Schuman S. - The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation (2005)(en)

provided that we approach them with respect and interest in their traditions and ways of seeing the world. Here are some final practical hints for facilitating multicultural groups:

•Be aware that all facilitation strategies contain a cultural imprint, whether implicit or explicit. Facilitation is not value free. In some cultures, participation of people from all levels is neither wanted nor valued, and as a result, a workshop may not be the most appropriate way of gathering ideas. A better choice may be shuttle diplomacy, that is, talking with individuals separately or in groups of people from similar levels.

•Note the danger that group facilitation techniques may submerge individual differences, and you are likely to need strategies to overcome this. Nonconformist or divergent views may throw up some really interesting aspects of an issue. Paradoxes or seemingly absurd or contradictory statements are often important and help participants to think about ideas from different angles (see brainwriting described above).

•The choice of processes and techniques needs to be compatible with the aims of the workshop and the cultures of the participants.

•It is important to involve the participants in evaluation of the processes used as well as feedback on the overall success factors of the workshop.

•Learn about your own culture and where it fits in the cultural dimensions.

•Discover the truth and wisdom in every culture, and concentrate on acknowledging and understanding specific behaviors rather than judging them (Brenson-Lazán 2003).

•Use your mind, body, and spirit to integrate what is happening.

•Avoid stereotyping and generalizations—for example, that an individual represents a culture, that all age groups have the same cultural values, and that city and rural dwellers have the same values.

•Be curious. Investigate differences in perceptions and understandings.

•Ask questions.

•Be aware that sometimes you do not know what questions need to be asked.

•Be aware that sometimes participants do not know what questions to ask. They may not know what they don’t know.

•Be aware that some questions may cause offense, so you may need to preface them with, “I’m not sure if I should ask this question . . .” and wait for a response.

•Be sensitive to possible differences as well as similarities.

•Actively listen with empathy.

•Learn to be comfortable with silence as well as everyone talking at once.

•Establish comfortable contexts for interaction.

•Develop a high tolerance for ambiguity. Be flexible and open.

•Look for ways of building bridges with two-way and multiway interactions. Invite participants to identify bridges.

•Look for examples of music from different cultures, and play music that represents different cultures represented in your workshop. Invite participants to sing their songs, and teach them to others.

•Do not swear.

•Show genuine interest in learning about other cultures; read books on diversity and watch movies like Bend It Like Beckham, Japanese Story, Farewell My Concubine, Madam Sowztka, Mississippi Masala, The Wedding Banquet, Wild Swans, Iron and Silk, The Scent of the Green Papaya, My Beautiful Launderette, Gung Ho, A Tale of O, Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes, Himalaya, Travellers and Magicians, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring, and The Other Final.

•Step out of your own space in your own community and participate in multicultural events and celebrations.

•Develop friendships with people from other cultures.

•Travel overseas and try to learn other languages or at least key phrases. The people you meet will appreciate your efforts.

of unplanned commitment reveals much about the players’ beliefs and attitudes because they are responding in an honest way. Writing in the introduction to Keith Johnstone’s Impro (1989), Irving Wardle says, “Open the book to any of the exercises and you will see how the unconscious delivers the goods” (p. ii). In other words, the way people respond in a game is similar to the way they respond in reallife situations with similar emotional content.

THE FOUR STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL IMPROV

To the audience, improvisers seem to create orderliness out of disorder, reason out of nonsense, and harmony out of discord. In truth, there is a method to the madness that Improv seems to be. Yes, something is created from nothing, but the process to make it happen has to be learned and practiced. In Improv, the framework that defines the structure actually serves to expand possibilities rather than constrict them by allowing the participants to focus on the process rather than the outcome. This process consists of four steps that build toward success in Improv:

Focus

•Stay present. Resist the urge to plan ahead, evaluate, or anticipate what other players will do.

•Remain within the structure’s guidelines. The simplicity of the framework makes it easy to adhere to.

Accept

•Receive everything you are given by others without question or denial.

•You need not agree with everything offered, but you need to accept it. This is a foundational concept in making Improv successful.

Build

•Once you accept an idea, add to it. Support it, and help it move forward.

•Avoid trying to make the “right” or best contribution. Whatever you offer will have to be accepted by the others.

Release

•It is futile to try to control the outcome of an Improv structure. Contribute and let go.

•Practice improvising with high involvement and low attachment.” Exhibit 17.1 shows an example of an Improv structure.

Exhibit 17.1

Example of an Improv Structure: “One Word at a Time”

Description: Team tells a story with each player speaking in turn only one word at a time.

