Tag Archives: Dynamic Groups

The second Social Permaculture Weekend hosted by Robin and I at Crystal Waters Ecovillage in November 2020 was an absolute delight! A rich group came together to explore and understand the application of permaculture principles for the design of social dynamics. Particularly in the context of ‘times of change’, for which 2020 was a great demonstration. The engaging content was met with an equally potent delivery – where the sessions were dynamic, interactive, visual, kinaesthetic and engaging. We sat in circle. Everyone on the same level, with similar access to the information and experience… including us as instructors. Accessible and impactful tools were shared to implement for one’s self, for one’s kin, and for one’s community. We completed with a gentle ritual of acknowledgement and onward visioning to seal the goodness. After a weekend of exploring regenerative social design, combined with the delicious fare served at mealtimes, the group were …

It’s early Feb 2021 and it’s almost a year since I did the Dynamic Groups facilitation workshop. Since then, I felt more confident to take way more risk in my Permaculture teaching. Many times in the past, I have used a PowerPoint to do a 9-4pm Introduction to Permaculture course and so I challenged myself to ditch the laptop altogether, and plan only interactive activities with me as a facilitator only and not THE teacher. This was risky because one doesn’t know the students, they don’t know each other, and what if I cannot guide them in covering all the content in the allotted time!?  They started in pairs introducing themselves and then introducing their partner to the whole group. In pairs again they came up with a definition of permaculture. The essence of these were shared on to a board. Even though this was an Intro workshop, I only …

Hello Wonderful Community and Heart Centred Practitioners. Many of you know the core work Robin offers in the world. As well as Permaculture, her key focus and offering is the ‘Dynamic Groups, Dynamic Learning’ courses, workshops, writings and educational resources. She feels very strongly that to support our world, our communities and positive change in education, the environment, social and political challenges etc we need people who are well skilled and trained in facilitation and group work. Groups form the basis of much positive action and community building. Education creates the backbone of new foundations and for learning a positive, peaceful and powerful way forward for our children, youth and also adults needing more tools, ideas and purpose. If our groups are well facilitated and work easily together, they are more effective at meeting their purpose and everything works out better for everyone, including all the people who benefit from …

The Design for the book series is well under way and Mini-Book I is in progress with formatting, proof reading and last additions. It is soon to be edited before the final layout and design is completed. A colour coding system has been designed to easily show readers all the activities. They will certainly stand out from the general text, having a distinct heading and delightful background colouring and design. The various Processes described in the book will have their own unique heading and design, as will the quotes and the visualisations which are sprinkled throughout. This image is an example of the Activity Coding, though it hasn’t had words typed over the background.

“I assist the gaining of skills and knowledge plus the progress of the group and each individual in an active, energetic, meaningful, smooth and progressive way. This enables outcomes of success, achievement of individual and group goals, enhanced learning, fun, motivation, support and innovation, for a better world.” Thank  you, Robin Clayfield

Robin’s long awaited first book in the ‘Dynamic Teaching and Facilitation’ series has now gone to four proofreaders and three general readers for their review and feedback. In it’s fourth draft and being ‘The Foundations’,  it’s taken awhile to get it right.  Beautiful Artwork by Brenna Quinlan and Meg Clark’s Design and Formatting Work will add Colour and Flare to Robin’s New Book Brenna was commissioned to create seven ‘Art Maps’ to grace the beginning of seven of the main chapters. They are ‘Mind Maps’ but with the words transformed into art. The delightful and soft pastel colours that Brenna is famous for has given designer and formatter Meg an additional theme to incorporate into the creative touches and elements of the book. The image shown is for the ‘Ethics, Principles, Values and Needs’ chapter and shows all the topic headings covered in the chapter. To find out more or …