MacGyver Facilitation
Product Description
I love the fearless attitudes that kids have. Recently my two boys and I found a new park in our neighborhood with the best climbing trees around! We spent hours just hanging from branches pretending to be Batman, Superman and Batgirl. We saved the world one branch at a time. Creative imagination is something we are all born with and needs to be nurtured. I find that facilitating groups often requires us to tap into our creative imaginations that we had as kids. I like to call it MacGyver Facilitation. MacGyver was a television show in the 80's starring Richard Dean Anderson. His character was infamous for using whatever materials he had at his fingertips to fix any situation. Facilitating groups is a lot like that, too. Facilitation, sequencing, and program design is taking the resources you have, determining the desired outcome, and creating a road map of activities that will get you there.
For example, I might have a group of 30 people who want to work on trust within the organization. My resources include some index cards, paper clips and a roll of duct tape--what do I do?" Now if MacGyver was facilitating your group, he'd probably figure out how to create some kind of explosive out of the materials. But for us ordinary people, we just want dynamic and powerful outcomes-we'll leave the explosions to Richard Dean Anderson.
Recently I was challenged to look at a common team initiative and come up with four different sets of directions to change the activity to have four different outcomes. I found myself tapping into that creative imagination zone of my brain, the hang-from-the-branches-as-Batgirl zone. I changed something that was common to me to meet the unique needs of my group. It made me think about the unique position we have as trainers. We can adapt what we already have or know, make it meaningful and applicable for our participants, and have it reach a desired positive outcome. If you have been facilitating an activity for a long time and are getting burnt out with it, see if you can change the directions so it is new and fresh. Be a MacGyver facilitator!
For example, I might have a group of 30 people who want to work on trust within the organization. My resources include some index cards, paper clips and a roll of duct tape--what do I do?" Now if MacGyver was facilitating your group, he'd probably figure out how to create some kind of explosive out of the materials. But for us ordinary people, we just want dynamic and powerful outcomes-we'll leave the explosions to Richard Dean Anderson.
Recently I was challenged to look at a common team initiative and come up with four different sets of directions to change the activity to have four different outcomes. I found myself tapping into that creative imagination zone of my brain, the hang-from-the-branches-as-Batgirl zone. I changed something that was common to me to meet the unique needs of my group. It made me think about the unique position we have as trainers. We can adapt what we already have or know, make it meaningful and applicable for our participants, and have it reach a desired positive outcome. If you have been facilitating an activity for a long time and are getting burnt out with it, see if you can change the directions so it is new and fresh. Be a MacGyver facilitator!
