Hello Friends,
Greetings from Barcelona ☀️ where we have finished week 2 of the Breakthrough Facilitation course🔥. We’ve been deep into the art of designing sessions with these fabulous facilitators (thanks Charlotte!). More on that below👇
🙌Many thanks for reading The Quest. A very special shoutout to Maria in Miami, Barry & Michaele in Bracebridge, and Connie in Toronto.
A special welcome to IAF friends. If you are joining for the first time, welcome to our deep dive into all things creativity, facilitation, and learning.
You can catch up on the last edition 🔑The Key to Creating Connection Onlineand all past editions here.
🪄Once upon a time (a very long time ago) I published an online article.
The problem was that it sounded like one of my first-year political science essays. Long, boring, and badly written.
Every day since then I had an itch to write. But I didn’t know where to begin. So time passed.
Until one day I decided it was time to face my writing fears. So I signed up for an online course called Write of Passage.
Because of that, I learned some actual online writing techniques. Make it personal and playful. Focus on one idea. Show ideas through examples and metaphors. Keep sentences short. Share your writing and get feedback at an early stage.
Because of that, I learned to show my writing. To be consistent. To show up. To do the reps. To keep going even when your internal critic is pleading with you not to publish.
Until finally I started a newsletter called The Quest (yes the one you are reading right now!).
And ever since then I have written to you each week.
The story about my experience in Write of Passage is not only a story of how I rediscovered the joy of writing.
It is also an example of what a story arc can teach us about how to design a transformative learning experience.
Because like every good story, every powerful group experience has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
The heroes are your group members. Your session is their adventure.
So how can you use the story arc to design great sessions?
That’s our Quest for this week 🔎
👉The Story Spine
👉The Hero’s Journey – for groups
👉How Did You Learn That? Podcast – How to Create Breakthroughs with the Groups You Lead
👉Free facilitation workshop **en Español** October 21
And more
Let’s dive right in!
📖The Story Spine
I was introduced to the Story Spine by Scaling Intimacy.
It was originally created by playwright Kenn Adams.
The Story Spine boils down the elements found in nearly every story into a 7-sentence framework for crafting well-structured stories.
And it’s been used by improv artists and leading script writers. In fact, Story Spine is rule #4 of Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling.
A well-designed group session follows a similar arc to the Story Spine (see drawing below). And it has transformed how I approach designing my group sessions.
It goes like this:
Story Spine can also be used as a facilitation tool for group connecting, reflecting, and visioning.
What would your group’s Story Spine look like?
⛰️The Group Hero’s Journey
You may already be familiar with Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey.
Campbell was an American professor of literature.
Campbell’s research revealed that for thousands of years people all over the world communicated with stories having similar patterns and basic elements.
He structured these patterns and elements into 12 phases and called it “The Hero’s Journey.”
The Hero’s Journey taps into our innate human desire to become better versions of ourselves.
When you look at the stages of the Hero’s Journey you see the phases of transformative learning: call to adventure (learning something new); meeting a mentor (your teacher), trails and failure (learning-by-doing), growth (from comfort zone to learning zone), revelation (breakthrough), only to return a changed person (transformation). See the drawing below.
But there is one important difference.
The Hero’s Journey is an individual quest.
Group learning is both an individual and a collective quest. The group takes on its own identity in the process. And both the individual and group are transformed through the process.
How can we create a new hero’s journey that includes the group?
💡How Did You Learn That?
A brilliant podcast series by course creator and superteacher Andrew Barry. In it, he interviews experts sharing their knowledge, and how they learned their craft.
I am beyond thrilled to be featured on Episode #49 How to Create Breakthroughs in Groups You Lead (👉Spotify link).
Andrew has been an important mentor and teacher to me through my online writing and course creation journey. And he’s the guy you need to follow if you are interested in online course creation.
Check out Andrew on Twitter, LinkedIn.
📅Free Facilitation Workshop Series for Spanish Speakers October 18-24
I’m honoured to be included in this year’s edition of #FacilitationWeek organized by IAF España.
Check out the 5 free online workshops in Spanish to help you flex your facilitation muscles.
Join me on October 21 for my session on How to Guide Your Groups to Great Outcomes.
Check out the full program and register (for free) here 👉https://bit.ly/3mrS9vf
💌Thanks for reading The Quest
I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Just hit reply to share your thoughts and ideas. Visit my website for ways we can work together 👉 here.
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Creatively yours,
