This is the first in a 2 part series based on an interview with Johnnie Moore. Come back tomorrow for the second part. Subscribe to the blog or become a fan on Facebook. Read other posts from the interview»
Facilitation gets as close to describing my work as I can, although it’s certainly a term that means different things to different people. To me it’s about supporting groups of people to collaborate more satisfyingly.
I’m not trying to teach people anything. I’m trying to draw out what is already there.
I didn’t really have an “a ha!” moment. I had maybe an “a!” moment. I was at this business speed networking event. It was one of those events where you meet like 20 people in 20 minutes. You obviously had to introduce yourself in an incredibly short way. Up until then, I was one of these people who said I do lots of different things. I decided, though, that given the constraints, I would just say that I’m a facilitator.
I thought no more of it, but looking back a bit later, that was a turning point for me. I get a sense that things changed direction at that point. That such a simple declaration resolved a certain amount of ambiguity around what I wanted to do.
It would be an exaggeration to say that facilitation is the only thing that interests me, but it interests me so much more than anything else does these days.
I used to work in market research doing focus groups. That was nearly 25 years ago. That’s not exactly facilitating. I was researching, which is a slightly different kettle of fish.
I ran my own advertising business, so I had to do everything. I did some copywriting. I did planning strategy, account management, all of those things. I just gradually got less excited by it.
Somebody once told me that in the early stages of your career, your focus is primarily on achievement. In the latter part of your career, meaning becomes more important. It’s definitely a transition I went through. When I was younger, running my business, I wanted to get ahead—advance my status, increase my profit. Everything was going great for me and then I think I just went through a phase of starting to find achievement less meaningful.
I remember working as a consultant on a very big ad campaign. There were an awful lot of people working on the campaign – maybe 20 people with five or six agencies. We were literally fighting it out on a weekly basis, and what was emerging from those meetings was the very worst kind of awkward compromise: The camel that comes out of the committee that’s appointed to design a horse.
I was being paid an enormous amount of money, but I got fed up. I walked away, and it wasn’t hard to walk away. I look back and think: “Wow, I walked away from an enormous amount of money” and I didn’t even really notice at the time.
You know, I didn’t think I was making a strategic career move. I just walked away from something I was fed up with. But it was one another one of those little turning points for me that led me to where I am today.
Facilitation is much more fascinating, engaging, and challenging. My sense of achievement is certainly not quite so hard cut. I can’t post sales figures and it’s harder to “prove” that it worked. It doesn’t tick the achievement box quite so obviously. But it has significance. It feels worthwhile.
I don’t think facilitation can be about following a set of defined rules and or best practice. It’s a constant practice of paying attention, of seeing what’s really happening, and responding to it.
My mantra at the moment is: “Notice more, change less.” Stop wrestling with fate and start noticing more about a situation.
I think that’s a key to facilitation – to be present in meetings, to see what’s going on, to let go of the urge to control everything. It’s so easy to play the part of that expert who cleverly operates from outside the system with the aim of producing a certain result.
I think it’s more useful to operate from within the system, including all its puzzles and ambiguities.
Improv has certainly helped in my facilitation practice. It’s a disarmingly powerful technique. What would appear to be a pub game is actually full of significance – especially when you start to examine how we play it.
Even more significantly, you don’t just do improv when you’re performing. You actually bring that sensibility moment-by-moment into your life. So you look for offers and notice when you or other people are blocking.
It’s actually great training in how not to block people. It’s very easy to block people – to shut them down before you’ve had a chance to let them explore their ideas or express themselves fully. And just to know what to watch for, is a gift, really.
All these rules of thumb that improv actors use are actually deceptively simple practices that create a framework for brilliant teamwork. ♦
Johnnie Moore is attempting to take life’s moments as they come and that makes him both wise and daring. Our conversation left me with a newfound appreciation for the art of improv and facilitation. Read his blog. Follow him on Twitter.
Published Monday, October, 26, 2009