1 December 2016

Innovation Wildcard with End of Year Social | Monday December 12, 2016 | 5.30pm

Do you have a short process that you want to practice before you do it live with a client?
Have you been considering taking a guest facilitator spot but want to get some experience with the group first?
Do you have a short process that is energizing and fun?

All these and more are what wildcard is for. You can be guest facilitator on the night for between 5 and 20 minutes.
Typically there is time for around 6 short sessions.

Wildcards are for everyone no matter what the experience level. They are unpredictable, engaging and always fun.
Wildcards are a great way to experience a range of ideas and tools from a variety of different experiences.

Wildcard sessions are organized dynamically on the night. Just turn up with your idea.

Everyone else just turn up to learn from the experience and have fun.

Xmas Social

Please join us for networking, conversation and laughter afterwards at the nearby, very economical Pho Mumum Vietnamese Restaurant, No 16 Broadway, Chippendale (opposite the Big UTS Tower). Average meal cost only$10. 

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

6 November 2016

Leadership from the inside out : the capacity to lead and stay alive With Nick Ellem | Monday November 14, 2016.

Derives from a course and set of ideas developed at the Harvard Kennedy school of government by Ron Heifetz and others about the dangers of leading.

We will learn about leadership from the group itself as a case study of analysis and looking to build the following capacities:

- Learn to identify your capabilities, vulnerabilities and triggers
- figure out how others perceive your role in the system
- distinguish self from role
- choose among competing values
- increase tolerance for uncertainty, ambiguity, and conflict
- experiment beyond your comfort zone




About Nick Ellem
Nick Ellem, Harvard trained senior leadership development consultant and coach
specialised in working with organisations, teams and individuals to identify their adaptive leadership challenges, facilitate problem solving and build capacity to exercise leadership. The Adaptive Leadership Framework used in our programs grew out of the work of its co-founders Dr Ronald Heifetz and Martin Linsky at Harvard University, who have spent the last 30 years developing leadership art and practice.



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

31 October 2016

SFN Co-design Day - Thanks to everyone who could be there!

A very warm thank you for joining us on Saturday 22 October for the Future of Facilitation co-design workshop.

We really appreciated the participation and input from everyone there in making the day so engaging and memorable. We hope that attendees got as much from it as we did running it!!

  
Lina Mbirkou, who so beautifully lead the mindful reflection and sharing circle at the close of the day, shared a quote that so perfectly summarised how the team felt basking in the after-glow of the event:

"There is almost a sensual longing for communion with others who have a large vision. The immense fulfilment of the friendship between those engaged in furthering the evolution of consciousness has a quality impossible to describe." Pierre Teilhard Chardin

We were all overwhelmed and moved by the collective passion, experience, wisdom and creativity of the group. It was an affirming sign that facilitation has a bright future and that the Sydney Facilitators Network has a strong place to stand in supporting this growing community of practitioners
​.




3 October 2016

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

21 September 2016

Australasian Facilitator’s Network (AFN) Conference ‘Tuakana Teina,’ Waikato, New Zealand, November 29 - December 2 2016

The SFN is affiliated with the AFN (Australasian Facilitator’s Network).  The AFN is a self-organising community of practitioners based in Australia, New Zealand, South-East Asia and the Pacific, who have been meeting as the AFN since 1998 (and informally, with other identities, since 1992). 

The AFN focus is on working, learning and sharing with each other.

We share a passion for facilitation and participatory practice in pursuit of better communication, understanding, collaboration and harmony in workplaces, communities, and the world at large.

Similar to the SFN, the AFN is an informal unincorporated association of peers, there are no membership fees for AFN.  

Find out more at the AFN Website.

Each year since 1998 the AFN has held an Annual Conference. This is where professional and voluntary facilitators, supporters and students gather to ‘sharpen the saw’, reflect, discuss, debate, learn, share, meet, mix, create and recreate. 

AFN conferences are organised by teams of volunteers who are associates of the AFN.

