I had the opportunity to provide a training to other professionals on the topic of facilitation. I used a theme of Autumn for the session, and I designed activities and ways of dividing groups around that theme.
During some great discussion during the morning (many thanks to the attendees), someone asked me how I come up with themes. I found myself pausing for a while before answering, because it can be hard to articulate that process. But, in the end, I just spoke about the value of finding connections.
They asked what themes I have used, and I found myself smiling with the list which includes
Outerspace
Baby sharks
Houses
Trees
Foxes
Dr. Seuss
Road maps
Fairy Dust
The training and facilitation they accompanied had a wide array of focus - including train the trainer programs, staff and Board retreats, and skill development training. What I have discovered to be true is that if something strikes me as connected, it is easy to push that connection to other areas of the design. For example, I was designing a training on engaging people in any format of training, and I was struck that you had to be pretty sly to pull it off. Foxes are sly - and before long I had a list of ways to connect characteristics of foxes to my learning goals. The attendees had an experience of foxes through the entire day of training - and it fit and worked. I venture that it also made the learning more fun and easier to retain.
It had me thinking about when else making connections can be helpful. And so, I have some scenarios and challenges for you below. See how you do.
You are asked to train a new employee on the data collection process of your nonprofit. How might you use a theme of cars to help train someone? If that isn’t registering, what about plants?
You are a manager and want to upgrade your weekly staff meetings, and add in some energy and consistency to them. How might you integrate a theme of Disney? Or architecture?
You are in charge of a change effort in your organization. You need to help people to learn and embrace some big changes. How might you integrate a theme of food? Or railroads?
You are planning a community meeting where you are looking for their feedback that could impact their local community programming. How might you integrate a theme of LEGOS? What about the human body?
You have to write a blog article and you are stuck. How do you connect anything that you have done recently that was new or different to generate an idea? (Confession: that is what I did here!)
I suggest that finding the “right” theme isn’t really the goal. It is choosing something that works in some way - even a little way (i.e.: you have to be sly) and then push yourself to find, explore, and make the other connections. Whatever you are building can be enhanced by using a theme. You stimulate engagement. You create visual and tactile connections. And you create something out of the normal day-to-day which itself signals that what you are offering is something important.
Let me know what themes you have used in your work. And let me know how you connected the above topics to the suggested themes.
