May East & Lisa Shaw

Building Community and Embracing Diversity

The overall focus of this week is on the social aspect, designed to develop the skills needed to work effectively with both large and small groups. Using an experiential format, we will start by looking at how to create a learning environment that meets the needs of all, looking at individual learning styles and needs. From there we will learn how to design inclusive group agreements as a foundation for embracing diversity. We will explore the role of games in building groups and community - both theory and practice. We will learn the processes which define community glue and common ground - including values, vision and mission - and will understand the relationship between task, process and relationship.

Facilitation Skills and Decision Making

An organization's performance and ultimate success is directly related to its ability to make decisions that are high quality and that can be sustained over time. Making clear choices about the fundamental issues of power and process can transform a diverse group of people into a strong, stable, healthy community. This module will introduce a range of fair and participatory decision-making methods to avoid conflict over power imbalances. We will look at the role of facilitation in the process of finding common ground between people with diverse points of view. We will look at facilitation techniques that make meetings productive, participative, cooperative... and fun, while balancing the focus across three dimensions: Results, Process, and Relationship.

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Communication Skills and Feedback

The heart of good communication is a simple but profound capacity to listen. This module will give participants the techniques and insights needed for creating environments informed by a culture of deep listening. We will learn how to support one another in the shift from a defensive to a collaborative communication and from debate to dialogue. We will practise mindful speaking and explore how to handle and welcome critical and constructive feedback as a vehicle for learning and growing.

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Conflict Facilitation

Conflicts are a part of our life like storms are a variety of weather. In fact, in groups that are truly diverse, differences are both a sign of health and an invitation to creativity. The most important lesson is to change our attitude from avoiding conflicts to looking at them with interest and openness. This means stepping out of a "winner-loser" and into a "win- win" perspective. Win-Win solutions become possible after all involved parties of a conflict have been heard and understood.

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Celebrating Life: Creativity and Art

This module will explore how to integrate art, land, creativity and community life. We will learn how, by creating a culture of ethics, aesthetics and beauty, we can free ourselves progressively from the tyranny of a materialistic worldview which has separated us from each other and alienated us from the earth. We will look at the role of the artist in reinvigorating and healing local communities, and at art as a liberating force for collective transformation and self-realisation. We will work creatively with environmental art in a variety of ways which are not simply about the landscape, but which actually take place in it. Such art can contribute to our becoming a less destructive and more benign presence on our planet. Facilitated by Lisa Shaw.