Sylvia's Journal

I enjoy working with people who don’t know that you can get a lot done with 80 people in two days. One woman from Uganda said, after we collectively defined what integration meant in about 20 minutes, that this exercise would have taken them days or maybe even weeks back home.

When people express wonder, amazement and appreciation for the facilitation, they don’t realize that they are commenting on the design. Facilitation is very easy if the design is solid, even for newbie facilitators (maybe not easy but doable). Facilitation is very difficult if there is no design, even for experienced facilitators.

I believe the appreciation comes from having one’s voice heard or seeing that space is created for the quiet voices.  Those whose voices are always heard, and often too much, don’t usually express such appreciation. They sometimes bristle at the structure that I impose.

“Everyone participated!” say the ones who want to hear everyone’s voice, as if they can’t quite believe it.

For me this is simple and never a surprise; people participate because there is no way not to participate. The only people not participating are those who are doing something else on their phone, tablet or computer, or are taking calls outside the room. To reduce these absences, I periodically sweep through the room and close computers or turn over smartphones that are being used for some other purpose than the meeting. I do this with a smile. Some people thank me for it, some get defensive (“I was looking something up!”) and some get a bit prickly. people learn fast. When they see me coming they put their phone down so I don’t have to do it for them. I am acting like an old fashioned teacher, people recognize that quickly. It works.

In the development world I work in, I often hear people say ‘value for money.’ It is also one of MSH’s strategic priorities. Yet we are surprisingly tolerant of meetings where half the people are not present, even though the limited development resources that we always complain about, have been paid to physically bring them in. I think I know why we tolerate this kind of behavior: we are uncomfortable confronting people, especially those higher in the pecking order. Under the guise of being polite, we actually collude with people who are not polite. If we are saying we want to do something together, then shouldn’t we all be present together? I sent those who cannot be present out of the room.

Despite all the kudos and raves, I didn’t even feel that this meeting was as good as it could have been – there were a few disconnects, speakers who came in for their session, unaware of what the group has already discussed and defined; the schedule was rather full leaving little time, too little time, for serious discussions and reporting back.  Because of that, running late from the get go, unrealistic expectations were not examined and thus, there were disappointments at the end. Some critical voices were missing and there were too many wishes and wants resting on different agendas that had not been sufficiently confronted. Hierarchy and seniority always gets in the way, here and everywhere else.

Still, I was pleased with the productivity, the expansion of the community of activists and the good energy in the room. Things could have been improved with more time for dialogue, more focus, scribing and music. I hope there is a follow up where we can do this.