Number of players: Two to six (this example uses two players)

Time, including debriefs: Ten to fifteen minutes

Process: Demonstrate the game first before asking others to do it. Ask for one volunteer to come to the front of the room to help you demonstrate it. (Encourage the group to applaud the volunteer.) Then review the instructions for everyone.

•Introduce the game as one where you and the volunteer together will tell a story that has never been told before. (I coach the player by saying, “The key to success here is to keep from thinking ahead, trying to tell a specific story or attempting to be creative, funny, or helpful. Each of us has a role, and that is to speak one word at a time.”)

•Inform the player that using the words period or question mark is allowed to indicate the end of a sentence. However, they are not substitutes for a turn.

•Suggest that the goal is to use sentences and correct grammar, but this is a game and the primary purpose is to have fun.

•Ask the rest of the group to call out the name of a story that has never been told before.

•Repeat the title you are going to use, and ask the volunteer if she would like to go first or second. (Most players will defer to you. I usually begin with “Once” which leads the other player to say, “upon.”)

•Continue back and forth for a few minutes until a logical ending place is arrived at in the story. The volunteer is likely to occasionally use two words instead of one or pause to come up with a “perfect” or “creative” word. I let these go unless audience members offer the opportunity for a teachable moment.

•Of more concern is the player who does not understand the rules. Responding as if the activity is a word association game usually signals this. It is always possible to stop the game and review the rules. Getting a new title and moving forward from there is very simple in Improv. My goal is always to have the player up front leave after a successful experience.

•Once you have decided the story is at an end distinctly say, “the end.” Thank the volunteer, elicit applause for her, and begin the debrief.

After demonstrating the structure, have the entire group pair up. If there is an odd number, allow a group of three.

•Have each duo self-select which of them will go first. Inform them that they will be playing the same game, “One Word at a Time.” Each team will tell the same story and will have about two minutes to do so.

•Ask if there are any questions, and again ask for a suggestion of a story that has never been told before.

•Repeating the title for all to hear, have them begin.

•Mark the time for them after one minute, and at the ninety-second mark, I say, “Please begin to wrap up your story. You each have the power to come to the perfect conclusion.”

•Announce the two-minute mark, and give those that need it, some extra time.

Adapted from Gesell (1997, pp. 62–64). Used with permission.

THE CORNERSTONE OF SUCCESSFUL IMPROVISATION

Just as a facilitator helps groups to engage in dialogue about a situation instead of the personalities within that situation, successful improvisers’ dialogue is with the material, not with the other player or players in the game. Successful improvisers are not concerned whether what they are doing is right or wrong. They are taught to accept and use whatever is offered to them within a given Improv structure. This concept of unconditional acceptance, a universal model taught in all Improv theater classes and commonly referred to in Improv as “yes . . . and,” is also useful for facilitators as they debrief an Improv activity.

Improv encourages understanding and acknowledging divergent points of view, The “yes” indicates acceptance, and the “and” is the buildup on the acceptance. In my experience, the simplest and perhaps the most practical way to incorporate Improv techniques into facilitation is by understanding and adopting the concept of “yes . . . and.” For improvisers, “yes . . . and” serves the same purpose as the North Star does for sailors: that of a guiding light and a way to keep moving forward even when outcome of the journey is uncertain.

This fundamental Improv principle is based on the difference between the concepts of acceptance and agreement. It trains us to take what we are given and

develop it. Brought into our everyday lives, “yes . . . and” allows us to deal with things as they are, not as we wish they were. We may not agree with what is said or done, but we need to accept it because that is reality. Because of “yes . . . and,” improvisers never seem stuck or off-balance. They do not spend time judging what they have been given or evaluating their response. They simply accept what they are given and act on it. In other words, improvisers not only understand the distinction between acknowledgment and approval, but act on it in a way that keeps them focused on what is important.

Begin to develop this skill yourself by paying attention to all the times you or others use “yes . . . but.” Develop the habit of substituting “yes . . . and” whenever you can. By encouraging the substitution of “yes . . . and” for the more common, and almost reflexive, “yes . . . but,” it is easy to see how a difference of opinion transforms from a zero-sum game, where someone has to be right and another has to be wrong, into a dialogue where complementary, different, and even opposing opinions can coexist. We become better able to cocreate with others and also better able to stay in dialogue with someone we disagree with. This gives us a better shot at a mutually satisfactory outcome.

Here is an illustrative story:

A manager worked under a department head that took any difference of opinion as a criticism of his ability. The manager was tasked with interpreting data and making recommendations for an important project. The department head reviewed the manager’s report and dismissed it as unacceptable, claiming that his own analysis of the data proved the manager’s calculations were wrong.

