Charles-Louis de Maere’s Post

I remember our discussion - a couple of months ago - with Noah Curtis and Moire Futrell when we planned out the design and success criteria for the #Kishotenketsu facilitation track for Product Owners at Swift. "How many sessions should they follow for you to consider that they've successfully completed the track?" I wasn't sure what to answer. How do you evaluate the success of a facilitation learning track? By tracking attendance? By checking in who's there on time and who's late? By keeping track on the ones who speak in plenary and the ones who don't? And how do you design an effective learning track for folks one's never met? Because there's no one-size-fits-all approach for facilitation. Because facilitation means making it easy for other people to do their work... so that might mean that we could just nudge them and get out of the way? Make them owners of the content, and remain there as placeholders, ensuring people feel they can speak up in the group? We're nearing the end of the facilitation track and today we were able to put everything we already saw together. All the activities and previous sessions led to this day and what you see below is a number of items that today's participants brought forward as the most important things a facilitator needs to keep in mind when working in a wicked world. Oh rest assured, we don't believe the world is wicked - that word merely refers to a problem categorisation by Keith Grint (Critical - Tame - Wicked). Sprinkle onto that a frame that shows how people expect problems could be (or should be!) solved, and some more theory... put folks in breakouts, shake, stir... and voilà ! Here's what they came up with! I must say that I'm impressed with the quality of the outcome. Because none of the words below are mine, and when I looked at that I didn't find something was really _missing_. So, I want to extend my thanks to today's participants: Judy Byrne - chidi okwuegbuna - Xuan Son Nguyen - Carine Coenen - Letitia Mihaila - Jean-François Collard - Geert Van Campenhout - SANKER AKELLA - Veerle Vermuyten - Sanjeev Kumar - Dogu Eke - Praveen Vangari - Pascal Yennis - Suvasish Ghosh - Brenda Jacobs. Today's exchanges demonstrated an answer to the question that we explored before the track even started. I'm looking forward to our next session, in a couple of weeks! Oh - and thanks Matthew Richter for making me aware of Keith Grint's problem categorization, and about the importance of context in leadership actions.

Effective facilitation is an art that blends preparation with the ability to engage every participant. Sharing insights from facilitator training, it's clear that the small details, like how you manage the space and materials, can significantly impact the learning experience. Let's appreciate the subtleties that make for powerful learning environments. #ProfessionalDevelopment #FacilitationExcellence https://loom.ly/u4afkig In silence, there's power. As facilitators, embracing moments of quiet gives participants the space to reflect and contribute thoughtfully, leading to deeper learning and engagement. It's a reminder that sometimes, the best thing we can do is listen and wait. #ActiveListening #EffectiveFacilitation https://loom.ly/u4afkig

🌟It's not just a talk🌟 👩👦 I was at a talk with my son where a speaker addressed a whole hall of bright minds and parents. 300 people, 20 minutes—do the math. It's a lot of time spent listening to one person. I asked my son how it was. His reply? "Just another one of those talks." It did little to foster imagination, pique curiosity, or inspire action. Speakers have a grave responsibility. Our talk cannot be just talk. Sometimes the talk is information (which we can Google ourselves in half the time). Sometimes talk is long and occasionally moving story, but the message is hardly novel. But occasionally, a talk elevates us to new thinking, new possibilities, and new actions. 🌟 I've watched masters at work at #AsiaProfessionalSpeakersSingapore and #NationalSpeakersAssociation in the US, like Scott Friedman, Global Speaking Fellow, CSP, Ron Kaufman, Robin Speculand, Brenda Bence, Ranked Top Ten Coach Globally, Simon Bowen and Natalie Turner. 🎤 Great speeches have the following qualities: - It's about the audience, not the speaker. - It's not a monologue, but a silent dialogue, addressing the unspoken questions in the minds of the audience. - It's heartfelt with human stories, not a deck of information. - It's thought-provoking with new insights. - It opens a new window of thought. - It inspires people to action. That's why great keynotes are hard—much harder than facilitating workshops or coaching. I have honing my craft recently with coaching from Raymond Miranda, to shift a dense academic research presentation to hopefully something that is not "just another talk" ;-) Thank you, Raymond, I have learned so much about the essence of storytelling. 📚 I'm very happy to share that I am speaking at Thrive@Libraries on 19 Jul from 4 to 5 pm at Lifelong Learning Institute. Based on my newly published book, "Learning Agility: Relearn, Reskill, and Reinvent," number 1 on Amazon in the Popular Psychology Research category. I will be speaking about: - What agile learners do differently to upskill and reskill; - How to hone learning agility as a capability; - How to build an empowered learning culture. PS - This is my only public (and free!) talk, so come at your own risk, hopefully I don't deliver "just another talk" ;-) Seats are limited, please register ASAP. Book signing will take place after. Will be awesome to see you! 📝 Register here or forward to a friend: https://lnkd.in/gkv2T7TV

