Thursday, 6.33pm
Sheffield, U.K.
The teacher must adopt the role of facilitator not content provider. – Lev S. Vygotsky
In case you don’t know what I do you’re in good company – I don’t really either.
But what I’m interested in is in using drawing and writing to help me understand things.
I’ve used this in different ways – to take notes in class, to plan outlines for books (that I should really write sometime), to take notes during meetings, to listen better to people who have to operate in complex situations.
And recently, I’ve spent more time facilitating.
That’s something I never thought I would be that interested in.
My one experience of facilitation was a nightmare. I was asked to sit in a group and talk about my feelings. And that didn’t work – I didn’t want to do that and everyone else sounded like they were whining.
I’m a little more tolerant now.
But I’m still a little conflicted about icebreakers and team building and all that kind of stuff.
When I say conflicted, I mean I hate the idea of doing any of that.
Why can’t we just get on with work?
Now, I’m probably wrong. I also open minded. Except about most things.
So I listened to a facilitation podcast, the Facilitation Lab Podcast, if you want the details.
In one of the episodes they talked about the difference between being interested and interesting.
Being interested is about listening and asking questions.
Being interesting is about performing, taking the stage.
I suppose you need a balance between the two, perhaps more towards being interested as a facilitator and letting the participants take the stage.
And I am interested in things, in people and how they operate, how things work or don’t, and what could be done to make things better.
Crap. I might be turning into a facilitator.
Cheers,
Karthik Suresh
Handcrafted insight 