Date:  Tuesday 13 October 2020                   Time:   12 noon                                 Length:    2 hours

Presenter/s
Dr Cathryn Lloyd

This session is designed for:         
Emerging facilitators                      Still developing                   Wisdom Keeper                  Everyone

Will this session be recorded?                       No – this session won’t translate to a recording

Important to note:
This session is limited to 30 attendees

Session Outline

This session is an invitation as a community of facilitators to collaborate in an Open Space process and creatively explore what facilitation looks and feels like when we embody and imbue facilitation with the African philosophy of Ubuntu – “I am because you are”.  What does Ubuntu offer facilitators and the world of facilitation?  What aspects of this philosophy resonate specifically for facilitation and for you as a facilitator?  This session will be facilitated by Cathryn Lloyd on-line using some basic principles of Open Space methodology to engage participants in a creative conversation and interaction regarding this topic.  While this is a general theme to get us started this Open Space session invites participants to offer, highlight and explore related topics and questions they think relevant to the discussion and their facilitation practice.

(Open Space is a method for organising and running meetings or multi-day conferences, where participants have been invited in order to focus on a specific, important task or purpose. “Open space” meetings are to a lesser or greater degree “self-organising. The approach was originated by Harrison Owen. Online Open Space is an adaption of this process in particular using breakout rooms where people can move themselves between rooms)

Key Learning Objectives

In this session participants are invited to:

• explore and experience Open Space facilitation/methodology online
• ‘host’ or offer a topic for exploration within this Open Space forum. The beauty of Open Space is that participants do not have to be an expert to put forward an idea.  For instance, a person may have a question they would like to ask the group to explore or they may have an activity they would like to test out with a group of people and are interested and open to experimenting together
• experience how Open Space can be used as a collaborative form of inquiry and learning online
• experience how Open Space can be used to bring people together to create together, share an experience, learn together and connect with others

How this session contributes to the AFN Community of Practice

The Open Space approach to this session will build community through the process itself. As it is a collaborative and co-creative methodology and experience the group itself negotiates, offers and decides what is important to them and what they would like to spend time discussing and or workshopping. The process helps build a sense of community and expands the network through collaborative interactions.

Toolkit Takeaways

Participants will experience the process of Open Space online and be able to organise their own Open Space sessions as is appropriate for them.

Speaker Biographies

Cathryn Lloyd is Founder, Director of Maverick Minds Pty Ltd.  Cathryn facilitates and coaches powerful and flexible learning experiences for leaders, managers, teams and individuals to help shift thinking, gain new perspectives and create positive long-term change.  Her experience across the arts, design, education, and business management sectors provides the foundation for a unique approach to the design and delivery of creative professional development workshops and programs. Clients include government, corporate, not for profit, universities, individuals and groups.  Cathryn holds a research Doctorate in Creative Industries and is Australia’s first certified creativity coach with the Creativity Coaching Association.  She is the co-editor of the Story Cookbook: practical recipes for change (2019).