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~ 1 ~
EDITORIAL: What? No shoes!
~ 2 ~ EVENTS: Active Reviewing
Workshops with Roger Greenaway
~ 3 ~ ARTICLE: Facilitation for
Trainers (part one)
~ 4 ~ ONLINE TRAINING COURSE:
Active Reviewing
~ 5 ~ TIPS: Designing Active
Reviewing Sessions
~ 6 ~ ARCHIVE: Real Reviewing:
Getting Beyond Cliches
~ 7 ~ Experiential-CPD: Take a
break (and make it a habit)
~ 8 ~ PREVIOUS ISSUE and FUTURE
ISSUES
~ 9 ~ About Active Reviewing Tips
~ 1 ~ EDITORIAL: What? No
shoes!
"You can't be the
facilitator - you're not wearing any shoes!"
I was taking part in a facilitator-training
workshop. And we were taking it in turns to be the
facilitator in a role-play exercise. We were sat in
a forest clearing. One of the group had volunteered
to be the next facilitator. As he walked barefoot
into the scenario to take over from the previous
facilitator, a surprised colleague exclaimed:
"You can't be the
facilitator - you're not wearing any shoes!"
Many social roles are so well defined (by custom and
tradition) that it can disturb people if we do
not conform to the role expectations of others.
Inappropriate footwear can be distracting!
Shoe-wearing by facilitators is an an almost
invisible custom that has probably not appeared in
print until I wrote these words. I wonder in
what other ways (visible or
invisible) facilitators conform without
thinking too much about why?
This is a strange question because it is usually the
facilitator's role to do this for others: to bring
people's attention to what they do, while also
exploring why they do what they do.
"Why are you wearing a glove on your left hand?"
my friend asked someone working on a production
line. "I don't know why" came the reply. "I've
worked here for years and I've never thought to
ask."
So I now think of "glove-wearing" or "shoe-wearing"
as things we do without enough critical thought
about why we do them.
"Why are you
writing the words we say on the flipchart?"
"Why are
you writing on the flipchart?"
"Why does
discussion stop when the flipchart is full?"
"Why do we only get to write on little sticky
notes?"
"Is it really
necessary for all of us to say something on the
topic before we move on?"
"Why do we always
sit in a circle?"
"Why is there so
much sitting and talking in active learning?"
"Why can't we be
more active?"
The best facilitation (of experiential learning)
does not come from uncritically following what
others do. It is more likely to come from continual
experimentation - looking for short cuts, better
ways, and faster processes. Some creativity and
risk-taking is needed to discover new and better
ways of working. And by doing such things we are
almost certainly modelling the kinds of behaviours
that we expect learners to use in their pursuit of
knowledge through experiential learning.
Only by trying things with and without gloves, with
and without shoes, with and without flipcharts, with
and without circles, with and without sticky notes,
will we discover just how important or dispensible
these habits and resources actually are.
Having had many opportunities for practising
facilitation in the outdoors, I have learned to
improvise, adapt and discover ways of facilitating
learning that do not depend on the learning aids
that seem so essential to facilitation practice when
working indoors. But in both situations I do like
circles, I do like plenty of space and I prefer to
wear shoes.
The article in this issue begins to explore the
differences between facilitation and training, and
will be followed by practical examples of how these
two approaches can be effectively combined.
I am not happy with the word "facilitrainer". Maybe
you can offer a good alternative? Maybe it is your
job title? Please write to roger@reviewing.co.uk
with your suggestions.
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Active
Reviewing Tips is a free
newsletter from Roger Greenaway that will
help you to re-charge your reviewing and
facilitation skills.
Typical contents:
- a practical feature on reviewing tips
- links to sites about active learning
methods
- tips, comments and ideas from readers
- what's new in the Guide to Active
Reviewing at http://reviewing.co.uk
Maximum frequency: monthly. Average
frequency: quarterly.
"17 years of
promoting better learning experiences."
|
I welcome requests for topics you would like to
see included in Active Reviewing Tips, any questions
you would like to see answered in a FAQ, and
enquiries about trainer-training workshops (open or
in-house).
Roger Greenaway
roger@reviewing.co.uk
http://reviewing.co.uk
http://blog.reviewing.co.uk
~ 2 ~ EVENTS: Active Reviewing
Workshops with Roger Greenaway
The
Calendar of Reviewing Skills Training Workshops
provides the most up to date list of open/public
workshops provided by Roger Greenaway.
Active
Reviewing Online
Have you taken a look at my new online training
course on Active
Reviewing?
Please let me know what you think of the free
preview or of the whole course: roger@reviewing.co.uk
~ 3 ~ ARTICLE: Facilitation
for Trainers
Facilitation for trainers,
educators, consultants & leaders
Tips for blending
these different roles
by
Roger
Greenaway, Reviewing Skills Training
There are
significant differences between training and
facilitating. They are not simply different sets
of tactics and tools. There are different values
and principles and paradigms underlying these two
different approaches to working with people. So it
can be difficult for a trainer to become a
facilitator and it can be just as difficult for a
facilitator to become a trainer.
Much of my work involves helping people find a
good balance between the two, mostly because there
are clear benefits in being able to extend your
toolkit and borrow good ideas from other
traditions and other ways of working.
There is also a wider cultural shift around the
world that is favouring more facilitative
approaches to ... everything.
Parents are being encouraged to listen to children
more. Managers and leaders are encouraged to
listen to their staff more. Organisations listen
more to their customers. Teachers listen more to
their students. Trainers listen more to
participants...
Maybe not everywhere. But it is a well-recognised
trend that top-down organisations are being
outperformed by organisations that are more agile,
that learn more quickly, that adapt well and that
are fast to try out new ideas.
