Tag Archives: Facilitators Toolbox

Did you know you can design harmonious and effective groups who thrive towards their aims and purpose as a collective? Yep, it’s called Social Permaculture. And this is what Permaculture pioneer Robin Clayfield and social change-agent Erin Young are brewing for the SOCIAL PERMACULTURE WEEKEND on 18 & 19 May at Crystal Waters Permaculture EcoVillage, near Maleny in South East Queensland. This unique weekend is a rare opportunity to be guided in developing your social design fluency by applying the nature-based principles of permaculture. Using interactive and dynamic experiences, Robin and Erin will share with you insights to regenerative people systems and approaches contributing to happy and healthy humans on the levels of the individual, organisational, and societal. Various angles of effective social design will be covered, including group ecology, community governance and decision-making, group effectiveness, social space retrofits and confidence in acting for change. This course is for those …

‘Groundwork’ has been developed out of the Art of Hosting framework (aka Art of Participatory Leadership), and specifically focusses on collaboration. These trainings are being offered in both Brisbane and Canberra in February. These trainings would be fantastic support to Permaculture trainers and organisers, for Permaculture Co-Lab, and any permie projects as well as NVC practitioners and anyone working with community groups and facilitation. Early bird closes today Fri 11 January. There are some scholarships, and discounts for 3 or more people coming as a group or from an organisation. Fees are negotiable for people who really want to come and learn to apply these trainings, but who cant afford to pay. Visit the website here.

Robin’s decision this year to run her annual ‘Dynamic Groups’ training at Crystal Waters EcoVillage much earlier in the year turned out to be a popular choice with participants. In light of this the course for 2019 will be in February from 17th to 22nd. It promises to be a great course and there are still a few places so best to jump in and confirm before the ‘Silly Season’ arrives.  

Testimonials that come ‘Out of the Blue’ are very rewarding for any business, social enterprise or undertaking. Here’s a few that have popped in since the last eNewsletter. This one from Anne Gibson is very honouring and gratefully received, especially as Anne is an outstanding and very well respected speaker and presenter at Expo’s, Events and Workshops these days. “Attending Robin’s ‘Dynamic Groups’ course was one of the most valuable investments I’ve ever made in my presentation skills. Not only was the course thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining, but I gained an incredible teaching toolkit that has enabled me to engage my students and audiences when speaking and delivering workshops in an entirely new way. The group processes challenged my thinking and opened up a whole new world of creative possibilities to enhance learning outcomes. Robin’s teaching aids, processes, gifted teaching style and group work are testament to her exceptional facilitation …

How often do you take time to review and renew your course design, your session plan that you work from to present regularly, your meeting agenda design or your event program? Do you tend to repeat the same session over and over or use similar processes to deliver the content you’re working with? Or do you challenge yourself to try new things, throw out the routine curricular or procedure, swap a standard process for a more creative one and dance on the edge of growth and expansion with each new challenge you give yourself? Do you get bored with what you offer to your groups? Are you tired of doing things the same way? Do your participants seem bored or disengaged? Or are your groups, meetings, events and sessions fun and exciting, receiving great feedback and motivating participants to thrive and shine. Do you complete and celebrate a job well …

Here’s a wonderful example of one woman living and breathing the challenge of ‘Dynamic Groups’ by using the ‘Creative Process Wild Cards’ and many of the learnings and processes from the ‘Dynamic Groups’ course and integrating that with her existing programs and group work. Thanks Shannon for such a rich offering of your work and stepping up to the challenge. “Robin’s Dynamic Groups Creative Facilitation course has inspired and energised me to deliver even better training and professional development for the Aquatic industry. I present courses and professional development and have always done things a bit “differently”, for example cross crawling and playing my ukulele. The creative processes we learned throughout the course have grown my toolbox exponentially! Each time I run a course now I consider how I did it last time and which processes I can use to engage the participants and really involve them in their own …