  

This year the conference will be held at Waikato, New Zealand. The theme of the conference will be 'Tuakana Teina'.  This refers to the concept of older siblings teaching and guiding younger siblings; also to those with more experience in a particular practice passing their knowledge and skills on to those with less. 

Find out more at the AFN Conference website. 

13 September 2016

Future of Facilitation: Co-design Workshop

The Sydney Facilitators Network are hosting a co-design event held at the Michael Crouch Innovation Centre (MCIC, UNSW) on Saturday 22 October, 10am - 4pm, to explore and respond to the changing nature of facilitation.

We would like to invite you to be part of this co-creation process, along with fellow thought leaders and Australian facilitation professionals, to foster innovation, dialogue and uncover how facilitation might look in 2030.

It will be a fun, energetic and fast-paced session of 42 participants in the MCIC hub for Innovators. Our aim for this one-day workshop is to collaborate and empower our community to make positive and meaningful change in society.

But before we give you all the ins and outs of this fantastic day, we would love to ask you for your input and ideas to help our first SFN co-design event!

One not only needs their minds to think, dream and speak about change but also their hands to tinker, test, and build to create change!” - MCIC

Please take a few minutes to help us by completing a short survey:






3 September 2016

Facilitating Leadership Transformations with Godwin Vaz | Monday September 12th, 2016

Transformational shifts in thinking and behaviour at the top of an organisation can affect thousands of people’s lives, and the quality of relationships, innovations; and thus whole industry/country impact.

In this dynamic and interactive session, we will look at the role and opportunity of a facilitator to affect change at senior levels.  In our uncertain, disruptive and fast-change world this requires vision, courage, empathy and multidimensionality in the facilitator - to be adaptable and know when not to facilitate and to be more directive, non-conforming and confronting.

In this session we will discuss and explore:

  • What loses credibility and trust when influencing at the top team level
  • How 60% of leadership facilitation impact happens outside the room/event
  • The fears/blockers that may be holding you back from greater impact
  • The 5 stages of mastery for a Transformative Leadership facilitator
This session will be useful for change facilitators, trainers, leaders, leadership consultants, executive coaches, artists and aspiring leadership facilitators.

About Godwin Vaz.
Godwin has worked with executives and senior leaders in MNC’s, government, schools, NGO’s and universities in the role of advisor, mentor and top team facilitator.  His work has had him deliver projects in Brazil, USA, Kenya, China, Indonesia, Argentina, Thailand, Malaysia, Canada, Ethiopia, Singapore and India.  Some of his clients include Infosys, Kenyan Government, Itau Bank (Brazil), Singapore Airlines, ANZ bank, McKinsey and Company, Ethiopian Government – water research and public university programs.

This deep-dive session is an introduction to Godwin’s Facilitation Mastery program (October 22) and Leadership Facilitation program to be held in Nov/Dec 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

28 July 2016

Experiencing 'Circling' with Tim Mansfield, Mary Jamieson & Khali Young | Monday August 8, 2016

'Circling’ is a facilitated group process based on in-the-moment authentic relating. It is the art of getting someone else’s world in a way that has them feel seen, known and appreciated.
A Circle starts by a group of people or a single facilitator putting their curious and open attention on the person being ‘circled’. Rather than helping, fixing or solving any particular problem, the intention is simply to connect with them and enquire into their moment-by-moment experience. The facilitator and other group members may also vulnerably express their experience as it arises.
By relating in the present moment – beyond stories, expectations and pre-determined ideas about who they are – Circling has the capacity to reveal the true essence of the person being Circled. They may also discover that who they ARE is more magnificent than any limited idea about how they think they ‘should’ be. Because of this, Circling is often deeply nourishing.
Participants often experience a deep sense of connection with each other. Practising these skills over time can also build our capacity to bring truth, authenticity and connection to all relationships.

To find out more about Circling see http://integralcenter.org/what-is-circling/

About Khali Young
Khali works as a leadership coach and corporate transformation agent. He has a lifelong interest in deep spirituality and a passion for authentic connection and personal transformation. He's a graduate of the Generating Transformative Change program and has trained in several methods of embodied, relational coaching and change facilitation. He is one of the founders of Authentic Sydney.