Learning from experience is becoming ever more
important in this increasingly agile world. And it
is facilitation skills that are particularly
useful for supporting these learning processes. In
an agile culture, everyone is seen as a
potentially valuable contributor with different
experiences to share, and different perspectives
to bring to a problem, and different skills to
bring into collaborative ways of working and
learning.
So managers and leaders and trainers can all
benefit from taking a more facilitative approach
because that is what makes for a more agile
workforce that is able to learn fast and stay
ahead of the game.
With apologies to trainers and facilitators who
do not fit these lazy stereotypes ...
| How to
spot a trainer |
How to
spot a facilitator |
A trainer ...
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A facilitator is ...
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- is talking with a stage voice
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- is speaking softly (or maybe not at
all)
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- is holding a laser pointer torch
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- is holding a marker pen (or
educational toy)
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- has participants seated in rows or
round tables
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- has participants seated in a large
circle (or even in concentric circles)
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- has high tech visual aids to help
communicate ideas to the audience
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- has low tech visual aids to help
participants communicate with each other
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- draws on the knowledge of experts
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- draws on participants' experiences
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- has many tricks for sustaining
attention
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- has many tricks for sustaining
involvement
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|
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- is flexible - but finishes on time
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- is flexible - the group decides what
needs finishing and when
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|
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- wears soft shoes (and has even been
seen wearing no shoes!)
|
|
|
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| How to
spot a "facilitrainer" |
A "facilitrainer"...
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- rarely sits or stands for very long
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- uses his/her voice in many different
ways
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- varies pace to suit the occasion
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- ensures that participants have plenty
of tools available to assist
communication
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- ensures that group sizes keep changing
to suit the task
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- has a bottomless toolkit to assist
with all common group processes
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- tries to avoid unnecessary
intervention, but feels free to support
or challenge, as needed
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- knows when to be structured and when
to be flexible
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- is happy to move around between the
role of trainer and the role of
facilitator (but hates being called a
"facilitrainer")
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The article in this issue begins to explore the
differences between facilitation and training, and
will be followed by practical examples of how these
two approaches can be effectively combined.
I am not happy with the word "facilitrainer". Maybe
you can offer a good alternative? Maybe it is your
job title? Please write to roger@reviewing.co.uk
with your suggestions.
~ 4 ~ ONLINE TRAINING COURSE:
Active Reviewing
Taking part in
this online course will enable you ...
- To engage your students' full set of learning
skills so that their learning is rapid,
significant and memorable.
- To inspire long lasting results by generating
immersive learning experiences.
- To become an expert in facilitating learning
from experience.
- To master the Active Reviewing Toolkit
(A.R.T.), a selection of versatile reviewing
techniques.
- To use tools such as the Horseshoe, the
Activity Map, Action Replay and others in order
to engage and empower your students.
You can view the full course content and sample
the training videos for free by visiting ActiveReviewing.com where you
will also find reviews of the course by Sivasailam
Thiagarajan (Thiagi), Andi Roberts, Cliff Knapp and
Ginette Biolan.
~ 5 ~ TIPS: Designing
Active Reviewing Sessions: 10 Tips
The links below will take you to the original
article in which you will find practical
applications of these tips.
-
Get
every
individual
reflecting within 2 minutes
-
Get
every
individual
communicating within 5 minutes
-
Agree
the
main
focus for the review within 10 minutes
-
Get
the
main review process going within 15 minutes
-
Agree
a
time structure for the whole session
-
Ensure
sufficient
time for reporting back (or other kind of
sharing)
-
Build
in
time for evaluating the review session
-
Highlight
key
learning
at group and individual levels
-
Connect
learning
with other parts of the programme – and
life/work.
-
Close
the
session
with a link to the next event
-
Feel
free
to play the 'Joker' at any time
~ 6 ~ ARCHIVE: Getting Beyond
Cliches
Real
Reviewing:
Getting Beyond Cliches
~ 7 ~ The Experiential-CPD
Calendar
The
Experiential-CPD Calendar has ceased publication but
the archive of collected Thought
for the Month' about experiential
learning is still available.
~ 8 ~ PREVIOUS ISSUE and FUTURE
ISSUES
See the previous issue of Active Reviewing Tips:
Winning
from
Losing
Topics under consideration for future issues
include:
- The Active Reviewing Cycle: update
- Making the case for active reviewing
- Making reviewing a memorable experience
- Reviewing as a takeaway skill for participants
- Evaluating Active Reviewing: how well does it
work?
- Reviewing for different outcomes (using the
same activities)
- End of programme reviews
- Co-facilitating reviews
- The art of improvising
- Remote Reviewing
- Reviewing over a cup of tea
- Readers' Questions about Reviewing (please
feed me with questions for this 'FAQ')
- Sample designs for learning and development
- Integrated practice in experiential learning
(when does an activity become a review? when
does a review become an activity? examples of
integrated practice - and do these
challenge or demonstrate experiential learning
theory?)
Please write to roger@reviewing.co.uk
if you have any topics you would like to see
included or put at the top of this list (which is
not yet in any particular order).
~ 9 ~ About Active Reviewing
Tips
TITLE: Active Reviewing Tips for Dynamic
Experiential Learning
ISSN: 1465-8046
EDITOR: Dr. Roger Greenaway, Reviewing Skills
Training
EMAIL: roger@reviewing.co.uk
Feedback welcome
ARCHIVES: Index
of
back issues
HOME PAGE: Active
Reviewing
"I like the way
you look at everything and then return to what is
simple, effective and memorable."
"You always have material I don't want to miss."
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