senator Faulkner's speech he mentioned the 3500 submissions that had come in prior to the main summit. He then mentioned enthusiastically one of the best ideas that got traction at the summit was one that had come in via written submissions. The idea he said was in the governance area and was for a web portal idea for people to make inputs on governance issues etc.
After he said this, I quickly glanced at our submission which I had printed and taken with me. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw that it was us that put in the idea. He was talking about point five in our submission for topic 9 - governance. The same idea was mentioned again and given a beat up in the introduction by Maxine McKew.
With such an audience I used my 4 minutes of fame, amongst other things, to talk about how the ideas in our discussion had emerged from people around small tables listening to each other. I compared this facilitated approach that we were using on the night and the one that I believe was used at the main summit where a few people came along with ideas to push. I took the opportunity to promote facilitated gatherings on a large scale where everyone's voice is heard.
In summary, even though our own summit meeting was an imperfect gathering, it was good enough to produce some really good ideas. More to the point it produced one of the main external ideas that got traction in the main summit. Imagine what we can do if we get our act together. I'm now connected with Maxine McKew's organising team and hopefully will have a greater role in the next local summit. Maxine McKew is also very close to Kevin Rudd. With a bit of luck and some lobbying real facilitators might get a role in the next big summit whenever that might be.
The immediate opportunities for us as facilitators is to get involved in local summits. Why not look in your electorate and see if you can get a gig on the back of our submission.”
Cheers
Greg

8 May 2008

20/20 Summit workshop Submission

Facilitators Network 20/20 Summit workshop Submission

Submission to the 20/20 summit by Sydney Facilitators Network
On April 7 we held an extraordinary meeting to devise a submission for the 20/20 summit. 12-15 of us met. We decided that we could do 3 of the 10 topics in a 2 hr session. The World Café format was used around 3 tables. After copious notes and deep discussions individual tables came up with the 300 words below which was submitted as one of 3500 submissions received in Canberra.
(We were listened to – see Notes on the Bennelong Mini Summit below)
TOPIC 1: The future of the Australian economy
• Passion encourages sharing rather than protecting
• Passion and power are opposites (ie power encourages protecting rather than sharing)
• As a country we need to value passion more than power including individual passion and collective passion
• Organisations and individuals should focus on
o What they are good at
o What they are passionate about
• Sharing of ideas will result in innovation
• Innovation works bottom up in small units
• Focus on connecting small units rather than creating large aggregated units

TOPIC 6: Strengthening communities and supporting working families
• Undertake urban planning to encourage accidental connection.
• Social capital grows out of community.
• Therefore fund social capital facilitators to engage the community.
• Encourage good things that are already happening in communities eg micro-loan models.
• Corporations CSR in local community - staff and funds.
• Have a Community Facilitator in the Piazza.

TOPIC 9: The future of Australian governance
• What would governance process look like in Australia if they were actively creating a viable and sustainable society?
• Focus on social measure as well as economics
• Regular reporting across a variety of measures
o Health
o Violence
o # of people that know neighbour's names
• Training every one in Australia in natural step (TNS)/big picture so they have a context to access political policy. (TNS: the natural step is an education program that enables people to work out if a business or country is sustainable or not)
• Create interactive web site that collates people's inputs re "what would make this community/the country better?
• Create an interactive program that enables community to collate things that make community better or worse - so we can tease out cause and effect.

2 May 2008

May 08 - Facilitating Values

Monday 12th May 2008 “Facilitating Values”

You are warmly invited to attend our next regular meeting on Monday 12th May
Monday 12th May 2008 “Facilitating Values” with Edward Saulig
Values act as guides to action. Studies show that what people value at work includes the following:
• freedom to participate in decisions directly affecting work activity
• a chance to learn on the job and to go on learning
• optimal variety
• mutual support and respect of work colleagues
• a socially meaningful task
• a sense of moving towards some desirable future
Edward Saulig facilitated an all day workshop to develop a set of values for his organization, Fairfield City Council. What emerged was “UMGAWI”.
Can we, as a facilitator’s community of practice, develop our own set of values in 60-90 minutes? Edward will apply his recent hands-on experience at this facilitation meeting.
An inclusive outcome is a definite possibility along with all the learning and sharing that it will entail. Let’s see what emerges. Let’s also find out the answer to the important question - what’s UMGAWI?

