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• What is Facilitation?

  The word facilitation is derived from the Latin ‘facile’ which, simply translated, means ‘to make easy’. A facilitator is therefore someone who makes something easy for others. So how is facilitation different from other professional services that might also make something easier, such as consultancy, training or mediation? And how is facilitation different from other group leadership roles, such as chairing? Clarity of definition can help to manage expectations on the sides of the client, the group and the facilitator, and so achieve better outcomes.

  A classic if lengthy definition is that of Roger Schwarz:

  “Group facilitation is a process in which a person, whose selection is acceptable to all members of the group, is substantively neutral, and has no decision-making authority, diagnoses and intervenes to help a group improve how it identifies and solves problems and makes decisions, to increase the group’s effectiveness.” – Roger Schwarz.

  This definition addresses three critical dimensions – the role or stance of the facilitator, what he or she does to make things easy; and to what purpose.

  Firstly, the facilitator is neutral to the content and task of the group. That is not to say that the facilitator cannot or should not have any content expertise or any stake in the outcome of the task, but that the group must be able to have confidence that the facilitator will not allow these to influence the group’s work and decisions. In contrast, the consultant provides expert advice and the trainer imparts knowledge or skills, both contributing content expertise.

  Secondly, what the facilitator does is to diagnose and intervene in how the group works. In other words, he or she contributes process rather than content expertise. The facilitator is not neutral to process, but indeed is granted responsibility for the group’s process, by the group. A leader cannot impose a facilitator on a group without its consent.

  Excerpts are from Source: https://martingilbraith.com/facilitation-and-how-it-can-add-value/

• The Flight of Harmony for Motivated Organizations
  

   

  The Flight Of Harmony For Motivated Organizations
  
  

  In nature, when
  birds have to fly to a warmer climate to escape bitterly cold weather, they
  flock together and start their journey as a group. The success of the journey
  depends on the group: if an individual bird does not join the group, it cannot
  reach the destination on its own.

  When geese fly
  together, each goose provides additional lift and reduces air resistance for
  the goose flying behind it.  Consequently, by flying together in
  a v-formation, scientists estimate that the whole flock can fly about 70%
  farther with the same amount of energy than if each goose flew alone.  Geese have discovered that they can
  reach their destination more quickly and with less energy expended when they
  fly together in formation. When people work together harmoniously on teams,
  sharing common values and a common destination, they all arrive at the
  destination quicker and easier, because they are lifted up by the energy and
  enthusiasm of one another.

  Individual Viz Part of the whole

  These birds fly in a
  particular formation of ‘V’ shape, with an appropriate space between them as
  they fly. If they fly too close to each other, their wings get entangled; they
  lose their balance and fall. If they remain too far from each other, the formation
  cannot be created properly, and they are not able to ride the currents of air,
  which help to propel them in their flight. Furthermore, the leader of the
  formation does not remain the leader throughout the whole flight, but moves
  back and allows another to take its place. This repositioning continues
  throughout the flight until the destination is reached, allowing individual
  birds to contribute to the success of the journey.

  The reality of life is that we are
  individuals within a collective whole. Just like the birds, we are all a part
  of an unlimited Flight of Harmony.

  Just as there are two faces to one coin; a leader who
  wishes to have a successful team
  understands the  freedom
  and space needed for the existence of each member’s unique individuality
  , as well as the closeness and set boundaries needed for the existence of the
  group or collective organization. One cannot exist without
  the other.

  How to
  achieve the perfect balance in Individual Space Viz Part of the whole?

  Organizations which have people who have almost met
  the bottom four of the “Hierarchy of Needs” in the maslow’s motivation
  theory, may well choose to develop a culture that leads their associate  employees to meet their top most need i.e.
  “Self-Actualization” and motivate their employees to  develop spiritually towards
  self-actualization (the top most ‘need’ in the maslow’s theory of motivation ).

  Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

  Benefits to the organizations having individuals who are developing spiritually are obvious from the
  following reasons:

  1.       They feel a
  personal sense of value.

  2.       They clearly
  recognize their uniqueness and have the feeling that there is the freedom to be
  whatever they choose to be.

