Introduction from North Ayrshire Wellbeing and Recovery College
Welcome to the Blue Facilitation online learning space, created to develop excellent facilitation skills for the people on the Peer Pathway and for those who are delivering educational/training programmes within North Ayrshire Wellbeing & Recovery College (NAWARC).
NAWARC is privileged to be working with a cohort of skilled and experienced tutors who deliver high quality training and education in their specialist subjects. We are equally proud of the Peer Pathway, which gives an opportunity for those with a lived mental health experience to share their expertise in recovery. The Blue Facilitation programme will continue to equip and enable them to contribute, co-facilitate and facilitate on our courses.
Blue Facilitation builds on the Peer2Peer course and the Personal Leadership Programme offering specific training in facilitation for our Peer Volunteers and Peer Trainees. Access to the learning space will also be available to NAWARC tutors for their own development and to increase awareness of peers’ learning.
Fiona MacNeill has collaborated with NAWARC to develop the successful Personal Leadership Programme and is now co-producing this Facilitation Skills course and online resources. One of NAWARC’s key values is co-production with people with lived experience and we welcome peers’ feedback and suggestions of what works well and how we can continue to develop this resource.
We hope you enjoy learning in this space.
Jeanette Allan
Recovery College Co-ordinator
Introduction from Fiona MacNeill
My name is Fiona MacNeill and I am going to be working with you on this exciting programme, Blue Facilitation. I am absolutely committed to creating space for us to have conversations, for you to challenge yourself and others, and for us to think together about the next steps in your development.
In this programme I see my role as helping you to think better for yourself. Everything that we do together and all of the tools are based on practical experience, underpinning theory, best practice and research.
You can learn more about me on my website: www.fionamacneill.com
In the spirit of learning together,
Facilitation Style
I have the pleasure of co-facilitating this programme with Jeanette Allan. Jeanette and I have known each other for 15 years and have shared values and ways of working.
We will co-create with you in an Adult-to-Adult learning and development environment, and this will provide a space where real practical learning can take place. This learning will include challenge and support, fun and creativity, individual and group activities, and a need to be fully present and engaged.
The learning spaces that are shared will be held using ‘Rules of Engagement’, created by Nancy Kline. Nancy created and pioneered ‘The Thinking Environment’. Her book, More Time to Think, and the learning that I have done with Nancy has a significant impact on my practice.
Nancy has a few simple rules of engagement that really help to facilitate great conversations and create respectful learning environments, and these are part of how we will work together:
- The development is facilitated as a Thinking Environment – requiring respect, personal integrity and rigorous confidentiality
- A commitment to arrive on time and be prepared
- One voice at a time, no interrupting – when we interrupt, we interrupt thinking as well as speaking
- Listen with attention, grace and ease; suspending voices of judgement, cynicism and fear
- We are thinking equals; candidates challenge the thinking of the facilitator and each other, and vice versa – the fundamental premise being that we help each other to think better for ourselves, not that we want to be right
- We help each other to grow – we offer honest and detailed feedback about the impact of learning and behaviour
From a facilitation point of view, this way of working requires highly developed skills and behaviours; the philosophy is an antidote to the old world and an invitation into the new, where:
- Relationships are everything; we need deep, honest, and authentic relationships with all of the people we work with, to engage with the emerging future
- Conversation, challenge, creativity and collaboration are the edges of all of the relationships in this learning environment
- You are as much the expert as I am, we are thinking equals
- Risk is shared in the adventure to explore the future and it is ok to be vulnerable
- Collectively, we are the work, we are the impact and we are the role models
- Listening is paramount; to self, to others and to the sense of the future
Blue Facilitation
Blue Facilitation is a concept created as a result of being inspired by a variety of experiences and reading.
Below is imagery from a Pacific coast highway road trip in July 2014. Engage with the short film and notice what happens.
Blue Mind by Wallace J Nicholls
Get a sense of why the idea of Blue Mind is a perfect metaphor for facilitation:
More time to Think: Nancy Kline
Get a sense of Nancy by listening to these three short stories:
Philosophy
- Relationships are everything; we need deep, honest, and authentic relationships with all of the people we engage with in our role as a facilitator
- Conversation, challenge, creativity and collaboration are the edges of all of the relationships in the future
- A person with lived experiences is the expert; as facilitators we need to get to our learning edge and get them to theirs: we are thinking equals
- Risk is shared in the adventure to explore the future and it is ok to be vulnerable
- We are the work, we are the impact, we are the role models
- Inquire, inquire, inquire, listen, listen, listen
This requires everyone to be 100% present, no laptop devices, emails or other distractions are welcome in this highly adult listening environment, where personal learning and change are the expected outcomes.
There is a flow of development of behaviours, skills and knowledge that will cumulate in practical activities conducted by the facilitators. People in the room have the creativity, the thinking and the imagination to solve stuff, they just need a facilitation process that creates the conditions for them to thrive and grow.
Learning Intentions of the Programme
- Focus on why facilitation is a critical set of skills and behaviours in enabling personal change
- Explore how connecting to deeper purpose can support you in your facilitator role and as a Peer Volunteer
- Create Thinking Environments based on the work of Nancy Kline
- Define your facilitator self by grounding your thinking and your communication intent and impact
- Use Diana Whitney’s Five I’s as a way of understanding the facilitator role: Inquiry, Illumination, Inclusion, Inspiration, Integrity
- Use Transactional Analysis as framework for reading the room and managing facilitator responses
- Discover the links between Blue Mind Thinking and generative facilitation
- Discover the practice of creating and asking powerful questions
- Explore and practice the art of Flipping and Reframing
- Engage in conversations, facilitate and receive feedback, and make commitments about applying your learning