The Magic of facilitating change
Hi there,
I really enjoyed giving the masterclasses at the conference learning for a complex world. It is always exciting giving a masterclass since generally people come in curious and willing.....for a while. But if nothing really happens between me and the participants...if we are not able to create some magic.....we are loosing the momentum and a masterclass becomes a very boring lecture. :o(
Now I would be lying if I would say that it has never happened to me before. But luckily it didn't happen at the conference.
Now there are many things that contribute to the magic and the unmagic. And I would like to discuss a few from my experience as a facilitator of a masterclass but also from the perspective of a participant of a msterclass. And please feel free to comment and contribute to this exploration of magic enablers and disablers.
For example when I myself follow a masterclass my first thoughts are 'well this person must know, be really good at this, is the leading example of how to do this, etc.' The result of this thinking is that I put them on a peddestal and the person become unreachable for real inquiry and real learning. Because I learn by diving in the subject, wrestling with the subject, bending my mind, flexing my imagination, destroying old judgement and building new one. And a person on a peddestal does not allow me to do this. It just does not seem right and quite unappropraite. So i have to start doing things to get this person of it's peddestal...making contact with remarks, questions, jokes but also minimizing the physical distance between me and the teacher of the masterclass. Once the distance is gone I can start doing some mental wrestling. Funny isn't it ?
Now this of course is only possible if and when the culture of the group and the style of the masterclass teacher allows that. I need some mental and behavioral leaveway to start freeing the mind. This reminds me of a very nice paper I recently read, written by Eugene Sadler-Smith University of Surrey in the journal of management learning & Education on developing intuitive awareness in management education, a must read.
Now when one gives a masterclass the biggest obstacle I am facing is 'me' yes ?! me...me....me....me. All these little voices in my head telling me how it should be, could be and ought to be, comparing with other institutions/ groups and settings. What these little voices do is keeping my attention away from the group and what is happening there. As a teacher I need to see and hear where the students are going and where appropriate facilitate or provide learning substance to wrestle with. I need to see and follow the curious mind and not be intimidated by it nor by the emotions that sometimes come along with learning. I was interviewed right after after the 'art gallery' masterclass, here have a look at the art-gallery masterclass video and it might shed some light on what I am trying to say from a facilitators point of view.
But of course there is a hell of a lot more and I am curious what you think enables magic to happen.
For me for now. Thanks to everyone for bridging the space between us and allowing us to have some magic during the masterclasses.
cu soon out there
Fred Buining
www.fredwerk.com