  3.       At the same
  time, their sense of personal independence allows them to come close to others
  and work with them.

  4.       They do not
  have selfish independence. They get close to others because they have found
  fulfilment in their own self.

  Someone who has truly found the value of the self
  above and beyond labels, name, fame and approval can effectively cooperate
  within the collective or group and interact appropriately. Such people not only
  feel themselves to be a part of the whole but, even more importantly, the group
  or collective feels them to be a part of the whole. 
• Crisis becomes an opportunity when you get to ‘eye’ of the storm.
  

  Ever wondered why does a sailor try
  to get to the eye of the storm if ever caught up in a sea storm while sailing?

  A wise sea captain, caught in a tropical storm knows that if he holds
  his vessel on the periphery, it will get hurled from one side to the other. If
  he can reach the eye of the storm, he will enter a place of stillness. The
  storm will then subside and the ship can continue its journey.

  Recently,
  I came across the real life story of a courageous lady who followed her passion
  for animals and turned a financial crisis into an opportunity.  She started a unique business of mobile
  petting zoo during the last economic downturn in USA. This idea came to her as
  a blessing in disguise to support her passion for her pet animals when her
  husband lost his job and she did not have enough money to take care of her pet
  animals.

  She set
  out to create a mobile petting zoo and
  aimed at conducting 10 events per annum, just enough to fund her pets care. But
  the idea became such a big hit that last year she conducted 700 events ! Now
  she has a big team to manage this unique business truly driven by her passion
  and love for animals. She had the option of making a practical decision of
  giving away her love for animals and may be sell them off to get money to run
  the house. But she chose  to remain
  stable at that stormy moment and went with the option guided by her inner
  conscious voice which was the mobile petting zoo business.

  Another
  similar example to quote here is that of a blind
  musician named Raju Rao who is from Bhopal, India. Despite his visual
  impartment, this multi talented musician writes lyrics of songs, composes
  music, plays many musical instruments and even sings ghazal and sufi music. Not
  ending at that he has performed with some renowned artists like Ghulam Ali,
  Kavita Krishnamurthy and Anuradha Paudwal among others. All this happened only
  after he had no opportunity with other music studios  and hence, decided to open his own. This is
  again an example of turning a crisis into an opportunity.

  This
  affirms that when everything around us is changing in a very intense way and
  against us then the best place for us to seek help is not on the outside
  circle, but deep within the self, where we can get in touch with self, the
  inner  being to find strength and
  stability, then come out with creative solution using lateral thinking and
  do  whatever it is  that we need to based on our inner conscious
  voice .

  We are always safe at the eye of the
  storm that means in any adverse situation if we can focus within we will find
  solution to be safe and protected to sail on smoothly in life.

   

• Beauty of life lies in diversity

  Rainbow Enclosing the Aircraft Shadow

   

  Ever wondered why reflections cannot be the exact same realities of
  life?

  Recently, I came across this interesting
  picture shown above, shared by my college friend. While on her way back home,
  to USA from India, she saw a pretty rainbow in the sky. With excitement, she took
  out her camera to capture that beautiful moment, just when she noticed another smaller
  aircraft, flying parallel to the one she was travelling in. It took her only a
  few seconds; to realize that it wasn’t another aircraft, but the shadow of the same aircraft she was
  travelling in!

  Similar to her perception which lasted only a few seconds; don’t we all want to
  see a part of us in others; in our friends, relatives, co-workers or our
  children? Or isn’t this how we perceive our shadow in other people to be a reality?
  Even when we are building new relationships or trying to be in sync with the
  existing ones, we are constantly trying to find a piece of ourselves in the
  other. Quite often, we try to identify their traits, habits, choices and approach
  etc. with that of ours.

