Six Cheap Ways To Sharpen Your Facilitation

There are lots of times and places to learn new facilitation skills in this field. Some can come to you watching an episode of a crazy spanish "amazing race" type show (true story!).

Others are more structured and intentional, like attending ACA Tri-State in Atlantic City. It's been a while since I attended AEE Mid-Atlantic in 2010, and this year's Mid-Atlantic conference is a long haul. Your organization might have, like mine, eliminated all professional development funding. In tight times, there are a lot of low-cost options to take learning and growth into our own hands as instructors.

(Left, a page of the AEE conference proceedings where Rick Curtis will "provide a basic understanding of the internet" and encourages us to "learn how to ride [the information superhighway]" What year was it, friends? Reply in the comments!)

1. Take advantage of others during program processing. It's awesome to hear the adjunct that I work alongside share new activities, truly brilliant ones, that they use to transfer learning to our students. It's easy to want to be off at the end of a program, but leaving with new activities and ideas is always worth the extra few minutes.
2. Reading 'blogs, such as Jennifer Stanchfield's Experiential Tools, Michael Cardus' brilliant Create Learning 'blog, or even old standby's like the 'blogs hosted by Rick Curtis at OutdoorEd.com . I use Google Reader to keep track of mine.
3. Newsletters remind you that other things are going on in the world and make it easy to keep up with peer organizations (or competitors!) I love seeing the work going on at CityWild in Denver, CO every month.
4. Watch a TED talk. I know a lot of experiential educators are afraid that technology will ruin their pristine wilderness experiences, but practitioners who leave technology behind will soon find themselves left behind. I recommend those themed The Rise of Collaboration.
5. Ask questions of the community. Two of my favorite resources are the listserv [ROPES LIST] hosted by ACCT and communities like the Association for Experiential Education on LinkedIn.
6. Attend or host an unconference, where the agenda and direction of the day is determined by the participants that show up. I am attending one of these Facilitator Play Days for just $18 a head down at EDGE at George Mason in Manassas, Virginia, a fraction of the cost of a conference. I am eager to do some networking, share some of the bigger questions I've been pondering as a facilitator (like, "is this really working?"), share some insight on use of technology for personal professional and organizational development, and have a good time. Too far away? Hosting one may be a cheap way to bring professional development to your staff, adjuncts, and colleagues!

What do you do to get back into the swing of things after the quiet season? Do you miss attending conferences, or is networking online with colleagues enough? What's the best bang for your buck professional development-wise?

Adult schpeil

I wish this was funnier, but I do think that it will be useful when I'm working with postgraduate students tomorrow. This is my introductory speech for 8-12 adult participants in team-building activities on property. Once again, a few lines credited to Jeffery Gosnell (Challenge Course Manager, Eagle Crest Adventures at Lake Williamson Christian Center) from a posting on the Ropes listserv.

Today, we will not be hugging, holding hands, or singing “kumbaya.” We are not going to be getting in touch with anyone's inner child, we don't want to see your feminine side (unless you're dying to show it to us), and my personal policy on trust falls is only at participant request.

What we are going to be doing is different physical and mental challenges that will aid you in developing your communication skills, learning how you can adapt to problems, and help build a sense of trust and safety within the members of this group. Your program wants you to leave with new information and skills that you can take back with you.

It is my job to provide opportunities for learning, which comes out of the process of working on tasks and figuring out what went well, what didn't, and what could be improved next time.

As your facilitator, I promise that I will always give you any new information you need to keep yourselves and each other safe. I promise I will never bring you to a task that is impossible to do. And I promise that I will never lie to you.

There are lots of activities on property, and every small groups’ journey to reach the goals of this program are going to be different. Understand I’d like to stay focused on the present moment and task at hand. I won’t choose the next activity after we have gotten as much as we need to out of the present one, so if you ask what we are doing next, I probably don’t have a good answer yet.

You have complete control on how involved you are in any given task, how you wish to be challenged is your choice. If you feel uncomfortable or unwilling to participate in a challenge as I have presented it, please let me know, and I will gladly adapt the challenge to address those concerns or even move on to something different. Likewise, if you have a group or individual need that I am not meeting, please let me know so that I have the opportunity to do something about it.

