Dennis Presser makes a good point about carefully choosing activities for
men, in particular:
>A few poorly designed workshops with poorly
>chosen "icebreakers" can lead to people to generalize that all they are
>designed to do is embarrass the participants. Icebreakers that focus on
>the topic of the workshop, as noted by others on this thread, can go far
>toward reducing the dismissive, pejorative phrase "touchy-feely".
I know all facilitators have war stories to tell, but this reminded me of
a 2 day planning retreat with 40 Farriers (horse shoe-ers) I led last year
as part of developing a national Equine Research Plan for Australia. The
farriers had been flown in from around the country and were right out of
their comfort zone, to say the least.
As we were examining the future of the horse industry, after the opening
talk I simply asked them to sit around and talk about what might change in
the farriery profession over the next 10 years. The results were deep,
strategic and fascinating and provided a good basis for the rest of the
weekend.
This reinforced to me yet again that virtually everyone has interesting
ideas that are worth hearing, experience and insights to share. Putting
people "on the spot" with a poorly chosen activity can hinder the
trust-building process.
Philip
Philip Pogson
Leadership Development Strategy Consultant
Staff Development Branch
University of Technology Sydney NSW 2007
+61 2 9514 2934
mobile: 0412 459156
"Men stumble over the truth from time to time but most pick themsleves up
and hurry off as if nothing happened."
Winston Churchill
--Philip Pogson <ppogson@uts.edu.au>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>