About Mary Jamieson
Mary works as a professional group facilitator and coach in corporations, government and not-for-profit organisations. She’s qualified as a counsellor and negotiator and trained in Integral Coaching, human development models (Spiral Dynamics and Suzanne Cook-Greuter’s work), Non-Violent Communication (NVC), NLP, the MBTI measure and adult education among other things. Mary’s a long-term meditator and dance practitioner.

About Tim Mansfield
Tim Mansfield helps organisations large and small engage more fully with the process of creation. He is currently the CEO of a specialist web software company called Interaction Consortium.

=======================================================
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
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.

30 June 2016

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.

=======================================================
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
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.

12 June 2016

'The Art of Design Thinking: what it means and how it works' with Andrèz Coco | Monday June 20, 2016 | 5.30pm

As a facilitator your role is quite often to lead discussions and guide a group of people to a successful outcome. In some of these situations this might be about finding solutions for a specific issue. In these cases, using a Design Thinking process can really help with solving the problem by applying creative thinking from a critical and customer centric view. In a nutshell you could say that Design Thinking is using an activity-based process to co-create different ideas that lead to a customer-centric delivery based on the essence of the customer need.

In this workshop you will be introduced to the entire Design Thinking process: the key stages and some examples of tools you can use. In the second part of this workshop we will be putting an everyday case into practice: we will spend time on the 1st two stages of the process by working in smaller groups.


At the end of this workshop you will have a better understanding of:

-       what Design Thinking is

-       how the process looks like

-       how you can apply it as a facilitator

-       some tools you can use in the 1st to stage of the process

-       some practical insights in the 1st to stages of the process

Some useful videos:

What is service design: https://vimeo.com/88455206

What is design thinking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uilcaXYnluU


About Andrèz Coco

Andrèz Coco has been working as a Lead service designer and marketing strategy consultant for the past decade in Europe, Africa, South-America and most recently in Australia. Her degrees are in Marketing management & communications with additional courses in Design Thinking. She has worked with corporates, agencies, entrepreneurs as well as NGO’s. At the moment she works at Qantas Loyalty (Innovationlab) as a Lead service designer. She also supports the TEDx Sydney organizing team as their customer experience specialist. She was recently on of the panel guests at one of VIVID ideas vents on the topic of ‘The future of creativity’ amongst neuroscientists, artificial intelligence experts and fellow design thinkers.

Link to linkedin: https://au.linkedin.com/in/andrèz-coco-8207662

Link to webpage: http://www.andrezcoco.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 2016 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
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.

29 April 2016

‘How to be more creative and more centered with Mindful Cooking™’ with Lina Mbirkou | Monday May 9, 2016 | 5.30pm

As a facilitator, you are probably dealing with people and organisations experiencing major and rapid change, over-scheduling and increased pressure to perform in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment. This leads to stress, poor decision making, lack of clarity, anxiety, and other negative impacts.

While the practice of Mindfulness has been around for centuries, it has surged in popularity in recent years with highly regarded institutions such as Harvard, Monash and Melbourne Universities developing clinical studies showing that people who spend more time being mindful tend to experience clearer, more focused thinking, improved memory and attention, and heightened performance and achievement.

Mindful Cooking™ is one the most effective ways to teach us to pay attention by using food as the object of meditation. It’s not about clearing the mind, but rather learning to gently bring our attention to the task at hand or the food in front of us. By having a mind-body experience, participants have better chance to integrate and embody the teachings they can use in their daily lives, and use every meal as an opportunity to practice and remind themselves to be in the here and now as opposed to being distracted, stressed or overwhelmed.
Mindful Cooking™ helps train the mind and develop a sense of patience and appreciation. It’s also an opportunity to get back in touch not only with the food you eat but with every action you take in life.