Dealing with hecklers.

A colleague pointed me to a mailing list that is pretty handy for inspiration, actively posted on by many colleagues in this field:. Browsing archives, I found a topic of great interest:

The Ropes List Service was established in May of 1997. It was designed to allow ropes course and adventure education builders, designers, facilitators, and operators the opportunity to discuss in an open forum type setting the questions, answers, concerns, and comments that arise from such programs.

The members of the Ropes List Service represent a wide variety of backgrounds and represent a number of different organizations within the Adventure Education and ropes/challenge course field.

If you are interested in subscribing or changing your subscription status, please use the form proved at http//:onbelay.com/mailman/listinfo/ropes-list

In a message I found browsing those archives, a person described being publically and formally "heckled" by a group of adults they were facilitating a few months ago, called "annoying," by their participants. This reply I think bears repeating as I go into a segment of the year characterized by a lot of adult group facilitation by Jeffery Gosnell of Lake Williamson Christian Center.

I find that in the first hour with a professional group, I'm dealing with the stereo-type of teambuilding--trust falls, affirmation circles, and frequent usage of the phrase "think outside of the box." It's not you they find annoying, it's the perception of what you represent (One of my favorite commercials is of a businessman desperately trying to find a flight to get him out of a team building seminar.).

I generally start off any adult group with a variation of the following:

"Today, we will not be hugging, holding hands, or singing 'Kumbya.' We are not going to be getting in touch with anyone's inner child, and I don't want to see your feminine side unless you're dying to show it to us. What we are going to be doing is a series of challenges that will aid you in developing your group's communication skills and help build a sense of trust and safety within the group. You have complete control on how involved you are in any given task. If you feel uncomfortable or unwilling to participate in a challenge as I have presented it, please let me know, and I will gladly
adapt the challenge to address those concerns or even move on to something different..."

I've often noted a visible sense of relief on the faces of participants as I have said this. Some have even told me that they only reason they participated is because of that little speech. Perception is everything.


Jeffery Gosnell, Challenge Course Manager
Eagle Crest Adventures @
Lake Williamson Christian Center

2: Relationships are important.

Recently I've been working hard with colleagues of mine to "repair" some poor lines of communication which have created strained relationships. It was hard work, spending an entire day just hashing out the small stuff that I'd allowed to accumulate over the past months.

Our relationship was like an old house with a failing stone foundation, crooked rock upon crooked rock made something that was kind of flat, but ultimately, not very pleasant to look at and something rather problematic to be settling into.

No students, no facilitation, just good ol' chin yanking. But it was also a lot of energy in a place where there was a lack before.

Adequate relationships can be on accident and haphazardly formed, coming from a certain amount of je-nes-se-qua. Great relationships, however, require energy, effort, awareness, and intentionality in quantities that I had not been expending.

Ultimately, the saving of that energy (and time) was really to my own detriment and that of my organization, because we then had to spend a whole day getting things sussed out. By not rocking the boat and figuring out where our messages were getting twisted, we were in fact making more work for later.

So, now we're back down to the foundation. I think we've got a pretty good slab of concrete, and I hope that my own actions: working harder to listen, being more attuned to what I am doing and how that looks to other people, and consciously saying please and thanks, will be nice, stable, flat bricks setting onto that foundation as we will be co-facilitating some of our newly-arrived summer staff during the next 5 weeks.

We'll see in a couple weeks how things are progressing! And I'll be sure to let you all know, too.

How have you handled rocky foundations in work relationships in the past? What role did intentionality play in resolving conflicted relationships?

1: Mini-bites of 'blogging (inspired by Michael Cardus).

So much has happened in the last few months! We've been so busy at my organization--a blessing for an industry seen as expendable in today's economy. So, here are a lot of updates in a small space. Think of them as bite-size blog entries, an appetizer for an update I hope to make soon.

