Cracking the Sustained Collaboration Code with Gabrielle Martinovich | Mon 13 Jul | 5:30PM

Real collaboration is hard work – you have to be honest, raw and sometimes have tough conversations.  Ask any leader or group whether they value collaboration, and you’ll undoubtedly get a yes. Ask whether an organisation’s strategies to increase collaboration have been successful, and you’ll probably receive a different answer.  Often collaboration is seen as a value to cultivate instead of a skill to teach. Yet in successful collaborations, such judgment gives way to curiosity. Our new normal advocates generating sustained collaboration in order to crack new opportunities. So in this session we will explore creative ways to build connection and give feedback so we can do what matters.  Bring a pad, pen, post it notes and your curiosity. About Gabrielle Martinovich Gabrielle is founder of CreativePivot and works with businesses experiencing significant growth, change or complexity to connect with their people, partners and customers.  Passionate about sparking ideas for tackling complex systemic challenges, she is committed to processes that deliver practical solutions.  Her diverse background spans performing arts, tertiary education, infrastructure, energy and resource recovery – facilitating groups to explore alternative ways of collaboration that build resilience and sustainable practice.  Gabrielle is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, co-founder of the IAP2 Environment and Sustainability Community of Practice and an alumnus of Social Leadership Australia.

Venue: Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87629563899

Time: Zoom room opens at 5:00pm. Session begins at 5:30pm SHARP

Contact: www.facilitatorsnetwork.blogspot.com
Eoin Higgins  eoin.p.higgins@gmail.com : 0407 411 684

Opportunities Created by Coronavirus with Victoria Ke and Eliot Redelman | 15th Jun | 5:30PM

Our present crisis is both a global strain and a potential opportunity for facilitating the bringing about of a new world. Join us in conversation about where we are, how the world is changing and how we might facilitate and co-create a new and better world order. About Eliot and Victoria Eliot is a meditator and a deep thinker, he's interested in the relationships between the parts of the system and our own minds. He's interested in how we design the incentives of the structure of society to bring about a better world.  Victoria holds the vision of a world that is united. She is a developing entrepreneur, facilitator, community builder and event organiser who is committed to spreading the message of love, unity and truth through her work. She is passionate about innovation in well-being and co-creating a healthcare system that treats humans like humans: complex, social and multi-faceted human beings.

Venue: Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83065962750 Time: Zoom room opens at 5:00pm. Session begins at 5:30pm SHARP Contact: www.facilitatorsnetwork.blogspot.com Eoin Higgins  eoin.p.higgins@gmail.com : 0407 411 684 Monday Jul 13th TBC   Monday Aug 10th TBC

Manifesting in Isolation with Anick Patry | 11 May | 5:30PM

In this period of isolation, your life has changed. You can’t be in a group, your movements are limited, restrictions are imposed. You might be feeling frustrated, trapped, upset at times. You are at home a lot. What if you can use this time to tap into your creative energy and your heart’s intelligence and discover how to manifest what you really desire? What if this was an opportunity for you to go inward, to expand and learn new ways of creating? Manifesting is what you do night and day, but what is very powerful is when you become aware of how you manifest and what you manifest. In this workshop, you will discover a practical and fun tool to help you manifesting intentionally. You will be able to take it home and start to apply and play with the tool straight away! You will also gain more clarity and awareness. During our time together you will be guided: 1. Warm-up to centre yourself 2. You will be invited to do a rich and fun exercise. 3. You will be invited to answer a series of questions. 4. Closure feedback - take aways Bring a pad and a pen and your favorite beverage and an open mind and heart! About Anick Patry Anick is an Empowerment Mentor & Speaker who helps highly sensitive successful women and men to build deeply loving relationships, experience pure joy and be accepted for who they truly are, so that they can manifest their deepest desires with ease. As an Empowerment coach and TEDX Speaker with over 15 years experience teaching and facilitating workshops globally, Anick has enabled 1000's of men and women to create lives beyond their wildest dreams. Anick's clients come to her to learn how to live passionately so that they can open their hearts to others without fear, remain connected to their higher selves and be the creator of their own lives. To learn how to experience pure joy, be accepted for who you truly are and build deep loving relationships so that you can live a passionate life join the Highly Sensitive Empowered Leaders group here Anick Patry  www.anickpatry.com

Venue: Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86586801394 Time: Zoom room opens at 5:00pm. Session begins at 5:30pm SHARP Contact: www.facilitatorsnetwork.blogspot.com Eoin Higgins  eoin.p.higgins@gmail.com : 0407 411 684 Monday Jun 15th Relationship to Money with Victoria Ke & Eliot Redelman Monday Jul 13th TBC

Facilitating for Sustainability with Lina Mbirkou | Mon April 20th | 5:30pm SHARP (Zoom opens at 5:00pm)

Sustainability can mean different things to different people:

For some, it’s about keeping the delicate ecosystems of our planet in balance, and in that context, our role as facilitators might be to keep up-skilling to hold the increasingly complex conversations to address the wicked problems of our times.

