WORLDWORK: Advanced Facilitator & OD Training

In a globalised environment our societies and organisations are becoming increasingly complex places.  It is only when tensions break out that we recognise the power of thoughts and feelings that have been unexpressed and perhaps till now avoided – whether for fear of the backlash or because there is no room for them.  Unfortunately this means that when they do break through it is a way which takes us by surprise.

 

To work effectively with people and the systems they live and work in, organisational development practitioners, consultants, mediators, leaders, activists and community facilitators rely on finely honed facilitation skills.

 

Participants of our advanced practitioner development program will learn about and experience a large and small group facilitation method known as Worldwork.

 

Worldwork is a powerful tool for working with complex social and organisational dynamics, supporting diverse voices to be heard, addressing conflict and creating awareness about the effect of our subtle biases and unconscious use of rank and power.

 

Why Worldwork?

 

To facilitate teams and systems well, we must consider many factors including the group’s history, patterns and style of interacting, the context, rank differences, leadership, values, perceptions and more. Worldwork strengthens facilitators skills in working with the many and ever-present layers of group dynamics and diversity.

 

Worldwork is a powerful way to hear marginalised voices and perspectives that frequently offer new insights and breakthroughs for the society, organisations and culture. Offering a profound experiential learning, it supports participants to recognise the impact of their own behaviours and the conscious and unconscious rank dynamics at play in society.

 

Familiarity with the Worldwork methodology will deepen your own confidence in working in conflicted and potentially volatile situations. It equips you to think on your feet and work with what’s in the room.

 

What Will I Learn From The Course?

 

This course will enable participants to:

 

  • Recognise the spoken and hidden influences of diversity in groups, communities and organisations
  • Hear and identify roles and voices within a dialogue or complex issue
  • Demonstrate greater awareness and sensitivity to the multitude of experience in the system
  • Switch perspectives with greater ease and confidence
  • Engage more effectively with issues involving strong feelings and conflict
  • Recognise early signals of escalation and de-escalation in conflict
  • Gain greater confidence working in situations which appear complex and chaotic
  • Support consensus, alignment and committed decsision making

 

There will be a strong focus on skill development but also on your personal development as a facilitator.

 

Course Structure

 

The course will comprise of six days of training including an initial introductory two-day workshop for those new to Worldwork.

 

Workshop 1: An Introduction To Worldwork

 

Our first workshop will focus on key concepts and applications as well as the core skills underpinning the subtle art of Worldwork facilitation.

 

Topics covered in the first workshop include:

 

  • What is Worldwork?
  • The facilitator’s role in Worldwork
  • Gaining consensus for an agenda
  • Recognising roles & diversity
  • Deepening and unfolding roles
  • Supporting marginalised voices to emerge
  • Polarisation in groups
  • Working with hot & cold spots
  • Framing the group experience

 

This workshop will be a strong grounding for facilitators new to or developing their confidence in Worldwork facilitation.

 

 

Workshop 2: Developing Fluidity As A Facilitator

 

This workshop will include an Open Group process in which members of the group facilitate dynamic group interactions and receive private supervision feedback.

 

This workshop will cover:

 

  • Framing roles
  • Working with one-sidedness in faciltiation
  • Deepening dialogue
  • Working with the Quantum field

 

 

Workshop 3: Facilitator Awareness

 

Effective facilitation lies first and foremost with a facilitator’s own personal awareness. An advanced facilitator recognises they are in a relational dialogue and is required to track and anticipate a group’s needs and process along with their own personal process.

 

Participants will learn how to recognise roles, biases and beliefs within themselves and others. You will learn to use this information, rather than be caught by it, to deepen dialogue between parties with differing interests as a basis for shared understanding, decision making and consensus.

 

This workshop will develop participant’s capacity to:

 

  • Work with owned and marginalised feelings, impulses and communication
  • Work with inner states
  • Work on your personal history
  • Recognise roles within yourself
  • Recognise biases and beliefs
  • Follow impuses

 

 

Workshop 4: Working With Heat

 

This workshop will equip participants to work with conflict providing an understanding of the causes of escalation and de-escalation.

 

An open group process will be held, enabling participants to apply some of these skills in the heat of polarized debate.

 

Participants will develop techniques for:

 

  • Triggers for conflict in groups
  • Working with hotspots & cool-spots
  • Assessing a group’s capacity for heat
  • Tracking escalation & de-escalation

 

 

Workshop 5: Working With Power and Rank

 

The impact of rank and power on organisational, community and team dynamics is rarely discussed, and hence poorly understood. Yet the capacity to use power effectively is dependent on our understanding of the factors shaping our experience of power and that of our staff and colleagues.

 

This workshop explores ways to:

 

  • Understand diverse sources of rank (stuctural, social, psychological & moral)
  • Track your own high and low rank as a facilitator
  • Learn to use your rank well
  • Work with participants experience of high and low rank

 

Cost

 

Full Series:                Early Bird: $1,800 inc gst   Full Rate: $1,950 inc gst
Workshop 1 only:       Early Bird: $900 inc gst     Full Rate: $1,000 inc gst
Workshops 2 – 5:*     Early Bird: $900 inc gst     Full Rate: $1,000 inc gst

 

A limited number of scholarship places will be available for those working in community leadership roles.

 

*Option available to current students only.

Early bird available until 1 February 2016.

 

 

Workshops will run 9.00am-4.30pm each day.

 

Participants will be asked to undertake some reading to support their skill development.

 

Information & Registration

 

For more information on the program please email or call 03 9077 2163.

 

If you are interested in this topic please read our blog “History Is Not In The Past“. While you are there, why not make a comment, and add to the discussion?