• Michael Cardus of Create Learning in Upstate NY is one of the best examples of an Experiential Education 'blogger. These things are NOT mutually exclusive people, and as more millenials join your ranks I hope my colleagues see, like so many others have, that technology is your friend.
• Goal: By April 15th, 2011, have made at least 52 new 'blog posts here at I Facilitate.
• Through social networking I have linked two experiential educators to jobs in the last two months and am not only earning good networking karma, but am recieving more exposure and contacts to networks because of all the forwarding and linking that happens as a result.
• I can predict with great accuracy whether I will know my students names at the end of a program based on 1 thing: Did I ever write them down? If yes, then I'll be able to recall them. If not, then I won't. Pretty funny, huh?
• If you set 11 really great goals, even accomplishing 6 feels pretty fantastic. Keep your eyes peeled for an updated goal list (whittled down from the 27 I started with for 2011 @_@)
• Buying expensive sunglasses when you work outdoors for a living and wear hardcore sunscreen every day has been fantastic, no tinting peeling from the acetate frames. Now I just need to learn to take better care of them.
• A good trail name, when called by it, will be accompanied by a rush of strong emotions. Remind me later to tell you all the story of how I got the name Baby D.
• While tough after a few days on trail, a well-facilitated debreif born out of 90 minutes planning on the ride home will leave participants and supervisors with nothing to add, and a HUGE feeling of accomplishment. It is a good reminder that all the front-loading and thumb-balls in the world cannot make up for a little reflection and a plan.
• Trailheads and side-trails near parking are harder to find than one might tell from the map. Ask questions on forums beforehand to avoid delayed outset and cancelled trips (learned that the hard way).
• Backpacking is much easier today than it was a year ago. I have a stove, certain packing systems and habits, a set of trekking poles, and most importantly: I make it easy to go. I have an entire bankers' box full of trail ready food, energy bars, lipton meals, veggie jerky, gatorade pouches, etc. that is always ready to go. I don't need to borrow anything, just make a plan, find shuttles, and pack. Food outlets have been my very best friend in building this cache, which often includes organic and light-weight options.
• This spring I made a visual guide for setting up a rescue-bag for our high ropes course. I hope to do the same for our Dam Rappel set-up sometime in the summer.
• Being an RA in college has followed me ever since. A few weeks ago I visited a friend who's finishing her BFA this week! I saw a quilt of hers in a show, and noticed a patch of stitching that looked eerily familar. She'd gotten it from my woodgrain textiles. This week I got her commencement postcards in the mail.
• Volunteering with outside organizations while living in an intentional community has been really great. Not only has it opened up the small town I've lived in for two years, but it gives a sense of purpose and identity outside of work, which is something that I struggle with a lot as an American.
• Attended AEE Mid-Atlantic. Colleagues who have been in this field for a few years consistently give the ho-hum to the regional conference. I still find so much new information, new techniques and seminars. This time around in conversing with someone I met at a workshop in passing post-conference, I even have a plan for a proposal I'd like to make for a workshop of my own! The best use of my time at this conference was definitely the workshops of Tiffany Wynn, an Adventure Therapist and Counselor who works out of Ohio. Tiffany is able to facilitate a workshop where theory meets practice, and the needs of those attending are of primary concern. I can't wait to see her again!

What are you up to this weekend?

Here it's the busy season, and I'm keeping myself busy, too. This weekend I'm hitting the trail, with plans to cover some A.T. in PA, a trip with students on the A.T. in New Jersey next week, and then taking my brother with me to finish New Jersey's A.T.!

Oh, I guess I SHOULD tend my garden someplace in there. Maybe I can make it into an initiative...

Urban NJ HS Juniors on-track for Ivy League Schools

I love working with high school students. Where college students challenge and deviate, high school students from programs like this one are on the ball and generally very present. I had a great discussion with a student who lives in a group home, and who wants to be a program coordinator at a group home one day. I gave him a CD that Nyle made when he was a freshman at NYU (Frosh)

I remembered them from last year because I did a Full-Value Contract I've only ever done with that group (which involved burning pieces of paper symbolically).

This program has a middle-school group which comes to our campus each summer, but this group of students are high-schoolers selected through an application process. Their families must make under a certain amount each year, and the students do 3 weeks residential each summer and go to school every Saturday to prepare themselves for the goal of placement in Ivy League schools.

Last year their communication needed more work, but this year we were asked to focus on SMART Goals.

