Facilitation Stories: FS61 Authentic Facilitation with Christine Bell

FS61 Authentic Facilitation with Christine Bell

Nov 14, 2023

In this episode Helene talks to Christine Bell about a session they co-facilitated for Facilitation Week.

They share some of the group’s thoughts on what authentic facilitation is as well as some of their own emerging questions on how to balance being authentic but remaining in control and whether authenticity can be learned or taught.

They also reflect on their first experience of planning and facilitating together and how liberating it was to deliver a session with no required outputs and without using some of the “usual” facilitation tools.

A full transcript is below.

Links:

Contact Christine by email: christinebell@centreforfacilitation.com

Find Helene on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenejewell/

Listen to our podcasts: https://www.facilitationstories.com/

Connect with us on Twitter: @fac_stories

Email: podcast@iaf-englandwales.org

Nikki Wilson (NW)

Hello, and welcome to Facilitation Stories brought to you by the England and Wales chapter of the International Association of Facilitators, also known as IAF. In today's episode, Helene Jewell speaks to Christine Bell.

Helene Jewell (HJ)

So in today's podcast, I am going to be chatting to Christine Bell, Director of Centre for facilitation. Welcome, Christine.

Christine Bell (CB)

Hi, Helene, nice to be with you again.

And it wasn't actually that long ago that I saw Christine, because we did a session together for Facilitation Week all about Authentic Facilitation. And that's what we're going to be talking about in today's podcast. But before I lead into asking Christine, lots of questions about that and doing a bit of reflecting, I just want to ask Christine to tell us a little bit about her facilitation practice. So what kind of work do you do, Christine.

I mainly work with researchers and innovators and looking at different ways of doing things, different approaches, trying to get them to collaborate with each other and kind of break down some of the barriers and get to know each other so that they can start to find out interesting connections between different bits of research and then mash it together to come up with something new and interesting, that breaks through some of the challenges that we're facing, environmentally, socially, etc.

Right. Okay. And we have never actually worked together, but I think it's fair to say we know each other through the IAF, or through the larger facilitation community. Yeah, yeah, we've probably, we've probably met quite a few times on the different online forums. And then at the conference, I think the Conference this year was first time we actually met in person. And then and then we met in Bristol, because I was working in Bristol.

So yeah, so our paths have crossed a few times and then feed somehow, you have this great idea about doing a session in Facilitation Week, and you thought “Ah yes I’ll ask Helene”

Well, first of all, let's start with Facilitation Week, what is Facilitation Week?

Facilitation Week is a week of different activities designed for the facilitation community so that we can learn and develop from each other and explore different aspects of facilitation. And, and I was very conscious that my time is really quite limited, like, you know, with my time because of all the elderly care issues that are going on for me. So I give very little back to the community. So it felt like it would be quite a small thing for me to do and quite manageable to just offer to run a short session within Facilitation Week. So that was, that was the starting point. And then I learned because I also did that for the facilitation in person event in May. And I learned then because I got involved with another facilitator to run a session there, , actually, if you're going to do it, why not use it as a learning opportunity for myself to actually work with a peer that I don't usually work with, and just learn from that person kind of share best practice together, because then it's actually a developmental experience for me, and not just me doing a free bit of facilitation. And a free bit of, you know, I can facilitate and design facilitation all day long, and that's my job, but to actually to do it with a peer that I don't usually work with just makes that more, it’s more fun. And it's more developmental as well. So, yeah, so you came into my mind, because I thought, oh, yeah, I'd like to work with Helene. I think it would be fun.

It was so nice, it was like “yes, of course”, like, and I think it's true that Facilitation Week is that there's loads of different sessions, and they're hosted by loads of different people all over the world. So in a way, there's that opportunity to explore and connect, and it's fairly low risk. It's a really nice way to sort of get to know people.

And yes, I remember your session that was for the May conference, I think,and so I was quite quite pleased. I thought, well, this is a nice opportunity, because we've connected a bit online. We've been to those meetups and the conference together. And yeah, I thought, Well, this sounds like a good idea. And I know originally, you kind of thought about two different things. I can't remember.