3 April 2008

April 08 - 2020 Summit Proposal

Facilitators Network Extraordinary Meeting Australia 2020 Monday 7th April

Facilitators Network 2020 Summit Submission
Extraordinary Meeting Monday 7th April, 2008
[Our scheduled fantastic meeting on April 14 is still on at our usual venue]
Our approximately 800 members have enormous experience and know-how which means that whilst we may not be invited personally to the 2020 table, we are well placed to influence those who have been invited and therefore contribute to the future of our nation.
With such variety and experience we propose that we put a group submission on behalf of the Facilitators Network (Est 1992) on each of the 10 summit topics (or as many as practical depending on who and how many turn up). Submissions to the 2020 summit will be accepted up to April 9.
Anyone can do an individual submission. However, as facilitators we have the processes to ensure that our submission emerges from the collective wisdom of our group.
Please come, bring friends and associates and be part of this once in a generation opportunity.

2 April 2008

April 08 - Smile Hunting Relieves Stress

Monday 14th April 2008 “Smile Hunting Relieves Stress”

You are warmly invited to attend our next regular meeting on Monday 14th April
Monday 14th April 2008 “Smile Hunting Relieves Stress” with Rada Millwood
Smile hunting relieves stress! This was the intriguing title describing results of recent research about the benefits of positive experiences. (The New Scientist 3/11/2007).
With increasing abundance, scientific research is confirming that positive actions such as smiling and laughing activate physiological processes that facilitate emotional balance and physical well-being.
Even without scientific validation, we know from our own personal experience that laughter clears the air, hurdles obstacles, makes roadblocks ridiculous, unplugs free association and lets our creativity loose. If we can laugh, we can think and perform at our best.
Smiling and laughter facilitate the conditions for enabling thinking, creativity and learning. More often than not, these simple human behaviours are often absent from our workplaces and daily life.
In this session Rada will draw on materials she presented to delegates at the 13th International Conference on Thinking held in Norrkoping, Sweden on 17–21 June 2007 so that you can participate in lots of smiling, laughing and having fun. You will be reminded of the lightness of spirit generated by full-bodied laughter exercise.
Rada Millwood’s diverse consulting and corporate development background is characterised by her long-standing interest in change, how people learn and how to enhance human potential.

2 March 2008

march 08 - Unlocking Human Potential to Create a New World Together

Monday 10th March, 2008 “Unlocking Human Potential to Create a New World Together”

You are warmly invited to attend our next meeting on Monday 10th March.
The meeting starts at 5:30pm and concludes at 7:30pm sharp
Monday 10th March 2008 “Unlocking Human Potential to Create a New World Together” with Richard and Maria Maguire
Join Richard and Maria Maguire in a group exploration on some of the big issues facing our world today. These include the persistence of poverty, environmental degradation, spread of violence and armed conflict, limited and unequal access to education or health-care, ineffective governance and human rights, empty consumerism and lack of engagement.
Our awareness and concern for this “bigger picture” will have an impact on how we understand and perform our work as facilitators. We can make a difference to the big questions by noticing what is going on, finding solutions and supporting or inventing new directions.
The processes used in table groups will be useful for other situations you might encounter as facilitators. Also, some of the conversations might generate potential input into Federal Government's Australia 2020 Summit.
We intend for the results of the process and discussions at the meeting to be input into the 7th Global Conference on Human Development in Japan November 2008. The conference will bring together people of all ages and backgrounds, from many countries and all sectors of society, in an attempt to make a dent in “Unlocking Human Potential to Create a New World together” (for more info see www.ica-international.org)
Richard and Maria Maguire (Unfolding Futures Pty Ltd) started and guided the Facilitators Network from 1992 for 12 years before passing the baton to the current team. They have been passionate facilitation practitioners for a very long time, yet still consider themselves as learners.

Outputs: www.unfoldingfutures.net/pdf/FacNetSydneyInputMarch08-5p.pdf

Session Guidelines: www.unfoldingfutures.net/pdf/InputSessionFacGuidelines-7p.pdf



2 February 2008

Feb 08 - Short Processes – Wildcard Meeting

Monday 11th Feb, 2008 “Short Processes – Wildcard Meeting”

Happy New Year and welcome to the Facilitators Network 2008, our 16th year.
You are warmly invited to attend our first meeting of the year on Monday 11th February.
The meeting starts at 5:30pm and concludes at 7:30pm sharp
Monday 11th Feb, 2008 “Short Processes – Wildcard Meeting”
At a wildcard meeting, members volunteer to run a short session for between 5 and 20 minutes. No sessions are scheduled in advance. All entries are taken on the night.
Types of processes suitable for the wildcard include ice breakers, opening and closing rituals, energisers, anything at all that can be done in 20 minutes or less.
Wildcard is for everyone. Whether you are a beginner, or highly experienced or somewhere in between, wildcard is for you.
The aim is to run and debrief as many short sessions as possible in the time available. Wildcard will start at 5:30 sharp. Please be on time.
For further info call Greg Jenkins M: 0418 486 501, greg@tincanlearning.com .