Although we won’t be cooking at this workshop, the interaction with the food provided is designed to introduce you to a mindfulness toolkit that you can use in helping groups become more aware of the beliefs and preconceptions that color and distort their perception of reality, by opening them up to the possibility of seeing things and other people clearly, as they are, without the lens of stories and expectations.

You will walk away feeling calmer and more relaxed, with ideas about creating quiet and still environments in which people can observe and reflect on their own thoughts and behaviours,and tips about how you personally can become more self-aware, less reactive, and develop a greater ability to focus and enjoy life in general.


About  Lina Mbirkou 
Lina Mbirkou is a corporate wellbeing consultant, an intuitive chef and a certified yoga and meditation teacher, who is blending her extensive Moroccan culinary experience with proven stress reduction techniques to provide a taste of what mindfulness is and make it a delicious part of daily life.
Lina Mbirkou has an MBA and a Master of Commerce and has pursued a corporate and academic career in Marketing and Communication before launching “Mindful Cooking” in 2015 to share her love for creativity, mind-body connection and good food…
She will be offering a highly experiential one-day workshop in Sydney on the 26th June. This is an opportunity to deepen and extend your skills in facilitating mindfulness while learning to cook and enjoy an amazing Moroccan feast!
For more information, please contact Lina on 04 66 322 399, by e-mail on lina@mindfulcooking.com.au or visit mindfulcooking.com.au
You can find out more about Lina here and visit her website here

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

31 March 2016

Talking about Tough Issues, with the OBREAU Tripod with Don Dunoon | Monday April 11, 2016 | 5.30pm

As a facilitator, you’ll almost certainly find yourself dealing with tough issues, those that are prickly, messy, perceived differently by stakeholders, and often with a degree of heat attached. This workshop is designed to introduce you to a toolkit that you can use in helping groups and individuals converse about such issues productively. You’ll likely also find the method helpful in getting ready to talk about issues of concern to you, personally.
A proposition to be examined is that three default behaviour patterns tend to get in the way of effective conversations on tough issues: reacting to new information and experience, judging others negatively, and “dancing around” (side-stepping, smoothing over) difficult aspects.
The OBREAU Tripod is a counterweight to these default behaviours. “OBREAU” refers to three practices:
  • Working from OBservation (noticing as far as possible prior to interpreting)
  • Attributing REasonableness (allowing that others are reasonable)
  • Speakingwith AUthenticity (saying what is true for you while keeping connections with observation and reasonableness).
·      The OBREAU Tripod can be applied in a variety of settings; for example, in supporting large group dialogue, executive coaching, and in leadership, team and culture development initiatives. The Tripod can provide a light structure to aid the emergence of greater clarity and shared meaning with virtually any multi-faceted issue.

In this session, we will apply the OBREAU Tripod as a large group in considering an issue, possibly a corporate controversy that has received recent press coverage. As well – and as far as possible within the limited time available – participants will be able to try out the OBREAU Tripod in helping them think through a thorny issue that matters to them personally, and discuss the results with colleagues.
You will walk away with ideas about enabling and facilitating more productive conversations, about creating safe environments in which people can speak up, and about how you, personally, can strengthen your own ability to engage effectively with others on tough issues.

About Don Dunoon
As an independent consultant, Don Dunoon has over 20 years’ leadership and organisational development experience. He is the author of In the Leadership Mode (Trafford, 2008), a book that frames leadership – as distinct from management – in terms of interventions to build shared meaning and elicit energy for change with contentious issues. He is the author of articles in international journals including one with acclaimed Harvard mindfulness researcher, Dr. Ellen Langer. Don is also developer of the OBREAU Tripod.
He will be offering a highly experiential one-day workshop, Facilitating Conversations for Shared Meaning on Tough Issues, in Sydney on 10th June. This is an opportunity to deepen and extend your skills in facilitating in contexts where people are dealing with issues they feel strongly about, particularly in helping groups move toward common understandings (as distinct from technical solutions) and in fostering group and individual development.

You can find out more about Don here and visit his website here.