Yeah, I can't remember what the other one was. But you jumped on the authenticity and when, because I went “I’m vaguely thinking this authenticity”. And I think that was because I just finished my last piece of work for the summer, which had been avert a hybrid conference, and someone had commented about my style and approach and how different and distinctive it was to other online facilitator that they’d worked with. And I think I was reflecting on that and recognising actually, that is, one of my strengths is that I can be in the virtual environment, and I feel natural in that environment.

So yeah, I remember you sending an email and thinking about these two different options. And the authenticity stuff really jumped out at me, I think, partly because a lot of the time when we talk about doing sessions, for you know, things like Facilitation Week, I think it's really easy to jump to sort of tools and techniques and sharing that kind of stuff. But I was really intrigued by this, because I thought it's something quite different. But also, I wasn't quite sure where it might go. And I'm quite, I'm always quite keen to try and explore things and see sort of what what could be. So I think when you suggested that, I thought, “Great, that's a good starting point. Let's, let's jump in there and and have a little go and see where it goes”. And it's probably fair to say that that was, that was the way our planning worked a little bit.

Yeah, it was, I think it was, it was a little chaotic. And then I think I had, I had a quiet period, it was just before the beginning of August. And so I started, I intellectualised about it, which is how I often go. So I did some research. And I started like pulling out all this stuff on authenticity. And it wasn't really, it kind of just made it feel quite sterile. And I thought that's not really it. That's not what I'm talking about here. Then my kind of as happens in the whole of this year, my mum went into hospital again. So I was back into a crisis period. So I didn't have much time to think about it. And so then when you got back from your holiday, we were kind of scrambling around going “right, what is it we're trying to do?” And that's when I came up with the title.

It was, “Am I? Can I? Should I?, which I think actually intrigued people in itself. So I think that was great that it was such a sort of organic. That's nice. Yeah, but it just Yeah, did it just appear? Or did you spend a long time thinking?

No, no, I think it just I went for a bit of a walk. And I just, and it kind of came to me. And it was because this, the way of these things is you often have to come up with your title for the marketing before you've really thought what the session is going to be about. So I didn't want to kind of make it too prescriptive that we would then have to fit into. And I think as I was thinking about it was those dialogues, those kinds of things about what am I actually authentic? You know, is that what I'm coming across here? When people say to me about how I come across as a facilitator and how relaxed they feel with me, is that about authenticity? And then the kind of what is it I do to become authentic? So that's the kind of learning piece? And is it something that you intuitively do? Or is it something that you can actually learn to do? And then the “should” bit was because I think mainly because I was going through that crisis with my mum, as you know, and, you know, there are times when I've had to just put the face on. And you know, internally, I'm crying. And actually, I've got to kind of be out there being positive and engaged Whilst this is going on in the background. And I'm worrying about it. And so, you know, in some ways, is that true authenticity, if we're having to put a bit of a mask over to our feelings? But actually, should I really be truly authentic with a big group do 60 people need to know all my emote stuff that's going on? They just like me to get on with my job and facilitate.

Yeah, and it's so intersting, because I know, when we were talking about, you know, what do we what is this session gonna be like, what do we need to put in there, we did have a lot of conversations about that kind of stuff. And I know for from my side, it has been suggested by a couple of people that, you know, like you perhaps I'm quite, I don't know, quite energetic, perhaps quite personable in my facilitation style, quite, maybe quite relaxed, but that sometimes I need to maybe dial down my energetic-ness, that kind of outward enthusiasm for a session, let's say, because that doesn't fit with the session, because the tone of the session needs to be different. And so for me, that was one of the questions that I know, I brought into our discussions about, well, when is it good to dial up or dial down your natural self? And when do we need to be a certain way? Um, so yeah, thinking about your example there, you know, you've got stuff going on. That's actually, you know, it's really affecting the way you do things and to have to put on that that face. How does that feel and how does that work? And I think we ended up having these really fascinating conversations between ourselves before we actually even got into the session.

