Hello freinds,
In light of recent events within our community, it has become evident that we lack as a collective, tangible shared resources around the facilitation of conflict when such arises within our community.
As we find ourselves moving into a resting period I feel inclined to offer some of the resources I have been finding helpful as I traverse accountability and care with the various communities I am aligned with and in service to.
When we circle back in July (
LEO season woot!) I’m excited about the idea of gathering and seeing what sorts of standards and practices we want to adopt as a community in an effort to reduce harm within our collective.
| Author | Title | Purchase |
|---|---|---|
| Adrienne Marie Brown | Holding change - The way of emergent strategy facilitation | AK Press $13.50 |
Holding Change is part of the Emergent Strategy Series.
In our complex world, facilitation and mediation skills are as important for individuals as they are for organizations. How do we practice them in ways that align with nature, with pleasure, with our best imagining of our future? How do we attend to generating the ease necessary to help us move through the inevitable struggles of life? How do we practice the art of holding others without losing ourselves? Black feminists have answers to those questions that can serve anyone working to create changes in our world, changes great and small; individually, interpersonally, and within our organizations.
Holding Change is about attending to coordination, to conflict, to being humans in right relationship with each other, not as a constant ongoing state, but rather as a magnificent, mysterious, ever-evolving dynamic in which we must involve ourselves, shape ourselves and each other. The majority of the book is sourced from brown’s twenty-plus years of facilitation and mediation work with movement groups.
The Self-Assessment is a tool to deepen your understanding of your facilitation approach.
These questions can be used in a journaling practice or before you do the following co-facilitation assessment. It will be helpful to revisit these questions and your answers on a regular basis.
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How do I orient to small changes and successes?
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How have I adapted to change in my own life?
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Am I comfortable trusting someone else to hold space with me?
- Why or why not?
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Am I comfortable facilitating groups when the conditions change?
- Why or why not?
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What are the main practices I bring to my facilitation?
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How do I orient to shared power?
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What feedback have those I’ve shared power with given me?
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What resilience practices am I in?
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How do I bring my focus to solutions?
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In what ways am I right for this group?
- Do I share an identity, experience, culture, capacity, and/or economics?
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In what ways am I wrong for this group?
- Do I have a similar identity, experience, culture, capacity, and/or economics?
Potential Co-Facilitator):
The Co-Facilitation Assessment is a tool to deepen understanding and maintain communication between facilitators. These questions can be asked at the beginning of the relationship and revisited regularly.
This assessment will help you understand how to communicate well with each other, how you approach facilitation how you handle conflict; and how you manage clients.
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Your facilitation approach?
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How do you understand the work of facilitation?
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How do you usually show up in your facilitation?
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What is your capacity to facilitate in this season you busy Balancing a lot?
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What helps you show up as your best in a partnership?
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What hinders you from showing up as your best in a facilitation partnership?
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How would you handle it if I did something you don’t agree with during our facilitation?
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If there is a breakdown how do you respond, cope, and provide support?
Communication
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How will I know when you are not pleased?
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How will I know when you are satisfied?
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How do you know when you’re overwhelmed?
- How might you communicate that to me?
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What happens when your capacity shifts (grows lessens)?
- How might you communicate that to me?
Organization & Practices
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What is your process for understanding the facilitation?
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landscape with a new client?
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How do you build your agendas?
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How do you handle booking, scheduling, billing, love payments, etc.?
History
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Have you been in a co-facilitation relationship before?
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What did you like about it?
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What didn’t you like about it
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Have you worked with this client, or any of the individals in this group, before?
Why? Questions
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Why this?
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Why are we having this meeting/gathering/conversation?
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Why now?
- Why is this?
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needed now?
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Why us?
- Why are we the right people to call in this gathering?
Conversation
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Why does it matter?
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Why is this relevant?
Who? Questions
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Who are we accountable to?
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Who grows us?
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Who is actually down to do the work?
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Who has the skills we need?
How? Questions
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How will we be in this process?
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How will this have impact?
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How can we embody our values?
When? Questions
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When is this work needed by?
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When can we start?
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When will we be finished?
What? Questions
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What can we do together?
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What excites and enlivens us?
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What will serve our people?
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What is at the root of our work?