Two months ago, I took a leap of faith and enrolled in the 𝗢𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 (𝗗𝗧) 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 course offered by DesignThinkers Academy and led by DT trainer Marcello Risolo, whose support and dedication, coupled with comprehensive masterclasses and spot-on feedback, contributed to our day-by-day progress. To my surprise, the course was designed to allow each of us to take turns facilitating the different stages of the Double Diamond process, as we work on a common HMW challenge. In another twist of fate, I found myself facilitating the very first opportunity, and those who know me well probably guessed it – I was SUPER anxious! How should I conduct myself? Will I be able to involve everyone? Are my questions going to make sense without influencing the outcome? Is there enough time to facilitate all these activities? Am I over-planning? My worries dropped as soon as I started facilitating. I was able to prompt meaningful reflections through what/how/why questions, foster a safe and collaborative environment without imposing predetermined outcomes, and engage everyone in the process. I had indeed over-planned and could not complete all the activities on time (on the first try!) but thankfully, a second facilitation opportunity was made available near the end of the course, which I took as a challenge to address my shortcomings and assess my growth throughout the training. The results? I nailed it!😊 Thanks to the course and practical training, I’ve gained insights into: ▪️ The importance of flexibility within a structured plan, as sessions don’t always go according to plan. ▪️ Time management skills, focusing on effectively aligning activities with session objectives while achieving fruitful outcomes (frankly the most challenging aspect of DT facilitation!). ▪️ How to effectively engage diverse participants, particularly in an online setting where distractions abound. ▪️ How to incorporate context-driven mind-setters, and allow for both reflection time and discussion among participants. Above all, I’ve come to genuinely understand the crucial role of Design Thinking facilitation: guiding the process without influencing the content creation. This training has been instrumental in helping me advance toward my career goals. Not only did I gain valuable experience, but I also learned a lot from my course-mates. From Abeer Alghamdi's thought-provoking questions to Ahmed El-Gamal's insightful observations, Michelle Davies' efficient approach, and Murat Ciftci's directness, as well as your facilitation – thank you all for such a memorable training experience!💟 As I move closer toward my dream profession, I'm excited to share my next career step – an upcoming 9-month-long one-on-one mentorship opportunity with the remarkable and incredible Nada Jammoul Messaikeh, DBA, CPA through the Intersection Program by INJAZ Lebanon & IMPACTIVME. Excited for the journey ahead and looking forward to all the new learning!✨

⚡ Setting up a break out group well: three things I learnt the hard way ⚡ I've just finished #facilitating an online peer learning workshop for London's Giving, a place based giving movement that I have been working with for while now. As I set up the groups for a 15 minute small group conversation in breakout rooms, it occurred to me that there are three things I do instinctively now when setting up break out rooms online, which I have learnt the hard way! Sharing here, because I really do believe that sometimes the simple stuff is the most important when it comes to facilitation! 📍 Offer just one question per break out session: peer / group learning networks are one of the main activities I facilitate, and there are often SO many questions that I know the group are keen to explore. But I have learnt over time that if I offer any more than one prompt or question to the groups in their break out session, the most likely thing that will happen is that they will spend all their time on the first question, and then rush through the others at the end and come back feeling flustered and chances are no group will have got to question 3. Better to carve out shorter break out groups, each one focusing on a different question. 📍Put the question on the screen (screen sharing a slide usually) and in the chat. I know this sounds incredibly basic, but whenever I forget to do this (and I do!), then inevitably someone has to ask me to remind them what the question was. Just verbally saying it out loud is never enough! Even when you say it three times - which I often do. 📍 Give the group more time than you think is necessary! I used to put people into breakout rooms and think that 5 minutes was enough for a proper discussion. Goodness me! Now I try for a minimum of 15, and even then the most common feedback I get is ''that wasn't long enough''. I will sometimes do a very quick 5 minute check out, but for any substantial conversation I try and aim for longer. There is a whole other post currently being drafted about capturing and sharing content from break out groups, which I think is SUCH a juicy facilitation challenge. How do we do it well and avoid death by group feedback? Can you really ever share back the learning or do you have to be in the group to really get it? More for another day that one! I know other facilitators on here will have some gems to share from their own practice: please do share your top tips! 🎨 Graphic by Azi Farni - part of a series of beautiful icons she has created for the Facilitation 101 programme I am running this Spring.

