Building culture for co-production - Chapter 8. Facilitation

Be fully present and as calm as possible whenever you practice facilitation.

Make time for calm, supported reflection between facilitations to enable continuous improvement. Think about:

arriving – take a moment to settle silently into the room at key points

listening – feeling physically present, listening with your whole self

noticing – accepting what you notice and working with it

recording – the actual words that people use

speaking – short and concise, using I and us instead of you and they

I and you: A common habit is to use a generic ‘you’ (instead of I) when talking about our own experiences. We do this to distance ourselves, a little, from what happened. If you spot it, you might correct it at the time and/or make a note so that you can consider it further later: What was making me feel the need for distance? What can I learn from that experience and the experience of re-telling it?

Us and them: We are all part of one (very big) team! Count people in, whenever you can and facilitate in ways that expand the ‘tribes’ of others. Be careful when you use ‘they’: Are you implying that someone else is in the wrong (but not us)? Are you describing a human failing that we can all suffer from at times? If so, it might be more accurate to say, “we can sometimes…” or, “human beings find it difficult to…”.

For further insights see Tribal leadership by Dave Logan, John King and Halee Fischer-Wright:

Movement – Physical movement is crucial to our ability to learn and remember. Make use of art, creativity, simple movement, noticing certain things, such as the fact that you have toes etc, whenever an appropriate opportunity arises. Intersperse this with quiet (sometimes silent) spaces for reflection and consolidation, along with listening and interacting with ourselves and others.

Story – How can we know our (individual and collective) life stories without being their prisoner? How can we use stories to build relationships and communities? How can we tell authentic, compelling stories grounded in reality?

For further insights see Telling the story: the heart and soul of successful leadership by Geoff Mead.

Presentations – Keep them to a minimum. What is the best possible way to involve people in this particular learning, in this particular place, at this particular time? What is the minimum I can say to maximise what these people can find within themselves? What do we really need to ask ourselves?

Open and deepen – How can you open the space for people to understand the issue/problem more deeply? Create time for ideas, personal reflections, experiences and stories? Then create a creative phase to grapple with possible ways forward and develop clear actions? See holding meetings for some ideas.

Introduction

Exploratory talk enables all points of view to be shared and respected. It is assumed that members of the group expect challenge and wants to hear reasons aloud. One of the ultimate aims is to reach a shared agreement; that even if not everyone is totally convinced, they can see the reasoning and the argument for a decision.

Another aim of Exploratory talk is to help people to find out what others think and to explain their own thinking. In this way they can further develop their own thinking and support one another’s learning.

Ask people to establish a set of simple 'talk rules' which will enable this sort of talk to more-readily take place Perhaps your groups could either start by doing this, i.e. could say what they mean by 'a good discussion' and then review and modify it at the end; or end the session by agreeing a set of rules for your next meeting.

Exploratory Talk is effective talk – in which:

• reasoning is evident (‘because’ ‘if’ ‘why’)
• challenge is expected (‘I agree because…’ ‘I disagree because…’)
• ideas are speculative or hesitant
• all information is shared; ideas are elaborated
• all views are respected
• contributions build on what has gone before
• the group works towards making a joint, negotiated decision

Ground rules for Exploratory talk

• are created and agreed by the group
• embody the features of Exploratory talk
• provide a structure for ensuring that Exploratory talk is possible
• are regularly referred to and made explicit
• are considered in plenary sessions and revised when necessary

Room setup: Circle of chairs

Always choose a topic that is important to those discussing it, so that they are committed to the talk.

Think of a powerful question or use talking points or cards to begin the discussion.

Philosophy (should you need it)

• Exploratory talk is one of many tools and techniques that support a good practice of co-production. You can find more here: Co-production knowledge base
• Exploratory talk is based on research – we know from research that it works in practice, and we know some information about the mechanisms of how it works
• Each Exploratory talk is a unique experiment – we don’t know what will happen, but it could be interesting to find out.
• The opportunity to ‘opt out’ is built in. No one has to say anything. It is fine just to listen and never say a word.

Structure

1. Welcome
2. Optional icebreaker (in the round, or in pairs two or three times if a large group): "what do you hope to get from and give to this gathering?"
3. Exploratory talk

How it works

• Put your hand out if you have something to contribute and wish to speak
• The person speaking chooses who will speak next out of the people who have their hand out
• If you say something, say how this is connected to what was said previously
• If you disagree with something, give a reason
• Build on or link to what the last person said

> kick off question:

Seed your discussion with a suitable question!

> (15 mins before end) last words:

• go round everyone with an opportunity to say some last words (can pass)
• go round again if there is still more to say

4. Optional self-reflection (1 min) + share 1 take-away from this session (in the round)

Thank everyone for taking part, for listening as well as talking!

Background and further reading

Exploratory Talk originated in schools. Here is a reference:
Exploring Talk in School: Inspired by the Work of Douglas Barnes

Oracy Cambridge - The Hughes Hall Centre for Effective Spoken Communication.

Further research papers can be found here:

Rupert Wegerif substack @dialogicspace

The Construction of Knowledge in Classroom Talk, The Journal of the Learning Sciences Vol. 19, No. 3 (July-September, 2010

Students’ talk during collaborative group discussion, The Eurasia Proceedings of Educational & Social Sciences (EPESS), 2014