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Teams are embracing hybrid work - which means more asynchronous work, variable communication signals from person to person, and an opportunity for widespread adoption of facilitative skills.

It’s a huge opportunity, but it comes with more than a few occupational risks!

So, how can we help teams self-facilitate in the age of remote and hybrid work?

Ewen Le Borgne is betting on process literacy as the foundation of self-facilitation. Find out why and learn how he thinks we can make it happen in this electric episode.

Find out about:

• How hybrid has been the catalyst for a new level of understanding in teams
• Why humans’ innate decision-making nature means facilitation is a life skill
• What the “magical superpower” is that Ewen believes we all have
• The tools, techniques, and mindsets needed to distribute facilitative skills
• Which facilitative school of thought Ewen believes is “The Silent Revolution”
• How Ewen asks contributors to manage the running time of a workshop
• Why we should all seek a state of ‘confusiasm’

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Thanks to our sponsor “Dancing with Markers”. Click here to get the workshops work discount for Lauren’s upcoming visual facilitation course.

Questions and Answers

[01:06] When did you start calling yourself a facilitator?

[02:49] What is it about the label of ‘facilitator’ that many of us find to be restrictive?

[03:42] What do you mean by “the step after the facilitator”?

[06:00] Would a self-facilitated structure work for any kind of collaborative work?

[06:44] What skills do people need to balance the group dynamics and personalities?

[09:41] What do we need to learn – and unlearn – for process literacy and self-facilitation to work?

[10:49] Does the sensory nature of communication create a barrier for asynchronous work?

[12:58] Does my understanding of process literacy align with yours?

[15:44] The idea of “choosing not to decide things” has a fatal flaw, doesn’t it?

[17:01] How would you deal with the risk of certain people monopolising a conversation?

[20:11] What is your favourite exercise?

[25:02] What is the relationship between Liberating Structures and process literacy?

[28:12] What do you mean when you say that each Liberating Structure is like a word in a language?

[33:27] When and how can Liberating Structures go wrong?

[37:31] How do you use participants/contributors as part of your time management process?

[46:50] If we see conversations as a competition, do we lose the opportunity for progress?

[50:11] When you start distributing tasks throughout the group, do we dissolve the role of the facilitator?

[54:01] What makes a workshop fail?

[57:30] What is the one thing you would like listeners to take away from this episode?

Links

Ewen’s 10 Commandments of Group Facilitation

Process Change, Ewen’s company

Ewen’s knowledge management blog:

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You can now find the podcast on Substack, where your host Dr. Myriam Hadnes is building a club for you to find fellow listeners and peers: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/