This worked really well since I had Juniors and I took the time to make a handout for my students. It's covered by Creative Commons but is available for non-commercial use here on my own web space. It's targeted at high-school students. but may be good for middle school and early college students. In fact, even my chaperone, the program coordinator, and I did these worksheets right along with our students, to fantastic results.

It tries to walk students through some brainstorming of values, prioritizing, selecting what they want to work on, how to turn that into a SMART goal, and a place for them to create three smaller goals and sign the document. I also included a half-sheet with many of my SMART goals from this past year.

After they finished filling out their sheets, I copied them onto
bright yellow paper and gave them to my students right before they started
loading on the bus. As I did, I reminded each of them to put it on their wall as soon as they got home. Out of sight, out of mind. As a bonus, the coordinator of their program got to keep their originals, which will be a boon to their program instructors, I hope.

In a lot of ways, revisiting SMART goals with my students reminded me of the goals that I need to update for the last few months before my second performance review in April.

Next time, I'll try and be more efficient with getting the goal-setting done so we can do more outdoor activities. But my students who got to sit inside and sip hot chocolate all morning would probably disagree with that.

University LAX team

A couple weekends ago a group of about 50 male athletes came up for come general team-building and high ropes activities.

My Δ feedback that I want to remember:

1. For other adult groups: If they want to fool around, then that's fine. They are more than old enough to understand that there are consequences for their actions, and my students did turn out to have extra time.
2. Also, I did an activity called Tap 2, where two people's hands are squeezed, those people tap two people according to facilitator guidelines before silently returning to their spot. I should have selected more students at a time, and this was not a group that could handle having eyes closed and not messing with one another.
3. At the final debreif, I got the impression that the program coordinator really wanted me to do a Yurt Circle silently (I led Tap 2 and Yurt Circle as large group closings), however I am really not all about facilitating something for the first time in a large group context. I'll save it for something special, and I don't know that it would have worked with this group.

On the + spectrum of things, I really feel much more comfortable facilitating the high element Multi-Vine after this second time going at it.

Recent non-primary-service facilitations

I've facilitated three non-primary-service-population groups in the last month or so and I'm doing a little check-in on how my facilitation went and how it could be improved.

Ideas on ways in which non-primary service population groups are challenging to me historically:

• Not who I accepted this position to work with, not generally at-risk.
• Groups of students can be less obviously dysfunctional in trust and communication faculties.
• Not the kids I grew up with for the most part, so not students I traditionally identify with even though outwardly we are often very similar.
• It's easy to even have feelings of ange or jealousy towards students' priviledge (whether they are aware of it or not).

Because of the above reasons I don't always gain rapport like I do with my primary-service groups. I have also had difficulty both meeting program goals and challenging students at times.

Things that went well this time around:

+ In the past I have been more of a micro-manager when I facilitate. Now that I've got a good pair of facilitator legs on me, students respond better in general (including this population).

+ Instead of fighting their need to socialize or just relax gunneled up in canoes, I just co-opted it for "bonding." I'd give a topic of conversation and say "switch" during hikes and students had an opportunity to be one-on-one. I even had them come up with paired handshakes.

+ Give lots of compliments for positive behaviors: "Thanks for chipping in with the restoration process, that went really well!"

+ Honoring the knowledge they do have. If students know how to put on helmets and harnesses, having them help check each-other (works with students who have just learned, as well).

Things that I could do better at:

Δ It's easy to let students take breaks and give up when they get
frustrated; Frustration comes with struggle, and when my students have to
struggle, I know I'm doing my job right. At the same time, when a group says
"no," it's important to respect that, as well. I could do a better job in this arena.

Δ I had a student with an injury during one group who had a hard time being involved; I had to constantly remind him that he needed to interact in some way. Finding other ways to engage with students like him in the future, to see if I can get better outcomes.

Δ I was being really good about giving copies of the schedule to my chaperones. My chaperone talks have improved with the addition of a "cheat sheet" on the back of my clipboard. I need to get back to doing my mini-schedule, writing down my students' names, and giving a copy to my chaperone.

Δ 'Blogging before the program is off of my mind. I've probably lost a lot of opportunities for improvement from not being as religious about this as I could.