And I almost think that it's the kind of conversation that's almost quite hard to put into a session, because it is very organic in a way that it can go, there's so many different elements to it, it can kind of go left or right or all over the place. You know, there's lots of different bits. And so, in a way, I think the way that we we did the session, it was quite open, and we sort of went with the flow, it felt quite right.

And some of that was kind of by default, wasn't it? Because originally, I was saying, “I could use this new, you know, I'm learning over the summer, I want to learn how to use this new tool. And maybe we could use that” and, and then because all of this stuff happened with my mum, I didn't have the headspace to deal with that. And actually, then we started talking about it, you and I, and we had so many conversations planning it we would just go off into kind of like, oh, this is a really, I knew then that the session was going to work because we just the pair of us could sustain an hour's conversation on authenticity, really, really easily. And so I think that's at that point, we went, why are we worrying about capturing this, we don't need any output. This is facilitation, we, it's a group of random strangers, we don't have to make any decisions, we don't have to come to any conclusions. We don't have to produce a bit of output for a client and so all the stuff that we usually do, we just stripped it right back, because we realised that we had a joyous time just talking about this. And so we worked on the assumption that our participants would come to this as facilitators, and would engage with it. And by stripping away all of the usual periphery stuff, we just made it feel quite natural, and therefore authentic.

And that's kind of a couple of them said something in their feedback about how we had made it right from the beginning, a really relaxed session so they could bring their authentic selves. And the conversations very quickly got to a quite a deep, authentic level with random strangers. And they were all going crazy at the end sending each other, you know, putting in the chat or the chat, I was going through the chat. And it's like, yeah, this is my email. This is my, who cares about data protection, here's my email, contact me, here's my LinkedIn details. And in a way, yeah, that that's not always usual in an online session.

Yeah. And I think it's at that point about, they're not needing to be a particular output, I think is really important. But I think the other thing about working with somebody you haven't commonly worked with, there's that trust building, I guess, relationship building piece. And I feel like we inadvertently did a lot of that behind the scenes, which meant that perhaps, as a co facilitation team, that it worked really well on the day and that we were able to, to hold those conversations without having to worry too much about some of the logistics and all that kind of stuff, which I think sometimes you can worry about, I think it felt like we didn't have to worry too much. It felt like we had quite a strong team, I suppose.

Yeah. structure as well didn't we so I mean it was like, you know, I'm gonna do this bit, you're gonna do this bit, you're gonna organise the breakout groups in the background, and you're doing that bit and I was doing the breakout rooms. And it's like, so we kind of made sure that we knew we didn't, it didn't feel like we crossed, we kind of crossed over each other. It felt like we were holding this together.

Yeah. So I don't, of course, don't want to give anybody the idea that we we didn't plan the session. I promise. We did we used session lab. We did have a nice plan. I think it was more about the way that we put that together. But going back to the session then and how many people did we actually have because one of the things that I was really pleased about and not surprised necessarily but but really pleased that it was actually quite a global audience was an audience, a global load of participants. But how many?

think we had about 14 in the end. So we restricted registration, because that was partly me just feeling like “I can't I've got too much going on” and the complexity of having a really big group when you want to have a plenary discussion, because we decided we wouldn't do everything as a feedback thing. We would have a lot of stuff in the groups and then our last session would be a plenary. And to have a really massive plenary, just I felt would have been more difficult for people to be themselves and to share stuff, so we had a much smaller group, so I limited the Zoom registration to I think 30, something like that. And yeah, and then we had about an you know, the usual attrition of people not turning up and someone turned up, I think 12 hours later, you know, the usual thing you someone didn't read the time zones. But we yeah, we did., we had people from Europe. And so we have someone from Greece, someone from Austria, and then we had a really nice clutch of people from India,

It was really nice to see that truly sort of lots of people that, that I'd never seen before I didn't have a particular connection were very new to me. And a few sort of faces that I know as well. But it was a really nice group of people. And so reflecting back then, on what we actually did, I remember one of the things that you suggested we do right at the start of the session was to put people in trios, I think, and send them straight into breakout rooms. And that felt like people were able to have these conversations straight straight away before we launched into the session. So I really enjoyed that. And then we came back. And what did we do after that? I'm trying to remember what our first bit was.

