Greetings from Barcelona.☀️
🙌Many thanks for reading The Quest, your weekly round-up of tips and insights to help you design and lead exceptional online sessions that your group members will love.❤️
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Let’s jump right in.
🤝How can you bridge differences when finding commonalities seems impossible?
I know I’m not the only one who has been feeling a mix of sadness and hopelessness about global events lately. Especially following the latest crisis in the Middle East. My heart goes out to everyone who has suffered because of that conflict. It makes me wonder if finding common ground is even possible. Maybe you do too?
But there is one thing that gives me hope.
And that’s facilitation. It offers a different way to the usual response of rushing to justify one point of view, blaming the other, or blindly hoping for world peace. Instead, facilitation can open and honest discussions that help us see each other’s humanity.
I know, this may sound all woo-woo and jargony.
But we’re talking about real, tangible impact here. Facilitation isn’t just a feel-good exercise. It can be the invisible force that helps people and groups break through complex conflicts. It’s what has helped make reconciliation possible in places like Colombia, South Africa, and Canada.
Conflict comes in all shapes, sizes, and levels of intensity
You might think, “I’m not dealing with global conflicts or diplomatic crises”. That’s not what I do either. But conflict is part and parcel of any group interaction from community meetings to Zoom breakout rooms. Learning these techniques can help you navigate conflict with more confidence – in whatever form it takes.
What can facilitation teach us about bridging seemingly insurmountable differences? That’s our Quest for this week 🔎
👉 “Moving Beyond Binary Thinking” by Manal Sayid
👉 “Designing Dialogue Processes for Peace” by Seeds For Peace
👉 “Facilitating Breakthroughs in Complex Conflicts” by Adam Kahane
🤔Facilitation Tactics for Moving Beyond Binary Thinking – Manal Sayid LinkedIn Post
A LinkedIn post by seasoned facilitator Manal Sayid (and Quest reader hi Manal👋). In it she challenges binary thinking – the idea that there are two sides, and you can only pick one.
She uses the example that Pro-Palestine ≠ Anti-Semitism.
She writes that by using facilitation skills, you can play a vital role in steering discussions away from binary thinking promoting empathy, and encouraging people to explore more nuanced perspectives.
What really resonated with me is Manal’s ability to courageously challenge her own binary thinking and show us what else is possible.
Here are 6 facilitation tactics she offers to help steer ourselves and our groups away from binary thinking:
- Establish a brave space
- Define common goals
- Challenge assumptions
- Offer alternative perspectives
- Use storytelling
- Highlight common humanity
Read the full post here.
How could you challenge your own binary thinking?
🌱How to design dialogue process – Seeds For Peace
Seeds for Peace is a non-profit leadership development organization. They’ve worked for decades building relationships across lines of difference in the Middle East and around the world.
Their signature program is a youth camp held every summer in Maine, USA. They bring Israeli and Palestinian youth to build leadership skills and mutual understanding.
At the heart of the program is a facilitated dialogue process that aims to build respect and empathy.
I did a little detective work to uncover how they run their dialogue process. Here’s what I found 👇
- Start with community building: this builds trust so people can open up
- Create group norms: reached by consensus and agreed by all
- Deep listening: skilling people up in how to practice it
- Small group discussions: to take topics of conversation deeper
- Experiential activities: using games to learn by doing
Check out their work here.
✨Facilitating Breakthroughs – Adam Kahane Book
A book by seasoned facilitator and author Adam Kahane. He writes about facilitating groups that are seriously stuck in “complexity and conflict”.
Kahane uses an approach called “transformative facilitation.” It’s a structured way to help groups “remove obstacles, bridge differences, and move forward together.” It aims to transform the group members so they can transform their conflict. And he’s used it to help reconciliation processes in Colombia, South Africa, and Canada.
The book is not a how-to on facilitation techniques, but he does mention a few tactics that he uses that create the conditions for breakthroughs to happen👇
⏳Timed Introductions:
Sitting in a circle, each person has one minute, timed with a bell, to introduce themselves. That meant that all voices were heard equally.
🍲Shared Meals:
The participants ate together at long tables. This created a space for informal conversation.
🌳 Walks in Pairs:
They created opportunities for walks in nature. This helped develop personal connections across divides.
💛 Empathic Listening:
They introduced a framework for open, nonjudgemental listening that they practiced in pairs.
🎙️ Storytelling:
They facilitated time for participants to share personal stories about their lives. This helped develop empathy.
What are your go-to techniques for facilitating conflict?
✍️Quote of the Week
“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”
Chimamanda Ngoni Adichie, Nigerian Writer
💌Thanks for reading The Quest
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Creatively yours,
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