  Unfortunately, most often the people who fall
  prey to such perceptions are our children. Just because our children are with
  us for the initial part of their life, (like a shadow) they really can’t be
  driven by our choices and habits. If we fail to accept the differences in their
  opinions choices, likes and capabilities then we definitely have chosen to
  invite frictions in our relationship. This friction starts seeping in, when our
  kids get into ‘teenage’ and it gets really
  rough if we still do not identify their differences and give them the freedom
  of choice to ‘be’ just ‘who’ they are. A recent example, of this failure by a parent was reported
  in the Times of  India Newspaper last
  week(TOI – June, 2015), where an engineering third year student committed
  suicide by jumping from top floor of his residence building because he wanted
  to study sociology and he was forced to study engineering by his  parents.

  This doesn’t mean we do not discipline our children
  for what is ‘right’, but at the same time we need to agree to disagree sometimes and understand that each and every soul on this earth is unique
  and has a unique part to play on this world stage, in this eternal drama called,
  life. To have a strong, healthy and a lasting relationship, we need to
  realize that every individual is as different as his/her finger prints or
  retina impressions and; so are the soul impressions (traits, karmic accounts) of
  each actor on this world stage different.

  If we accept people without any resistance
  for “who” they are and enjoy the diverse human nature, having diverse
  habits, traits, capabilities  and choices,
  then we surely can excel in our interpersonal skills at work and at home. After
  all, we all love colors in the rainbow, don’t you?

   

  Hence, the beauty of life lies in diversity.
• I Believe I Can Fly…

  Why do we all have attachments
  with “My Firsts” in our life?

  Quite often we hear out people connecting in the middle of a
  talk with their “firsts” like my first job, my first car, my first house, my first
  pet etc. etc. 

  Why do people adore their firsts more than what they have
  now which is much better over the antique pieces that they used to have?

  
  I still remember how my first job gave me a boost of being
  somebody and how my first car gave me loads of joy of being independent on the
  wheels. The firsts are always special in our lives no matter how
  tiny or obsolete they may look now or even then. But we always keep our firsts
  in our fondest of memories. 🙂

  While doing a retrospect on the reasons of this fondness of people over
  firsts, I reconcile here as some of the reasons that came out for my attachments towards my firsts is firstly, the feeling of “self-worth” or fulfillment that the firsts gave are much more at an index level
  than the next ones in our life. Secondly,
  the effort that went into making it
  happen is much more than the next ones, this effort quotient is most definitely
  directly proportionate to how we value something that we get in our life. Lastly and most importantly it’s the desire or the passion to get there as a milestone is what is making it hold a very special place in our life’s journey.

  So, if we want to collect more such fond memories similar to
  our firsts then we continuously need to challenge and break our own limits that
  we set for ourselves in whatever that we are doing and keep on flying to
  explore the new and direct our efforts towards it that makes it worthwhile to
  achieve and this is how we reach our peak potential i.e. self-actualization and hence, I Believe I can Fly.
• Essentials for Success in The Corporate Life
  

  ArchanaPingle: Essentials for Success in The Corporate Life: When it comes to success in the corporate life – everyone has their own definition of it, as each one is looking at it from their level. So there is no definite definition of success. But in essence mathematically you can say that “Success is about reaching from point A to point B.”

  Nowadays, most of the so called successful breed in the knowledge economy is passed out from Best of the Tech. collages and B-Schools, to even further glorify their path they would also not leave any stone upturned in their learning and  would surely attempt to get their lessons from the best of the management gurus in the world. Just as you have the 4 Ps (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) essential for the success of any product, they say that you need to have the 4 Ps(Passion, Plan, Patience and Perseverance)  in you for your own success too.

  But the question is what happened to the success of the some of the most gloried of them all who were like celebrities in the Indian IT world ! ! ! To name a few Mr. Ramalinga Raju (Satyam CEO and Founder) and Phaneesh Murthy (iGate CEO)? Did these folks not have all the ingredients mentioned above to be successful? What made the whole building of their success collapse ??

  Answer to these questions in my opinion is: The essential foundation to one’s success is 3 Cs and that is Character, Congruent Communication and Compassionate Leadership.