The transfer of facilitator’s learnings. „Do you learn anything from us?“ „Every time.“ „And do you apply these things with other groups?“ „Absolutely.“ I just returned from working with a fantastic team, and this was an exchange with one participant during the closing segment. Her second question got me thinking, though. What and how do I transfer my insights? I discovered that there are different forms of learning that I, as a facilitator, take from my sessions: 1. Group-specific insights. These are unique to the participants and this group, thus are not transferable. 2. Process insights. These insights are learnings regarding the specific design or segments of the design. It is partially transferable because every design and group is unique. 3. Group-dynamic insights. These learnings reveal elements of group dynamics and interactions. While occurring in this specific group, they can occur in others, and it’s worth observing or testing. Potentially transferable. 4. Individual insights. These are the perspectives that the participants shared during the session. These are transferable to other groups when anonymized to stimulate conversation. 5. insights about myself. These crucial learnings helped me to get to know myself better as a facilitator, and while every workshop is unique, I discovered reactions and mental models that underlie my behavior. Fully transferable. So, back to her question. Yes, I do transfer insights, but not all of them. I invite you to reflect on those layers and nuances of the insights from your workshops. It’s worth it. Enjoy. #facilitationhacks #facilitationskills #facilitation #humansynamics

🌀 Closing the loop: do endings matter when facilitating groups? 🌀 I recently attended a #workshop run by a facilitator, and came out with high level of unease. For a few days I couldn't quite put my finger on it, and then - when looking back through different parts of the event - I realised why. The facilitator had opened a lot of discussions, ideas and activities - but failed to close any of them. Everything felt very open ended, and as a group we had not done much reflection, processing or integrating of the content. It all felt half finished - like we had gone to the top of a roller-coaster, without ever coming down. I then went down a loophole of critically evaluating every session I had run recently, wondering if I do the same thing. I could immediately spot some activities where I had left things a bit open, but also noticed a few ways in which I frequently try to close the loop, and provide participants with a chance to reflect and integrate their thinking. These included: 🌱 Regular moments to pause and reflect, where I invite people to take 30 seconds or a minute to think, and jot down any reflections. 🌱 Saying things like ''we seem to have gotten to the end of that train of thought - shall we move on now?'' as a way of signalling that we are intentionally pivoting into a new subject. 🌱Designing many workshops with a clear structure of opening up, dialogue, reflection, and then closing as a group. 🌱As part of this closing, I probably most commonly end my workshops or events with an invite for people to share a final thought, reflection or takeaway. In pairs / trios / in the chat if time is short and it's a big group, or in the whole group hearing each person in turn if possible. I would love to hear how other facilitators approach this dilemma of 'opening' and 'closing' topics in group workshops. I'm sure there are lots of people who aren't nearly as worried about things being left open ended as I am! Facilitating reflection and learning with a group is one of the key #skills I cover in my facilitation training, and I am beginning to notice more and more how core this is in my own work (and my own needs as a participant). More on that training below! ⬇ ................................ 🎯 I shared a link yesterday to my brand new Facilitation 101 website yesterday, along with new dates for training later this year in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The #Glasgow masterclass is just four weeks away and has only got a couple of spots left ... Link to the new site is in the comments below!

