Skip to content

Back to overview

Episode 043

January 15, 2020

043 – Being over Doing: On the relevance of presence for facilitation with Michelle Howard

Sign up to download the free 1-page summary.

     

    Intro

    On episode 043 I speak with Michelle Howard, a specialist facilitator and MD of collaborations in Melbourne.  She has written a book on the relevance of presence and has worked in the government, private and not-for-profit sectors.

    “The most valuable (facilitation) tool we have is ourselves.”Michelle Howard

    In less than one hour, Michelle and I explore many different spheres besides the relevance of presence for facilitation and, how we can learn to be more present. We also speak about the analogy facilitation and parenting, the ingredients of facilitation superpowers, the role of ego, and the limitations of accreditation programs when it comes to the assessment of “being” over “doing”.

    Unfortunately, the connection wasn’t really good but Michelle was able to compensate all the technical hiccups with great content and value bombs.

    Although I highly recommend keeping a pen and paper at hand to take notes, you can also just download mine!

    Don’t miss the next show: sign up to my newsletter and subscribe to the show through your podcast player.

    Feeling inspired by the conversation in this episode? We can have our own – take a seat at my virtual table as part of a Mastermind Group.

    A huge thank you must go to SessionLab, the sponsor of Workshops Work. Claim your free two months of SessionLab Pro now – this deal is exclusive to Workshops Work listeners!

    Questions and Answers

    1:36 How did you discover your superpower of facilitation?

    4:35 What have you learned from community work that you apply to your facilitation within organisations?

    5:54 What is the most important skill set a facilitator needs?

    8:42 In an earlier conversation we spoke about the analogy of parenting. What prompted this idea in you?

    12:21 Would you consider such behavior as “ego”?

    16:19 Can we learn presence and being as a facilitation skill?

    18:55 How do you create the trust a group needs to go with you through a sometimes uncomfortable process?

    22:17 Would you design for discomfort or is it something that naturally happens?

    24:20 If you were to train future facilitators on presence, what would be the first lesson?   

    26:23 To what extent does this framework of learning your story to the concept of authenticity?

    29:52 What is the role of community for facilitators to find comfort in being enough?

    31:29 Is the notion of being over doing something that is agreed or discussed across your network?

    34:27 When it comes to accreditation, is the “being” part of the facilitation skillset something that can be evaluated?

    36:51 What makes a client difficult?

    41:17 What’s your favorite exercise?

    42:45 Would participants then bring their own images to the workshop?

    50:11 What makes a workshop fail?

    53:01 What would you like the audience to remember from the conversation?

    Links

    Michelle’s business website: https://www.collaborations.com.au/

    Michelle’s book

    The School of Life

    Victorian facilitators network 

    International Association of Facilitators 

    Our sponsor Session Lab – An online agenda builder and exercise library

    Rein Sevenstern (Episode 020) from Experiential Learning – This episode’s featured SessionLab user

    Connect to Michelle

    on LinkedIn
    F    ollow Michelle on Instagram @collaborations_