Greetings from Barcelona ☀️where we have officially launched a dynamite 🧨Cohort 2 of the Breakthrough Facilitation course. If you missed this cohort, not to worry! You can join the wait list for info on Cohort 3 👉 here.
🙌Many thanks for reading The Quest.
If you are joining for the first time, welcome to our deep dive into facilitation, learning, and how to live a creative life.
Let’s jump right in!
I’ll never forget the magical feeling.
It was a tingling excitement that I felt at a very specific moment when I visited my grandparents at their summer cottage. It came when I walked through a grey brick arch on their front lawn.
Every time walked through the arch, I felt like I stepping into something special.
The arch is called a moon gate, used in traditional Chinese gardens. It was my grandparent’s way of ushering you into the special world they had created at their cottage. Walking through the moon gate pretty much guaranteed that something fun and unexpected was going to happen.
My grandparents knew the power of crossing a threshold.
And so do storytellers and scriptwriters. Crossing a threshold is part of many ancient rituals and myths. It’s a key stage of Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey”. It’s when the hero finally commits to the journey, leaving the Ordinary World and entering a Special World.
You can invite your group members to cross a threshold.
In the Art of Gathering, Priya Parker defines the threshold moment as the final transition between the guests’ arrival and the opening of an event. And that one of the mistakes many of us make is believing that this threshold moment “doesn’t count”.
As the facilitator, you need to create the threshold.
Without planning for the threshold moment, entering your session can feel like a continuation of boring (or stressful) ordinary life. When you create a threshold you invite your group members to step out of the mundane and into a magical group experience.
🤔How can you create threshold moments for your groups?
That’s our Quest for this week🔎
👉IDEO’s 6 Ways to Kick Off Creative Meetings
👉How to start your meetings with a Mindset Check-In
👉6 Tips for Making the First 5 Minutes of any session high energy and engaging
Plus
🎙️Nadia Chaney’s Adaptagen Podcast for facilitators.
💡IDEO’s 6 Ways to Kick Off Creative Meetings
One way to create a threshold is to start with something extraordinary. And the folks at IDEO have fountains of creative ideas to start events and meetings differently.
Here are IDEO’s 6 Ways to Kick Off Creative Meetings👇
1/ Sketch Your Neighbour – to get people out of verbal/analytical mode into creative mode.
2/ The Name Game – to inject some fun and connection.
3/ The Stretch – to perk up energy levels.
4/ Last Word, First Word – to warm up the group’s active listening muscles.
5/ The Story Opener – to help people show up as their whole human selves.
6/ Dance Lesson – if you and your group are ready for an added level of risk.
Read the full article with instructions for each opener 👉here.
How do you start your meetings?
✅For More Productive Meetings Do a Mindset Check-in
If you aren’t quite ready to start your meetings with a dance lesson, there are alternatives. One is to start your meeting or session with a “check-in”.
Here’s an article with one of the best descriptions of a check-in that I have read.
It’s from Gustavo Razzetti, founder of a consultancy called Fearless Culture.
Checking-in is a tried-and-tested facilitation technique for opening a meeting or session. It increases self-awareness and understanding of others. It gives everyone a voice. And it helps people to feel present and focused.
Here are 3 check-in questions he uses:
👉What has got your attention?
👉What are you bringing to this meeting?
👉What kind of a day have you had so far today?
What check-in questions do you use to open your sessions?
Read the full article 👉here.
🔥6 Ideas for Making the First 5 Minutes of Any Session High-Energy and Engaging
On Zoom we don’t have a physical threshold that people can step through. We have to create a threshold for our group members. When you do, you increase anticipation, energy, and engagement.
What do you do in in your virtual sessions to help people cross the threshold?
Join the conversation on Twitter here👇
Gwyn Wansbrough 🚢Thanks to @Mathilde_Leo and @Karaminder for sparking ideas.
🎙️Adaptagen Facilitator Podcast with Nadia Chaney
Imagine being let in on a conversation where the most seasoned facilitators from around the world reveal their secrets to you.
That’s what the Adaptagen Podcast is all about. It is the brainchild of Nadia Chaney, one of the most experienced and experimental facilitators I know.
It was a huge honor to be featured in Episode 15where I talked with Nadia about my facilitator journey, switching to virtual facilitation, and the many breakthroughs I’ve had along the way.
Check out our episode 👉here.
Adaptagen is part of Nadia’s Toolsi online platform where she shares her infinite facilitation wisdom through videos, activities, mini-courses, and more.
💌Thanks for reading The Quest
I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Just hit reply to share your thoughts and ideas.
🙌Special shout out to Steven in Ireland, Gillian in Kingston, Michaele and Barry in Bracebridge, and Joan in Toronto.
Visit my website for ways we can work together 👉 here.
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Creatively yours,
