Guiding Groups
Human Rights Show Up in Every Meeting – Are You Honoring Them?
I want to talk to you about a very special place I visited when I was in Winnipeg, Canada last week. See the bottom of this blog for more information about this museum. This place touched my heart so deeply as I think human rights is at the forefront of our work as facilitators, mediators and…
How to Find Out if You Have Enough Tools
At every course I teach, I hear participants say, “I want more tools for my facilitation toolkit or meetings.” Even if you are an experienced facilitator, you may be surprised at what you learn in this article. Do you know what type of tools you need? Do you have enough of each type of tool?…
Three Ways to Get the Team on the Same Page
Everyone belongs to a group. Sometimes those groups are meant to be long term teams. Other times you are just meeting for a few times but you still could benefit from the feeling of being a team! Ah… What will transform your group into the feeling of a well functioning, high-powered, unstoppable team? Over the…
Values Drive Behavior, So Shouldn’t You Know What They Are?
Values. We use the word all the time, Brene Brown says in her new online course called, Daring Greatly. We says things like: “That’s great value. How much do you value this? What value would you place on this? How dare he not value me. I feel like I’ve been devalued. Our currency just lost…
Gaining Clarity And Meaning For Your Life In 3 Hours
Ever wanted a very powerful, quick jumpstart on the next few years of your life? One process I talked about briefly in my blog in December 2014 was the graphic facilitated P.A.T.H. process. PATH stands for Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope. It was developed by a Canadian group including Marsha Forest, Jack Pierpont and John O’Brien…
Mistrust: It Doesn’t Get Any Worse Than This – But You CAN Change It
This blog is about trust. How to build it with the groups you are leading and how to help others regain trust when all seems hopeless. Trust is a word we toss around lightly. Joe Cocker, Billy Joel, Amanda Marshall all wrote songs about trust. Most of their titles were like, “Trust Me”, yet it…
Mind Mapping Made Easy
During a recent conference session, all my fellow participants wanted to take photos of my mind mapping notes! I did not think I was doing anything unusual since I have been using this technique regularly to take notes, design sessions, and to think about a specific topic for almost two decades. With groups, I occasionally use…
Sweat the Small Stuff
Think Like an Astronaut…Oops, Like a Facilitator (Part 2) In our second video series, learn how thinking like an astronaut can help you prepare and execute a facilitation “mission”. This video provides specific, on-the-job tips. 4. Sweat the Small Stuff – Everything Counts. In contrast to the famous book, “Don’t sweat the small stuff”, our…
Creating Group Guidelines for Terrific Teamwork
Getting teamwork off to a solid start is critical to the success of the project and to the team. Here are some tips for how to set customized team guidelines (also known as ground rules) as well as offer them typical guidelines from which they could pick and choose. Both activities take from 15 to…
What’s the Strategic in Strategic Thinking and Planning?
Why bother learning how to think, decide, prioritize and plan more strategically? Most of us are “getting through” life and work reasonably using our current thinking skills and abilities, experience and knowledge. Why bother with continuing to learn and practice the specifics of strategic thinking and planning? In this blog, I offer some of my…