Donnelly program preliminary reflection

We are all weak, finite, simple human beings, standing in the need of
prayer. None need it so much as those who think they are strong, those who know
it not, but are deluded by self-sufficiency.
-Harold C. Phillips

One thing I need to work on for this 'blog, but also for facilitation, is increasing my consistency.

Δ More consistency.

Δ Learn to say "no" and practice it often. Even when well-rested and just back from two weeks vacation, always saying "yes, I don't need your help." "Yes, you can take care of that need," trains people that in general I do not need or want support. And that's not true.
I feel like this program I habituated others to being lazy, and I got mad that they weren't around. Saying "yes" is good. So is saying "no."

Δ Need to work on my facilitation of creek-hopping. No standing/walking in water? Seems like a lot of foot/ankle danger would be mitigated by this rule. Move along the bank to explore, if you find a spot you like have a sit.

Anyway, disorganized thoughts in no particular order:

• + I was able to get my 12 students out to the back 40 where we had a crate lunch which had the right amount of things in it. An accomplishment because I packed it myself.
• + Got to take my 12 students creek-hopping, a favorite activity of mine.
• + Even after packing my own crate lunch for Tuesday, Monday I had enough energy to stay at work until 10 helping to finish pack-outs for two/three expeditions that were going out the next day.
• + After 10 days of vacation I had enough steam last night to help three facilitators get a group of pretty challenging foster students (from Trenton?) out to their campsite a little more efficiently. I threw a bear bag and went back to main camp to do a night walk, then went back to bring ice for a student with a bum ankle and tissues for another.
• + Made up a new activity, TP Walks (The good old line-up-log or telephone pole activity with people going backwards or blindfolded, hands clasped as for trust leans. At the beginning, commands are said, then the person leans to the left and the right to feel their spotters next to them before attempting to traverse the log. I see very little reason to do trust falls, like, ever, and I think this is a good, active compromise.)
• + My students asked if they could baptize me in the creek in our back 40, which was pretty funny.
• Having one younger student among the 12-15 year olds' really brought out a lot of leadership, in all involved (including the shockingly insightful kid, and the surprisingly ignorant/disrespectful 16-year-old Junior Counselor they brought with).

I have to end this post with a story. Yesterday I came in from canoeing, lifeguarding swimming, and hiking out to Power Rock and the back 40 for lunch, and as I walked past the porch two chaperones said "Long day, huh?" informing me of how bushed I must have looked. I felt pretty good, but it was a good long day, too. Sometimes I don't realize how tired I am until someone says "you look tired."

When I was back out at the campsite of the group with the foster kids in it, I saw in two of their facilitators what those two women must have seen in me: Exhausted, but smiling (because sometimes if I didn't smile I'd cry.) Laughing, but not at anything in particular (because sometimes if I didn't laugh I'd scream.) Quiet and capable of thought, but eyes show surprising vacancy (lights are on but nobody's home, all brainpower used up.)

BSS Spring 08

"Do you hear that? I believe its the sound of us not canoeing"

In preperation for my intimate group of kids from BSS coming up this afternoon for a 5 day, 4-night unchaperoned program, I am typing up the May 8-9 overnight with the same school in the spring.

The thing I loved about working with these students who we do in-school programming with during the year is that outside of their "toxic" environment in Newark, where the neighborhood is rough and fronting is a requirement for survival, these students very much flourished out in the country on our experiential education campus.

It was great to hang out with the students and to spend 23 hours a day with them, and I am looking forward to this program. Nothing makes me prouder than becoming a lifeguard on Friday, except for the fact that the Program Coordinators are trusting me to take these 6 middle-schoolers with my co-facilitator out on the Delaware this Wednesday.

There should be more kids coming up from the city on this trip. There should be half a dozen groups staying on-property. However, the fact that we didn't get paperwork for them all means that my students and I are going to have a really intimate experience.

Two things to remember: I need to constantly be asking my co for delta feedback to get it. Also, last time BSS was here I left my keys attached to a pack on a porch, which I haven't done recently.

In the spring, to prepare these students for their overnight camping in a tent, we set up a crazy scavenger hunt for them, and they really rocked it out. It gave them a familiarity with what a campsite is going to look like, which is really exciting.