I think we started very much about what is authenticity? What does it mean? What does authenticity mean? So we kind of almost used that structure. So we started off with the kind of me Yeah, am I authentic? And so what do I do that shows that authenticity? And what does that mean to me? And then we moved on more about into the can I be more authentic? So what can I consciously do? Because I think you talked about that. And particularly, what can I consciously do I remember, we were talking about the headsets. And like, you know, the first time you have to wear, well, the first time I had to wear a headset, because I had a very large group that I was facilitating, and the acoustics were bad. So I did that “I don't need a headset, I can and it's like, no, you can't be heard. It's not fair. And people who've got hearing difficulties that you kind of do this, it's not great for your voice. So just put the headset on and get on with it”. And I spent the whole session feeling a bit like Madonna or Kylie or a pop star with this kind of thing. It was one of those ones that had the kind of headphones thing. And it felt like I kept referring to it. And it got in the way of me being authentic. And we were just talking about yo know, how do you consciously manage in those situations where you're there is some kind of restraint or you're feeling you're not in your normal comfort zone, you've had to move out of that for some reason? And how do you consciously bring yourself back to that authentic self? So that was that was a really interesting conversation? Well, we think they were didn't we, Helen, because we didn't actually join, though, consciously decided to send people off into breakout groups, and not do that kind of, I'm going to be really nosy and drop into the breakout groups, because we felt that was going to affect the authenticity of the breakouts. And it serves no real purpose.

Yeah. Really interesting having that conversation in our planning about, you know, the benefit of that and how or the risk or how that might work. And I know the feedback at the end suggested that people really appreciated having that time in breakout. So it was, the time was about them having those good conversations, rather than there being too much weight on having to share it or they're having to be an output particularly it was about them having those good conversations. And it really felt like that went down well, but yeah, we weren't, we weren't able to go in or we could have done but we decided not to go into the breakout groups and be nosy. But then we did do some plenary at the end, didn't we?

Yeah, that's right. Because we realised in our plan, like we looked at the session law, I remember looking at the session level going and we do that there's just not enough. It's like actually, we need more time to have a plenary with a whole group at the end. And so we just shifted things, we didn't have mini plenary and then big plenary, we just went bang straight from breakout groups into a large plenary, which wasn't that large because the size of the group. And I think that was really good because we had a good 20 minutes or so for the final plenary, though that was when we really got a sense of the growth that had gone on in the conversations and that's when we heard conversations that have gone on.

And I was trying to remember what those conversations were what were some of the key highlights because I know you did a survey at the end as well so we asked people to to say what their highlights were and what they got from the session but what do you recall as being the key things that people said back from their conversations?

I've got a few things that were written in the because we used the chat quite a lot we encourage people to put stuff in the chat so I've got things like”Being authentic means letting your guard down or showing more about what's going on inside your head and gut and this can help others know it's okay to be vulnerable, doubtful, not know they're there with you not being this polished person, but someone who's real. And someone else has put something about authenticity means “being on yourself natural and focused, yet actually being in control”. So there was, I think we're all aware that there was that kind of, you can't be completely natural like “Actually I’m feeling really tired today, so let's just sack this off and go make a cup of tea, because you've got a job to do. So you're focused on the actual task, but it's about being as natural and relaxed as you can. And then there was a lovely quote from one of our participants from India of “authenticity is about, you've got the head stuff going on, which is your process. You've got your heart stuff going on, which is your being there and feeling for the group and wanting to the group to succeed. And then he was sharing about the hands Yeah, yeah. And it's like, and we all kind of went, Yeah, that's kind of it. Because in the virtual situation, like we're both on screen, in a way that isn't just our heads, we've consciously adapted our virtual environment. So it shows my hands are part of my facilitation, virtually, they add movement, and direction and things and, and when you're in the physical space, you're using your body in that way, as well. So it's, you're not this stiff person who's you know, those kind of guidance about how to present where they say, you should always hold your hands behind your back or in front of your body? And it's like, no, that's not gonna happen.

