The Annual Conference of the International Association of Facilitators North America has started in Atlanta, Georgia. What a good place for networking. After some good introduction into Southern US culture we were greeted by a keynote of Dr. Betty Siegel, the former president of Kennesaw State University and a gifted motivational speaker. She talked about connectedness.
What stuck to my mind was one particular quote: "It is not about to make a living, it is about a live. We are not judged upon what we do, but who we are."
What a good start.
Right now, morning of 2nd day), a panel on Facilitative Leadership has started including wonderful Lisa Heft (Open Space Institute, US), Deborah Dunagan (IBM), Eriel Tchekwie Deranger (National Aboriginal Youth Engagment Coordinator), Phil Sharpe (Public Conversation Project), and Meenakshi Chakraverti (Turner Broadcasting Service).
The morning is facilitated through a method called Question Circle. Lisa starts with sharing a question. The next person will react on that, she does not have to answer to that question but talks about her associations. She ends with another question. Lisa starts with: "If I think about facilitative leadership ... (describing what facilitative leadership means to her) ... and then there comess a moment ... when the system shifts to the unknown ... there is something about this partnership about moving into the unknown ... What I struggle with ... how can this kind of leadership can be learned?"
Deborah continues, talking about their early experiences in management at AT&T, when she started to lead a group but was bound to follow union rules. She decided in this moment to trust herself. She started to inquiry people but the people felt spied. Deborah said she did take a risk being present with their staff and people started to open up (in an organization were people were timed when they went to the bathroom). "Facilitating leadership is critical to our future." She continues that the people you work with, if you are in a fear based organizations, prefer to work in a spirit of fear. So if you as a leader try to remove the barriers, it might be to big a step for them. She ends with the question: "How do we enable people of the next generation to live in the freedom of expression?"
Eriel continues. She talks about her experience with people whose needs were basic needs like food, shelter, dealing with alcoholism, etc. She mentions facilitators needing to take risks, stepping out of the comfort zone and to expect something new. "How to do bridge the gaps between the generations and merge the different types of leadership?"
Phil continues. He talks about complimentary teams. "How do I determine who isn't right for the teasm? Shall I keep this person as a developmental experiment? How do I decide?" And he ends with the question "Are there folks who don't respond to faciitative leadership and if there are, how do you respond to them?"
Meenakshi starts reflecting multicultural experiences refering about languages of dicourse. Talking about early experiences in working with grassroot organizations in India. She started to talk with women of these grassroot organizations about what is their greatest hope. And the women thought they would please her by saying that their greatest hope were polio vaccinations. Which didn't really make sense as answer. It is important to observe the language we use. Particularly in circumstances were people have urgent needs, our Western language might not serve the purpose we have. She leaves us (the table groups) with the question "What languages are you finding yourself and what languages have you bumped up yourself that you feel you cannot communicate with? How to you facilitate multi-linguality within yourself? What languages would you need to learn?"
We continued at round tables; the first one resonating to the last question, reflecting, and then ending with another question. Then comes the next at the table. A great process to initiate dialogue. Finally, Lisa asked us to put a lingering question on an index card which will be gathered and processed in another conversation.
For me, the lingering question at the end of this dialogue was: How can we as facilitators close the gap between ourselves and leaders? How can we serve those leaders?
SERVANT FACILITATION