Engage or Enrage Engagement Planning

IMG_4475Are you ever responsible for a project, making up a program, putting on an event? This highly interactive course will help you plan how to identify and engage your stakeholders so that they feel heard, consulted or collaborated with as they would wish!

Feb 27th 2013, The Abbotsford Convent Abbotsford, 9:00am to 4:45pm, $330 inc. GST, ($300 Early Bird Rate before Feb 13) lunch & teas, materials and informative manual. Registrations Australian Study Circles Network Mary.brennan@studycircles.net.au and download information flyer

 

Community education engagement planning

Behaviour change by others is a common desire for many agencies. Finding ways to actively engage community members is all to often seen to be a scary and intimidating business. Complicating factors include such issues as there being no one absolute answer to topics such as health and safety, and another is that many people either have a quite reasonable understanding of the topic anyway, or have good reasons to act the way they do. In a series of courses designed and run for the Country Fire Authority I introduced five engagement tools or techniques that would help the staff and volunteers run conversations with small groups on the topic of fire. As well as practicing to use the tools, the participants also developed their own plan documenting a community group they wanted to target, what the focus for the conversation should be (eg. Parents with young children and house fires) and which tools they might use to enable a conversation. This enabling them to take a planned and purposeful approach to engagement on community safety which they could monitor and evaluate themselves. The tools are Put yourself on the Map, Lucky Draw, Learning Matrix, On the Line and Three Best Bets.

 

One Day Wonder Learnings

One Day Wonder

The One Day Wonder was held last October, but I have only just got around to typing up the responses to the Round Robin Question at the end:

“What have you learned?”

After listing answers and passing the sheets around, a different group had to identify the KEY LEARNING from those on the sheet. These have been high-lighted below. I have found value in all these answers:

  •  Pre-planning is so important
  • Technologies (graphic recording & imeet) can be tools to be used wisely and appropriately
  • A reminder of some great techniques
  • The power of the circle
  • The wisdom of combined knowledge
  • If something was successful, you don’t have to try and recreate it – other situations may not be appropriate
  • Embrace the scary stuff
  • Facilitation – Ethics & Process comes before tools
  • Good graphic icons
  • We are on the same page even if we look different.
  • Drop shadow bullet points
  • Future uses on technology in facilitation
  • Different learning styles including movement
  • Lots of people are doing lots of interesting stuff
  • Physical movement can shift your thinking
  • Importance of hanging our with like minded people
  • Who introduces the facilitator – asserting independence and authority of facilitator
  • Insight into new processes
  • More tools, techniques, tips and tricks
  • How to sort out hot spots – sort the problem out as a group
  • Importance of reflective practice
  • First facilitate thyself
  • Regardless of technology, good facilitation is paramount
  • Naming whats happening brings us into the present, and together as a group
  • Directing the process, not controlling people
  • The value of graphics in reporting – how to draw symbols
  • Lots of people with common human themes
  • Our fears are similar
  • Can exclude people without being aware
  • New processes for evaluation
  • Begin with the end in mind…hmmm
  • Different approaches to conveying ideas
  • Background and context to debates about facilitation
  • Importance of time to reflect on facilitation
  • Recognition of alternative viewpoints and styles
  • Time to be a participant
  • Different groups all have something to bring
  • The comfort and smugness we get in a group of people like us
  • How nurturing and challenging a enriching to be in a group of facilitators
  • Awareness of diversity – intent is not enough to prevent exclusion
  • New ways of looking a familier exercises
  • Impact of fear on my facilitation style
  • About my facilitation style and how to improve it
  • I can DRAW well enough to give graphic facilitation a go
  • My confidence and facilitation skills have come a long way in the last 2yrs
  • We all want and need to be heard
  • Affirmed and consolidated my learnings as much as I learn, there’s always more
  • Learnt to scribe! And a way to improve my handwriting
  • Importance of maintaining independance (and how to do it)
  • How to improve my ability to listen
  • Co-facilitation skills
  • Importance of clarity in contracting
  • Most people here are fascinating.. And friendly and generous
  • Learned to use the lichard scale on the floor
  • Community of selves model
  • The strength of accepting rather than resisting
  • Identifying what you fear and where you feel it in your body
  • Skills, Knowledge,Attitude Tools
  • Effectiveness of visual depiction
  • Anyone can draw – need imagination and skill to capture
  • Images need context
  • People are working in lots of places and areas in Victoria
  • Facilitatators come from lots of backgrounds
  • Reminded of the importance of things we already know
  • Facilitators are ‘over’ defining facilitation – They have moved from ‘becoming’ to ‘belonging’
  • Wordsmithing is tedious and very difficult
  • Facilitators are engaged from start
  • Pre contractural planning
  • There are many talented people in this room
  • Don’t be introduced
  • Community of selves
  • Doing v Being
  • The importance of not being introduced at start by senior manager
  • Working with fear ‘Red riding Hood’s bad way’ – analysing fears via. Fairy tale analysis
  • Freedom to say ‘no’ to work or aspects – or challenge premises, negotiate
  • What is subconscious comes out in symbols
  • Being amongst nurturing community of facilitators
  • Diversity – beware of stereotyping, mindless exclusion. Physical energy