In Australia, our financial year ends today. For small business, this time of year can be as much a reference point for new directions, business plans and strategies as the traditional January 1. The last day of the financial year finds me reflecting on the massive changes that have occurred for many of us, and what these changes demand. My experience has been of both contraction and expansion. The contraction: fewer and smaller contracts and seeking contracts rather than being sought. The expansion: being smarter about how I do this and offering even more value for each dollar, working more collaboratively, innovatively and being introduced to different types of clients.
One of the most effective things that I have done to take the struggle out of work and attract the right clients, is doing more work (or co-facilitation) with colleagues who I have some affinity with. In fact, most of my work over the past year has been in partnership. Last week, Evolve had two terrific Leading Lights, Dr. Marie Martin and Dr. Anna Alderson, who shared their extensive knowledge and body of work on co-facilitation. We began the session with the question: name a memorable duo and one reason why they came to mind. A number of participants identified Laurel and Hardy, for many reasons, including their synergy and frivolity. Anna (who also nominated Laurel and Hardy) and Marie walked their talk – they were relaxed, engaging, and their ‘magic’, ease and synergy with each other was palatable. The key messages that I distilled from this session, about co-facilitating and for that matter working with another person, were: (these are extracted from the interview and Marie’s excellent article Working at the Edge of Chaos – Living With The Complexity Of Co-Facilitation ):
“Co-facilitators expect the best, pull from trust, work into the future, think we not me, are prepared for points of discomfort, have a learning focus and provide nourishing feedback. In doing these things, co-facilitators remain ‘on the edge’, creating ‘magic’, anticipating possibilities and creating opportunities rather than falling into chaos or rigidity” (Marie Martin).
Pull from trust: Tolerance, awareness, being open to ideas, advice, suggestions and challenges require trust. Behaving predictably, communicating thoughtfully, supporting each other and trying to make each other ‘look good’ build trust. Co-facilitators cannot afford to wait for trust to develop. They need to begin from a premise of trust, to “pull from trust”.Think we not me: Co-facilitators generate a novel and creative space for themselves and their co-facilitator, in which they both ‘look good’. Co-facilitators share a vision for themselves and the group, share responsibility for the event, processes and outcomes and share the space in which they work.Expect points of discomfort: The differences between co-facilitators, which may also include differences in timing, intervention, intelligences, learning styles, and needs for recognition, can be interpreted as opportunities for creativity and novelty.Have a learning focus: This involves the powerful role of mistakes. A learning focus accepts that there will be mistakes, tensions and disagreements but prevents co-facilitators from being trapped by them.Give nourishing feedback: Feedback can also be developmental, particularly when it is ‘rich’, providing explicit information about behaviour or ideas that enable people to learn.
An audio recording of this session and two comprehensive articles are available to all Evolve Club members.
In our work through NoMadMeetings, consistently we hear back from participants about how they enjoy the way in which Nigel and I work together: “I really enjoyed observing the overt and covert interaction between Carla and Nigel – and appreciating how this contributes to the seamless running of a meeting”. In reflecting on this, I think that the above themes as indentified by Marie are the most critical elements in what makes Nigel and my co-facilitation work. For example, Nigel and I began co-facilitating courses, from locations 6 hours apart and having only ever met for less than one day face to face. Trust was everything as was expecting the best. We often share through our courses our hilarious disasters and how much we have learnt from them, and supported each other through it.
Thinking of new ways of working, working with Nigel and also my Evolve colleague, Dr. Ann Murphy, has made my life and work that much easier. I feel nourished and supported and have expanded the way that I think and who I know and work with (my clientele). Being aware of and applying the above principles have made it work. And back to Laurel and Hardy, can you imagine just Laurel or just Hardy, not near as much fun and frivolity!
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EVOLVE NOW BOTTOM LINE: Working with others can make life more fun, profitable and easier. If thinking about it, ask yourself and your colleague: are you ready to expect the best, pull from trust, think we not me, prepared for points of discomfort, have a learning focus and to provide nourishing feedback.
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Through NoMad and Evolve, we regularly run virtual workshops with the same theme. We ‘overprepare for these to go with the flow’ – our facilitator guide running up to 17 pages in length for a 1 hour session. This guide often consists of a ‘menu’ of possible topics. Playing the role of the ‘host’ (which I love of course), I endeavour to understand the needs and preferences of each guest and ask for them to order from the menu. An interactive and fun way to design an agenda. My main experience of this is that, despite the same theme,