Presented as part of the Online Groupwork Symposium
How can we design online sessions that:
Foster human connection rather than digital disconnection?
Are dynamic and inspirational rather than dull, flat, or draining?
See facilitator and participants empowered as co-creators of connective and inspirational groupwork?
This workshop will explore the use of creative facilitation methods to transform online groupwork sessions into experiences that connect and inspire rather than spaces that, by their digital nature, emphasise distance, disconnect, and affective flatness.
This session will be highly interactive. It will engage participants through creative facilitation methods that include storytelling, imagery, and serious play, thereby demonstrating some of the methods I use to bring online groupwork alive. At the same time, these creative techniques will be used to open up a discussion addressing the questions above.
My facilitation practice focuses on making sense of life post-lockdown / current-polycrisis. Lockdown saw a huge increase in the use of digital platforms for groupwork. Used well, these tools can be powerful instruments across boundaries of distance and circumstance. As a society, we are still coming to terms with how to design and facilitate online groupwork so that it mitigates against the distancing and flattening effects of Zoom and similar platforms. I believe that there is an opportunity to be creative with how we design for digital connection.
I design creative prompts, frameworks, and small simple games that indicate a conversational space that participants can shape with not only their intellect but also the emotional intelligence and imagination of participants. I tap into innate human capabilities around sense-making, storytelling / hearing, and playing with imagery to elicit participants’ curiosity, empathy, and lived-wisdom to open up meaningful conversation.