Who’s us?

Robert Reich asked “who are we?” is a substack about the election results in the US. Here are are ome of my notes:

https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/who-are-we-anyway?r=p0rqa&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=75987848

Implications for facilitating groups

1. Always take time for people to get know each other. I usually ask them at the door, to write down their name, where they’re from and a open question about the intended subject of the meeting.
2. Let everybody speak out at least their name. And – for instance – read out the answer to the open question. In Dutch the word for belonging has been derived from “hearing”, Hearing your voice induces a feeling of belonging.
3. Share some personal issues. Real issues. Like “I’ve been invited to facilitate you”, or “I’ve designed this meeting to…”, or “this is my first time I’m doing this exercise….” . Or, my favourite: “we’ve already started … “.
4. Allow time for “issues” to be spoken about. Not necessarily the topic of the meeting.
5. (!) have participants work in small groups of at least five and at most five people. With less, three, it will become two against one, with four you can get a stale-mate, and most people don’t feel socially safe in groups of 6 or more participant,
6. Treat everything that happens in your sessions as the only thing that can happen. Don’t make it your problem, so you don’t have to solve it yourself.
7. People are happiest when working towards an attainable goal. State in your agenda some purpose, intention or goal and fix the end time. Stop then. All business is unfinished business.