The manager requested a meeting with the department head to see where the difference of opinion originated. “I know you found my work to be incorrect,” began the manager, “and I’d like to know where my error was.” “I had to do the whole thing over and you were way off,” replied the boss. “We did come up with very different conclusions and I wonder if we could go over it together so I might see where we diverged.” Not once did the manager defend his position or try to show the other to be wrong. Eventually, working together, the pair saw that each had been given different data, accounting for the different outcomes.

DEBRIEFING IMPROVISATIONAL GAMES

Improvisational theater games are wonderful resources for facilitators because they call for participants to respond to an experience as it happens. Viola Spolin, one of the creators of modern Improv, wrote that “we learn through experience and experiencing and no one teaches anyone anything” (Spolin, 1963, p. 3).

Learning from Self-Discovery

Using Improv in facilitation means that an examination of the process is more important than of the outcome; there is no correct or incorrect response, so all there is left to examine is the process. Each person tells his or her experience or opinion. All are valid because each is true in each person’s understanding. As different truths and realities are offered, group members see how fluid truth can be and how their own preconceived ideas or firmly held beliefs might be obstacles to the achievement of their desired results. Improv brings behavior from the unconscious level up to where it can be seen.

The debriefing of an Improv activity holds ideas up for an airing and possible reassessment. Beliefs that no longer serve a purpose can then be removed and replaced by more useful ones. As former Visa International chairman Dee Hock has noted, “The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out” (Waldrop, 1996, p. 79).

Being told by others that one should change and how it should be done often leads to defiance, defensiveness, and denial. Guidance to self-discovery about the benefits of change as well as seeing different ways of being and behaving through the Improv debriefs are much more effective ways of modifying behavior.

For some suggestions on debriefing “One Word at a Time,” see Exhibit 17.2. Examples of debriefing questions that can be used with almost any Improv

game can be seen in Exhibit 17.3.

A model for connecting insights gleaned from general debrief questions to an understanding of the relevance of those insights to participants’ lives can be seen in Exhibit 17.4.

Exhibit 17.2

Debriefing Questions for “One Word at a Time”

•Ask the group if they think you and the volunteer were successful in reaching your goal.

•Follow up their reply with a query about what criteria they used. Sample comments are, “It was fun,” “I was surprised at the way it went,” and “[name of volunteer] did a great job.” I usually ask for clarification of their answers: “What made it fun?” “What made it surprising?” and “Could you have done the same great job if you were there?”

•Another line of questions focuses on behavior. I may ask, “If you felt it was successful, what did we do to achieve that effect?” Common responses are, “It was teamwork,” “You listened to each other,” and “Cooperation.”

For a large group, use the following questions:

•“How many of the teams felt they had a successful experience?”

•“What made it successful in your estimation?” Common replies are “We made something out of nothing,” “It was fun,” and “We had no idea where we were going, and suddenly it came together.”

•“For those who didn’t have a successful experience, what made it that way?” Typical responses are, “She didn’t follow my story line,” “I tried to influence his choice of words,” and “We were telling two different stories.”

•“What behavior made for a successful story?” Common replies are, “Focus,” “Surrendering my desires to a common story,” and “The feeling of shared creation.”

•Open the floor to a general discussion.

•End with a summary of points made that are relevant to the group.

Exhibit 17.3

General Debriefing Questions for an Improv Game

•Were we successful in achieving the objectives of the game?

•What behaviors made it successful [or unsuccessful]?

•What states—physical, mental, and emotional—did you go through during the experience?

•How did your thinking or beliefs before and during the game affect the result of the game?

•Would a different approach result in a different outcome? How?

•Where does the opportunity to change present itself?

Exhibit 17.4

A Model for Debriefing Questions

•Was the objective achieved?

•Why or why not? What behaviors led to this outcome?

•What would you do differently to get a different outcome?

•Is there relevance to your work and the rest of your life?

Benefits to Observers as Well as Players

One advantage Improv games have over other kinds of linking activities is that the lessons of the game are as clear to the observers as they are to the players. Watching an Improv game is as interesting for the audience as it is for those playing the game. Many spectators play along as the game unfolds. They experience a level of intensity and involvement similar to the participants, so the feelings are as powerful for onlookers as for the participants. Observer and the observed are thus both transformed through the same experience. This means those who choose not to “play” can still be included in the debriefing and therefore in the session learnings. It also means the facilitator need not engage in a power struggle over who participates and who does not.