‘Getting high on learning... but seriously!’ with Sandris Zeivots | Monday March 9, 2015 | 5.30pm

For decades emotions have been viewed as an obstacle in the learning environment. Only recently scholars and practitioners have started understanding the crucial role of emotions that affects the way we think, our motivation and beliefs, our attitudes and values. Meyer & Turner (2002) claim that learning is not likely to happen in the absence of emotions. While research on emotions is largely dominated by negative emotions, e.g. anxiety and stress, positive emotions have been often been left out and considered as less important human experiences. Lately positive emotions have begun to be considered as essential experiences for learning. Recent studies illuminate the essential benefits of positive emotions for learning, including broadening a learner’s thinking and attention, enhancing optimal human functioning and providing the seed for personal development. In this session, we will focus on strong positive emotions or ‘emotional highs’ and their role in learning. We will reflect on how emotional highs are ‘lived’ in different learning environments and reconsider some invisible features that may exist behind these experiences. Activities will be complemented with insights from the presenter’s journey researching emotional highs for a PhD. About Sandris Zeivots: Sandris Zeivots’ professional background is in experiential learning having facilitated personal and professional development courses for a decade. Sandris has just submitted his PhD on “Lived experience of emotional highs in experiential learning”. For further information contact Sandris on: sandris.zeivots@gmail.com.

‘Conversation as Core Business Process’ | Monday February 9, 2015 | 5.30pm

Outputs from this session

In 1996, the creators of ‘The World Café’ Juanita Brown and David Isaacs wrote a paper for The Systems Thinker titled ‘Conversations as a Core Business Process’. Read the paper here.

In a world where social media rules and complex ideas are reduced to short grabs, how can we facilitate purposeful deep and compelling conversations?

·       What conversation tools do we use and how well do they work?

·       What are the opportunities if we ‘really listen’?

·       What difference would it make if we asked the right questions?

·       What has ‘Systems Thinking’ got to do with conversations?

This session will be in a conversation format. Bring your ideas and experiences to share and join in the conversation.

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 2015 please contact Greg Jenkins 0418 486 501 gregjenkins@yahoo.com

Meeting Dates and Venue Confirmed for 2015

Facilitators Network (established 1992) meetings will be held on the second Monday of every month during 2015 (except June - 3rd Monday), 5.30 - 7.30 PM, at the usual venue; University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Room 580, Level 5, Building 10, Jones St (Cnr Thomas St) Ultimo.
Dates for your diary.

9th Feb; 9th March; 13th April; 11th May; 15th June; 13th July; 10th August;  14th September; 12th October; 9th November; 14th December

 The first meeting of 2015 will be Feb 9.
No RSVP - Just turn up. Everyone welcome. Donation $5 to cover expenses.

‘Facilitating Reflective Practice’ with Greg Jenkins | Monday December 8, 2014 | 5.30pm [Followed by an end of year social]

Reflection is hard to do. Individually, it requires a connection with our inner self that, for many, due to work and the sheer intensity of daily life, makes any sort of retrospection hard to achieve. Group reflection is especially seen as being too hard. Whilst some are successful, the majority, either do it poorly or not at all. It’s easier look ahead than to look back. Moving on without proper reflection means that lessons don’t get learnt. The same old mistakes keep happening and neither do we get to the root cause of any problem nor are we able to replicate the good things that we do. What would it take to do meaningful, effective and collaborative reflection with any group? What would be the benefits? What works and what doesn’t? Greg will share a suite of proven reflective practices including a four-part ‘lessons learnt’ group process that can be used in almost any situation. Bring your own reflective practice ideas and experiences to share. About Greg Jenkins Greg is has been coordinator of Facilitators Network for a decade. Greg’s practice is systems based making facilitation accessible to everyone at all levels of experience. 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. See review on Trip Advisor ======================================================= 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 Blog www.facilitatorsnetwork.blogspot.com Enquiries | Greg Jenkins greg@changeagent.com.au | 0418 486 501

‘It's All True - The Gifts of Light and Shade in the Power of Paradox’ with Ralph Kerle | Monday November 10, 2014

Decision making is full of contradictions and mystery, yet underlying every decision making process we enter lies the need for certainty and control. We want to know who we are, where we stand and what we stand for. The definition of true genius is often described as the ability to hold two opposing views simultaneously without going crazy. This conceptual state is called a paradox and it is where our creativity is born and lives; where stillness meets movement, where truth meets mystery, where masculine meets feminine. Ultimately if we can become aware of the power and influence of paradox in our decision making, we can begin to develop an increased capacity for uncertainty, and ambiguity in ourselves, others and the world around us. By developing this capacity for paradox, we can learn to hold opposing thoughts simultaneously that might otherwise be suppressed enabling deeper insights - the essence of creativity itself.. In this session, using a simple dialogue technique designed around a series of fundamental paradoxical questions, we will focus on recognising the paradoxes in our thinking, we will experience how to hold and live with them and observe the way they merge to provide meaningful insight and a way forward. About Ralph Kerle Dr. Ralph Kerle, MCI, DADA, h.c. is an internationally respected thought leader, creative facilitator and writer on organizational innovation, creative leadership and behaviours. He has a specific interest in designing creative leadership and creativity workshops framed around arts based processes as a way of recognising and developing creative practices at work. His belief is organizational innovation is the outcomes of creative behaviours that occur in practice in a work context. If we can understand how we behave creatively in a work context then we can begin to improve, develop and be creative around our work practices regardless of our profession or position.