And I really, I think that phrasing of how, you know, using our hands together with mind and hearts, or how I can't quite remember how he phrased it, but it when he said it, it really landed with people, I think he really kind of hit the nail on the head, and that idea, that you whatever's going on in your head, whatever you're thinking, and that feeling that and then the how you present yourself, I guess, how you you move around, and what your body does, and all that kind of stuff, that those three things happen together to be that authentic you and I, it really struck a chord, I think with with us and with most of the people there and found that really, really insightful. And it also made me think about it was something that somebody else said on the back of that think about, about us understanding what as facilitators, or as people, in fact, make us fearful or excited or pleased or worried or what, what situations we find ourselves in that make us feel like that, and about how we react? And then so how do we react to fear? How do we react to stress? And what do we do about it, then how do we change the way we are in those different situations? And I think that sort of led to this whole different train of thought, for me anyway, away from this just thinking about how I present as a person based on who I am. But actually, all those different situations. Yeah, lots of lots of different stuff to sort of think about.

And then we got into that very useful conversation about the, you know, other times when I cannot or should not be truly authentic. And we had a couple of comments about, you know, or maybe there's occasions that so one of the quotes here is there's occasions when being authentic, might not be helpful, for example, when working in different or across cultural contexts. And someone was saying, Yeah, I find that that's very true. When I'm facilitating workshops with government officials and the disadvantaged communities. And so there's kind of like that realisation that there is that moderation sometimes that you have to do have the authentic part of you.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, it's so interesting that that piece about like, how do we actively or how much should we actively change who we are and what we do for the needs of it needs, the participants needs the client needs of the situation we're in and thinking about that alongside the, yeah, who we naturally are and how we respond. And anyway, there's just lots of lots and lots of really lovely stuff to think about think. OK so then thinking about what we learned, what were your sort of key learning points.

I think, in terms of process that keep it simple thing, it was really important, the fact that we just, we had an hour and a half, we didn't use any tools, we didn't use Jamboard, we didn’t use a whiteboard, we didn't use mural, we didn't use Menti. We didn't use any of the tools that we might usually use. We just used conversation and the chat and that was it and, and it worked.

It was quite liberating, I think, to have just that and that for this particular workshop, because we didn't need to bring it to a conclusion or produce output. It was enough just to say, we've had the conversation. That's it.

And I think sometimes I'm probably as guilty as anyone else of overcomplex, you know, making things more complex because you think the client is paying for you, but sometimes maybe simple is exactly what's needed. So I think that was yeah, that was a really good learning insight for me about the process. What about for you Helene?

I really like you're putting people into breakout groups straightaway, actually, because I think it's something I haven't done before. I always start with a hello, welcome, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But actually, I think it's because it feels a bit of a risk. But actually, I think it's a really nice thing to do. So I really love that in terms of the process. And similarly, having a giving people a lot of space. And I think it feels like a bit of a luxury because as facilitators, as you say, normally you have to come out there's an output isn't there, there's a requirement to get to a certain point. And I think that, yeah, luxury of time to just explore and chat around a few simple questions. I think I really enjoyed that as well. Yeah. And also your, your survey, you did a survey at the end. And I thought you were going to you had a zoom poll. And it was a whole new learning thing for me that there was Zoom, zoom survey. So despite the fact we weren't actually doing a session, which was about learning tools, I learned a couple of things anyway, what about the authenticity, then what did you learn was there any learning for you around authenticity, or anything that you think you might take away, do differently?

I don't think it is doing anything differently, I think, continuing to be conscious about it. And I think as someone who is very senior, as the facilitator, I've got the responsibility to bring on newer facilitators, younger facilitators, less experienced facilitators. So I think for me, it's just trying to figure out, I know that I come across authentically, and the feedback from this workshop confirmed that, and the workshop that I was running in July also kind of highlighted actually, this is a distinctive thing that I do compared to other people's experiences of facilitators, but I'm not quite sure how I do it. So actually spending a bit of time just thinking about that as the skill set and thinking, Well, how do I get other facilitators that are working with me, who bring this trait in When it's something I can't I don't quite know how I do it?

