FACILITATION

Individuals and groups are most effective at work when they can reflect on what they are doing and how they are relating to others.   Most groups benefit from having a neutral facilitator who helps them examine their processes, behaviors, and accomplishments as they move toward their goals.   As a facilitator I work with pairs, small groups, and large groups.

Team Building:   Productive teams don't just happen; they are the result of clear goals, appropriate membership, ongoing trust, decision making tools, and team leadership. I facilitate a process where team members learn to work collaboratively toward their goals by practicing open and honest communication and other basic team skills.   I work with executive teams, management teams, project teams, and self-directed work teams.

Large Group Planning Processes:   When the whole system is in the room magic seems to occur!   In recent years many large group processes have been developed: some for groups within an organization, others for organizations as a whole, and others for communities or other external systems.   I facilitate two such processes:

• Future Search Conference, designed by Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff, brings a diverse group of stakeholders (60 to 70 usually) who can contribute to the issue of the conference .   The goal is to get the whole system into the room for several days, ending with common ground and planned action based on this common ground.   Using this approach, follow-through occurs more readily.
• Open Space Technology, designed by Harrison Owen, also unites a diverse group (of any number!) in terms of education, ethnicity, politics, culture, etc.   In a short period of time the participants organize their own topics and then self-manage groups around these topics for a specified period of time.  

In both these large group processes I facilitate the large group discussions and provide the structure for the small group activities in which participants take responsibility for the conversations and the outcomes of these conversations.

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