Emergent Learning Jazz Sessions
Facilitation can be just like playing an instrument. First, you learn to play by the rules, then you forget the rules and play from the heart.
As every learning experience designer and facilitator, I prepare for my sessions. I state a clear purpose, outcomes and objectives, as well as a clear session plan with time-bound activities. Like in many others spheres of life, a good plan gives me a sense of confidence to succeed. Surely, many would agree that good preparation is half of the job done, and to some extent offers the certainty of achieving the desired destination with your participants. This is a standard approach that uses linear and logical development, based on clear-cut structure and measurable objectives.
As I grow into my facilitation practice, I learn that this approach is useful for facilitating processes that remain in our habitual, superficial levels of being and doing. In fact, we are so used to this way of learning that there is even a habit to crave for this clarity and structure before learners engage in a session. It has become part of the comfort zone, where not much learning happens anyway. I sign up for this, therefore I get that. Expectations are clear and learners then own a measuring stick for the facilitators, on how effectively they will fulfill their expectations. The responsibility for the achieved personal growth is mostly placed on the perceived “teacher” (in this case the facilitator), which implies an outward-oriented approach. There is an abundance of this kind of learning and facilitation out there, and that’s great, and also quite ordinary. I personally, find familiar processes with familiar results quite boring.
Then, what’s extraordinary facilitation?
For me, it’s emergent. It’s the new uncharted territory I’ve been exploring as I intend to host spaces and facilitate meaningful and transformational learning experiences that go beyond building skills and competencies. I design processes that engage beyond the cognitive and add the emotional, physical, and energetic aspects of all participants in the process. What does it take to hold a space for such a journey of expansion of awareness? It means forgetting the rules and leaning into uncertainty. It feels like I’ve learned to play an instrument by the rules, and now it’s about forgetting the rules and daring to step into playing (facilitating) from the heart. My sessions have evolved from practiced concerts, into creative and emergent jam sessions. The group is not a static audience, but a dynamic system where rigid tools and recipes have limited effect.
From my experience, here are a four principles for facilitators to start jazzing up learning sessions:
Get excited about the uniqueness of every facilitation process.
Accept, and get excited that every process in every group is unique. This means that as a group comes together, a synergy of individual life experiences, stories, and journeys is manifesting through the chemistry in between. In this “chemical reaction”, possibilities change along the way. Certainly, you could research and find ways to know your participants and their needs and expectations, yet embracing the wild card in the play of all of them coming together can bring about new discoveries of who you all become in the presence of one another.
Lean into curiosity and sensitivity of what wants to emerge.
An unfolding co-creation offers continuous possibilities for the journey to evolve. Inviting the participants to also take responsibility to sense and voice what the process evokes within them, allows for a dance between their inner individual and the collective, outer context. This shared ownership calls for the responsibility of the facilitator to recognize and discern the need of the group and guide the journey there while remaining centered and “tuned in” to the collective intelligence emerging from the togetherness. For me, to be centered means to be of love and service to my participants. I am off my center when my insecurities kick in, and when, for example, I worry about the outcome, assume or remain attached to my plan/agenda as the only/best way to success. In those wobbly moments, I’ve been practicing to notice and voice those stories, share my shadows vulnerably with the participants and/or allow for stillness to re-connect again. It works like magic!
Start with intentions, not only expectations.
Intention comes as a longing from the inner world and is framed into a generative language. It’s the spark of energy to set on your journey with a clear WHY for taking every step of the way. Expectations, on the other hand, are linked to a destination in the outer world. They serve as a measuring stick that we use to judge and evaluate results, or what we get out of the journey. Most of the time, when expectations do not meet the reality unfolding they are a source of disappointment and therefore suffering. Most facilitators, including myself, inquire about the expectations even before a session starts. This way it’s easy to design a bespoke plan with SMART objectives. My inquiry does not stop there though. Once the session begins, I invite the participants to identify how are they entering the space and what’s their intention for the journey. An intention speaks into how one needs to be to meet own and each others’ expectations. This way we share the responsibility and ownership of what everyone will get out of the learning experience and embrace the diverse possibilities of the journey to evolve, of which many could be close or far from the original plan.
Welcome the whole.
Enable a safer/braver space where one feels to be welcome as whole. This means to meet not only the nice and polite but also the intensity of the resistance, friction, the triggers… Sharing vulnerably, showing up authentically, naming personal triggers and stories are great (though not always easy) ways to model what showing up fully human (whole) really means. Designing and facilitating learning experiences that go beyond the cognitive and into the emotional, physical and spiritual realm, are the ones that shift from within. At the end of the day, in the words of Maya Angelou, people will unlikely remember what they saw or heard, but will certainly remember how you made them feel. (Disclaimer: if there are potential trauma triggers in your session, be clear and take radical responsibility about personal boundaries of yourself and the participants; also recognize what’s within your capabilities and what requires referral to professional support and help).
There is a growing body of knowledge and experience in this kind of emergent facilitation. Embracing uncertainty, complexity, wholeness can seem scary, and very uncomfortable for both facilitators and participants. Choosing to love all of it, as it is, is the foundation of transformational learning. This requires the cultivation of practices of self-love, authenticity, and awareness of narratives, both collective and individual, which are in the way of becoming a greater, and more wholesome version of ourselves.