Greetings from Barcelona.☀️
🙌Many thanks for reading The Quest, your weekly round-up of tips and insights to help you design and lead exceptional virtual sessions that your group members will love.❤️.
I had to make a quick judgment call.
I was halfway through the final session of an 8-week online course. I had spent hours agonizing over my plan for a perfect closing session. I wanted this closing to be memorable. In my plan, I would invite group members to share a closing ritual, and then wrap it up with a powerful closing activity. Bam!
But the session was not going according to my plan.
One group member shared a beautiful song. Two others burst into a spontaneous rap. Balloons with wishes for the future appeared on the screen. The group was visibly moved. But with 19 minutes left, we weren’t going to have enough time to finish the round of sharing and do my closing activity.
Should I stick with the plan or trust my intuition?
My perfectionist told me to stick with the plan. But my gut was telling me that group sharing was more important. In a nanosecond, I had made my decision to roll with the group sharing and skip my closing. It was the right call. I couldn’t have planned for a more memorable course ending.
Trusting your intuition can help you navigate the unknowns of group work.
When you lead groups, your intuition helps you tune into your group’s needs. It gives you the cues to know when to change direction. It can help you explore what’s beneath the surface. It can spark breakthroughs for your group members. But knowing how to access it when you need it can be difficult. And it’s not always right.
🤔How can you develop intuition as a skill for leading groups? That’s our Quest for this week🔎
👉Gut Feelings: How Does Intuition Work, Anyway?
👉How you can use intuition to lead better groups
👉One simple way to know if your intuition is right.
Let’s jump right in.
✨Gut Feelings: How Does Intuition Work, Anyway?
A fascinating article from psychologist and author Elaine Fox, Ph.D. on intuition, that “illusive form of intelligence”.
I rely on my intuition especially when leading groups. But I realized I wasn’t 100% clear on exactly what it was or how it worked. Understanding it immediately made me feel more confident in using it.
Here’s how Fox defines intuition:
Intuition is a very real process where the brain makes use of past experiences, along with internal signals and cues from the environment to help us make a decision. Eliane Fox, PhD
Here are my 3 biggest takeaways:
👉Intuition is learned through actions and everyday experience rather than books or lessons. You have to use your intuition to have access to this knowledge.
👉Intuition is not a magical power that only a few people have. It’s an extension of how your memory and cognitive systems normally work. It’s a mental skill that is affected strongly by your life experience.
👉Your intuition is not always right. Gut feelings will not give you clear right or wrong answers that you can rationally evaluate. That’s not their function. Gut feelings give you bonus evidence to guide your judgment.
Read the full article 👉here.
🙌Thanks to Quest reader Rick Ingrasci at Big Mind Media for sharing this article.
📡 The Intuitive Facilitator
How can you develop intuition as a skill to lead better group experiences?
That’s the question that facilitator and FacilitatorU founder Steve Davis answers in a blog he wrote way back in 2012.
Leading groups is a dynamic process full of unknowns. Davis helped me to connect the dots between intuition, listening, trust, flexibility, and risk-taking – all traits of exceptional facilitation.
Here’s how Davis says you can develop intuition as a skill.
👉Don’t judge, don’t assume. Be open, actively listen, pause, check-in, and be more aware of your own responses, feelings, and inner sensation.
👉Be open, and patient, and set aside your ego. Practice trusting, acting upon, and assessing the results of using your intuition.
👉Acting on your intuition requires you to take a risk. You may not understand why your intuition is telling you to do something. Let go of your need to be right, and give yourself permission to be wrong.
Read the full article 👉 here.
💡One Simple Way To Know If Your Intuition is Right
How do you know if your intuition is right?
Bad news: you don’t.
Good news: you can find out.
Davis gives us a phrase that you can use to test your intuition:
“I’m sensing that…”.
Why is it so powerful?
By saying “I am sensing that” you are indicating that you might be wrong.
The critical thing is to deeply listen to what your group members say next. This will give you feedback about whether your intuition was correct, and how to proceed.
Join the conversation on Twitter👇
 Gwyn Wansbrough |
✍️ Quote of the Week
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
Albert Einstein
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