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

Follow-up from our March session: Output materials

At the end of our March session (which was really good!) our guest facilitators, Maria & Richard Maguire, committed to typing up the output from the session.


Richard & Maria also typed up some comments and insights from the session and also some information if you are curious to learn more about the Technology of Participation (ToP).

1. Most people seemed to be amazed how quickly the group was able to put together their extensive brainstorm into a common picture and discern major directions in which we are working towards a more collaborative, just and sustainable society, already now and in the future.  The diagram in the bottom right corner shows that the group had a strong sense that truth and integrity are essential for all that we do, especially at this time, and has centre stage for change in other areas. The two top circles indicate that they saw enabling future vision and action as fundamental for impact. The elements on the bottom of the diagram highlight four major directions for supporting this to happen: Ensuring a safe space and affirming diversity, thinking outside the box, sharing stories and using multiple approaches and sensory experiences.

2. In real situations participants would  further discuss their first chart to reveal insights and might make slight adjustments about where to place the individual cards. Conversations might surface intriguing implications for many areas and new ideas in answer to the initial question or topic that could be added to as appropriate. The "Consensus Workshop" process of the Technology of Participation (ToP) is structured as well as fluent to capture ideas and decisions at the time. It supports cooperative thinking and action at any level of personal and group development and is best used on an ongoing basis. Anyone can learn to use it beneficially by themselves or with a group. The facilitator is challenged to trust the people and the method and help the group see connections beyond separate parts and create an integrated picture of the situation they are focusing on (the title of topic of the workshop)

3. We have used this and many other processes of the Technology of Participation (ToP) for several decades in our consulting and training work, for change management tasks, strategic planning, conflict resolution and life directions, often in combination with other tools and techniques and are still offering both training and consulting. You can also learn more from books such as "Winning through Participation" by Laura Spencer, "The Workshop book" or "The Art of Focused Conversations" both by Brian Stanfield or "Transformational Strategy" by Bill Staples (the latter is available as a pdf through

Some pieces are on our website, hopefully added to in the near future. For training through us and others or related info please call us on 02 9896 3839 or 9896 3904). 

10 March 2016

‘Liberating Facilitation: How our facilitation can contribute to a more participatory, just and sustainable society’ with Maria & Richard Maguire | Monday 14th Mar 2016

The Facilitators Network exists to give opportunities for participants to continually, generously and honestly share experiences, processes and learnings to increase their effectiveness in this growing field of work.

Most of us chose facilitation not primarily for its financial benefit but because it makes sense and is needed in more and more settings. Some of us experience ourselves and notice in others a growing dissatisfaction with aspects of our current social-political and economic systems. As facilitators many of us do not only want to do a great facilitation job on every occasion but also make a difference regarding the big issues of our time, such as economic inequality, social and ideological conflicts and environmental degradation.

Many of us are committed to participation and inclusion and wonder how to grow our effect towards a more just, sustainable and even joyful society. 

This highly participatory workshop “Liberating Facilitation” will bring together our individual and collective wisdom on what we are already doing in our facilitation work or have seen others doing that releases change in such direction. 

You will go home with a product that affirms what you already do, encourages you to try out additional small or big steps and with a process to successfully use in many situations in your life and work. 

You will experience a method of the Technology of Participation (ToP) which you can explore further through books and trainings offered through Unfolding Futures and others. The 300 page book from 2014 by Bill Staples "Transformational Strategy- Facilitation of ToP Participatory Planning" is available as an E-Book for US$3.99 at

About Maria and Richard Maguire 
Maria and Richard Maguire are directors of Unfolding Futures, a company focused on facilitation and leadership development in its consultancies and training. They founded the Sydney Facilitators Network as a community of practice in 1992 and guided it for 12 years. For 30 plus years they have worked with many organisations in government, business and community in Australia, and previously in Europe and the USA, with stints in so-called developing nations. They have always understood their work and company as a “social enterprise, a market based venture with social aims” for all involved. After achieving financial independence they increasingly have supported or initiated community organisations to extend their impact and cooperation to create common good and received awards as community leaders. 

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