Do not underestimate the importance of a learning mindset. Yes, I know it sounds hippie, but hear me out. Maintaining intellectual humility, no matter your age or experience, can open you up to something interesting. Listening to experts with an open mind can make a world of difference. If you show up with a chip on your shoulder, thinking, "Alright, expert, impress me," you're setting yourself up for failure. Approaching learning from a place of judgment or superiority ensures the battle is already lost. You might as well not be there. Coming in with a closed attitude not only hinders your own learning but also breaks the psychological safety of the environment. When you sit there on mute, whether you're at a construction site, in your bedroom, kitchen, or office, it disrupts the shared interaction necessary for effective training. This two-way street requires active participation from all parties. If you're rocking up with a superiority attitude, guess what? You're damned right. You'll learn nothing. Being openminded is not just a concept; it’s a practice. It takes energy and intellectual humility but is the only way to truly grow. So next time you think "Not sure I really got anything out of that." then my question to you is "What did you put into it?" If you put nothing into it, why are you expecting to get anything out of it? Facilitators and trainers - feel free to chip in. How do you manage the people who show up and really don't want to be there? #zoom #wfh #training #webinar #mindset #attitude

I always learn things from workshops, whether I am a facilitator or a participant. And they may be quite different from the core subject matter intended. Recently, I was in a training where among the participants was a person, lets call them "the Senior", who was an expert on the subject matter that was being taught. Why the Senior signed up for this workshop is an interesting question, but let's not dwell on this. Now these situations are common, especially in Training of Trainer situations, and they can either be enriching for the facilitator and participants, or downright disruptive for everyone concerned. Unfortunately, this was the latter, with the Senior repeatedly coming in with questionable interventions clearly focused on showcasing their own expertise, critiques of the lead facilitator's delivery and adopting a tone that was patronizing, at best. If you had to plot it on the Radical Candor® framework, it was clearly, obnoxious aggression. Having been in this situation, as a facilitator, before and having been totally thrown off by such a participant, my first instinct was to call the Senior out. I stepped back from doing so, and turned my attention to studying and appreciating how the facilitator eventually handled the situation with so much grace. With a mix of deference, humour and confidence, the lead facilitator did not get caught up in addressing the disrespect. They could have responded in equal measure, but this would have created an unsafe training environment for other participants. This was watching grace under fire. As someone who holds grace as a core value, it was a powerful learning experience, I dare say even more than the subject of the workshop. What I will also say is this: if you think you are better than a facilitator who is training you, using opprtunities for interventions to preen your skills is a poor investment. If you put yourself above the subject matter, and above maintaining a safe and inclusive learning environment, even as a participant, it is not a sign of a good facilitator. I would never sign up for a training where the Senior in question was a part of the facilitation team. If you are a trainer or facilitator, have you been in a situation like this, and how did you handle it? #FacilitationSkills #Training #InclusiveFacilitation

As I drove out of the neighborhood two days ago, the tantalizing promise of Black Cherry Ice Cubes beckoned from the container my oldest had left in my car. Temptation won, and I popped one into my mouth, relishing the burst of flavor as I navigated the streets of my neighborhood. But, as quickly as the joy came, it faded. Within 90 seconds, the Black Cherry allure turned bland and unfulfilling. Oddly enough, this mundane experience triggered a thought about corporate training courses. Picture this: a trainer kicks off the day with something attention-grabbing – maybe a humorous anecdote about their journey to the training, a slick company video, or some friendly introductions. Initially, it's like the first taste of that Black Cherry Ice Cube – engaging and exciting. The trainer then shifts into firefighter mode, bombarding participants with information like a relentless firehose. The initial engagement fades, and participants slip into passive listening mode, much like the fleeting flavor of the Ice Cube. From the participants' perspective, they may have been captivated at the start, but soon find themselves merely going through the motions, retaining information (and interest) for only as long as the initial engagement lingers. This is where the art of facilitation comes into play. Your challenge, as a facilitator, is to not only capture but also hold participants' attention throughout the training session. While some may possess a natural gift for it, most facilitators need to craft a deliberate engagement strategy. Understanding the WHAT (What facilitation is) and the WHY (Why it is effective) of facilitation is crucial. But the real fun lies in the HOW – how you engage your participants early, often, and with purpose. It's about creativity, about infusing your unique personality into the delivery, making the experience memorable and impactful for your participants. #corporatelearning #corporatetraining #corporatetrainer #learninganddevelopment #learningdesign #facilitation #facilitationskills #facilitator