For others, the meaning of sustainability is to remain in business and profitable in the short, medium and long term. In the current context of physical distancing due to the Coronavirus, this manifests through an acute need for better virtual meetings to maintain connection and productivity. However, increasingly flexible working patterns and debates over business air travel mean the demand for remote collaboration is likely to only increase in the long term and require us as facilitators to find ways to adapt to market needs.

There could also be a deeper meaning linked to self-sustainability and the inner place from which we, as facilitators operate to remain resilient when we are surrounded by confusion, chaos and complexity…

As a convenor of the Sydney Facilitator Network and co-designer and co-host of "The Future of Facilitation", it’s my honour to present our first virtual SFN, invite you to surface what sustainability evokes for you and to re-examine how you see your role as a facilitator in different contexts both now and in the future.

You can register in advance for this meeting:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJArd-urqzwqGdebU-zPtC80RTpvrRnlNeNr

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Bring your own snacks and refreshments, a notebook and a pen and make sure you have good internet connection and that you have downloaded Zoom in advance, and tested your sound and webcam.

About Lina Mbirkou Lina Mbirkou is an accomplished coach, facilitator and the founder and director of MACRO Leaders, which helps people hone their ability to nurture meaningful relationships and navigate emerging futures. Her methods develop authentic leadership and build the capability of teams to cultivate a collective way of seeing, doing and being. Lina is well known as a creator of her own processes and resources for the industry. For example she has developed the MACRO Leaders model to guide her work in transforming leaders and organisations. The acronym MACRO stands for: Mindfulness, Authenticity, Courage, Resilience, and Openness. In her Mindful Cooking programs, Lina has designed creative processes to integrate learnings, change individual and collective behaviours and formalise practice using sustainably produced food. Lina is a convenor of The Sydney Facilitators Network (SFN), and a master facilitator of World Café, Open Space Technology, Human-Centered Design, Authentic Relating, Non-Violent Communication, Conversation Meals and Leading with Purpose. As a certified yoga and meditation teacher, Lina knows how to hold space for people to reflect, listen deeply and inquire openly in ways that encourages empathy and builds connection. Lina is also a powerful speaker on topics relating to mindful leadership, emotional and spiritual intelligence, collaboration, innovation and resilience.

Venue: Zoom. You can register in advance for this meeting: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJArd-urqzwqGdebU-zPtC80RTpvrRnlNeNr Time: Zoom room open at 5:00pm. Session begins at 5:30pm SHARP Contact: www.facilitatorsnetwork.blogspot.com Eoin Higgins  eoin.p.higgins@gmail.com : 0407 411 684 Monday May 11th TBC Monday Jun 15th TBC

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

Exploring different dimensions of time in facilitation within different cultural contexts with Charlie Trindall | Mon 10 Feb 2020 | 5:30PM

As the saying goes ‘time is something we all have’ but is time something we all understand? Many of us work in a 9am-5pm job realm and take 1hr lunch breaks and go home and have tea around 7.30pm and ready for bed by 9.30-10.30pm and the next day well, this kind of repeats itself. Within our busy lives as facilitators, managers and leaders we draw up agenda’s regularly structured around time to run our workshops and meetings. But what happens if we found ourselves working with a group who may not exactly operate around the same time concept as us? In this workshop we will explore some concepts around time and look at how different cultural groups understand and use time. Through this exploration of time we can better understand and use these time concepts to our advantage within our work as facilitators especially working within Aboriginal communities. About Charlie Trindall Charlie is a Gamilaroi man born in North Western NSW and spent most of his adult life in Anaiwan country on the NSW Northern Tablelands and now based in Sydney. Charlie has a long interest in the area of facilitation since learning Technology of Participation (ToP) methods with members of the Institute of Cultural Affairs in the late 90’s. More recently through his interest in energy and healing found hs way to the Zenergy Global facilitation model and enrolled in the Diploma of Facilitation in 2016, completing his diploma in December 2019. He is a member of the SFN and AFN and has continued to develop and broaden his facilitation training, interest and skills over the years in a diverse ranges of group facilitation areas and currently works as a facilitator and trainer.

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 March 09th Facilitating High Performing Teams in the Age of Complexity with Allison Tsao Monday April 13th TBC

Innovation Wildcard Night & End of Year Social | 09 December | 5:30PM

Do you have a new idea to try out with a receptive audience? 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.

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 Watch this space for our exciting 2020 program...