And I think some of it's just the experience, I think some of it is the way I started on my facilitation when I was quite Junior in an organisation and I was having to kind of find a way of expressing my power as a facilitator, but without that status and power that I had, because of age, that I came at it in quite a relaxed way. And so how do I communicate that with to others? How do I teach others to be that authentic self in themselves? And I think so yeah, that's, I don't think I've come away going, right. And that's how I'm going to do it. But it's given me time and space, especially talking to you in the preparation. And during the actual session itself. It's just given me time and space to kind of think about, yeah, this is this is a trait. And it's actually probably one of the most important traits, that seems because if if participants feel we're being authentic, they trust in the process, they trust in us, they buy into it, they engage. And so the rest of it becomes a lot easier.

Yeah. And I think it's really so I think a couple of things that stood out for me, just then, as you were talking, there's the seniority thing I think, the more you are used to facilitating and the more you have practised and you feel comfortable, I guess in knowing what you're doing, perhaps the less you are worried about how you are as well, you can think your focus is is very different. When you haven't done a lot of facilitation, there's so much to worry about. Whereas I think the more experienced you are perhaps you don't have to worry so much about whether you've got I don't know pink, post it or blue post it so you know all that stuff that when you first start out, you spend a lot of time really and really stressing about some things, I think and so perhaps that then gives you the space to be more authentic because you're not worrying about things that actually you know, they're quite important but but the later as you carry on in your career, I think they'd become less important perhaps and that Yeah, the other

The thing was this idea of can you teach authenticity? And I think something you said earlier about teaching people to walk or put your hands in a certain way and that kind of thing. I always find that way of talking about being, as a facilitator, quite, quite interesting, because actually, I'm not sure you can you can't, you know, one size doesn't fit all. You shouldn't, or put your hands in a certain way, because that means this or sit down stand up. I think it's all very dependent on the situation, isn't it? So? Think that's quite a question. Can you teach somebody to be more authentic? I'm sure there are people that do I'm sure you can. But how you go about that I think’s really fascinating.

And yeah, I think that you started off saying that you had you had perhaps come to this from a slightly more academic point of view. And it has made me think a bit, there's just loads and loads of literature out there to really explore this stuff. Because there is like a thread, isn't it? You pull up a thread, and you realise there's more and more and more, and the more we have these conversations, the more you realise there's so much depth to it. So such an interesting topic.

Yeah, I think, yeah, I think that's what I came away with is like, actually, it's a fascinating subject. And let's have more conversations about it. Because it was, you know, really enjoyable to have a conversation on I think everyone who came, kind of, the feedback was just like, if this was really interesting, and really enjoyed these conversations. Yeah, hope we continue these conversations, it was really useful talking to the others. I learned a lot. You know, these are just all the things that people were just saying it's like, and someone said, I'd love to hear other facilitators, stories about these edgy situations, you know, the edge of when the authenticity is under attack, or when it when you feel you're having to make a shift in yourself to dial it down, like you said, or in my situation to mask some of the emotional turmoil that's going on? And it's like, where are those edgy stories will be quite fascinating about, yeah, facilitators on the edge of, of authenticity, and things like that.

That sounds like a great blog, Christine, challenge for you.

I think one last thought that's popped into my head actually is the sort of cultural dimension of it, by which I mean, you know that how authenticity differs depending on where you're from, and I don't know what language you speak and your culture. So that that's an element that I think I'd love to explore further as well. So but you can only do so much in an hour and a half., so next time, authenticity part two.

Brilliant. Thank you so much, Christine, for joining me today. It's been really great to reflect on the session and to relive some of the you know, how we put it together the conversations that happened in the session and to think about kind of what next as well. How do we reach you if we want to get hold of you?

You simply contact christinebell@centreforfacilitation.com

Fantastic, thanks and see you soon.

Bye.

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