Until two months ago I was facilitating progressive AI (Appreciative Inquiry) meetings at Banteay Srey Women’s Spa with the staff. Now the process has finished, it’s time to look back on the whole of the process, on the challenges and learnings. In my last post I described the design of the process. In this post I will focus on the challenges that arose and the personal learnings I took away from it. It has taken me some time to write this post. The challenges were very clear to me, even when I was still in the middle of facilitating meeting. The personal learnings have only recently come more clear to me.
Challenges in facilitating
Applying AI in English and in a totally different context made this process more of a challenge than I could have ever imagined it to be, in several ways. The level of general understanding and the level of English, made it difficult for the participants to connect one phase with the next, to create coherence in the results of each phase. So it came down to me to connect the phases. I found it a challenge to make sure I stayed close to the original data and not contaminate the content of the process.
It also was a challenge keeping people energized. Especially in the first meetings, it was a lot for people to take in at once ( English, new words and concepts, applying this, digging into oneself). Also the need for translation made it hard to keep the flow in the meetings. Because the process was spread over a considerable number of short meetings, it was difficult to hold on to the energy through the whole of the process as well.
The level of abstractness of thinking was something that I didn’t think of up front. For example, it seemed difficult for most people in the group to go from concrete situations and examples towards lessons that can be learned from them (e.g. formulating a strength from a very concrete story about personal success). This also made it difficult for people to have an overview of the process and to make sense of every little step in the whole. This especially made the design and destiny phase difficult.
Last but not least, I was definitely challenged in my role as facilitator I felt it was very different from my previous role as a policy advisor. I find that it’s so much more diverse, it’s different roles in one. There are a lot of things that I would like to know more about e.g. making the content of a session more experiential, getting to a deeper level through more experiential exercises.
Also in the relationship with the client (the owner and founder of the spa) I was challenged. Being a beginner at applying AI and being a facilitator made me feel less confident towards a strong personality and I let myself sometimes to be too intimidated. Also, I feel I should have invested more in managing the client’s expectations about the results of the process, what would be realistic and feasible.
Personal learnings
One of the biggest challenges however, was applying an appreciative approach to myself, my situation and my journey. Staying focused on the positive when other energies affect you. Appreciating all aspects of yourself, the good and the bad. And letting myself have an actual learning process and that includes allowing myself to make mistakes and appreciating them, as they allow me to learn.
Results are not always big and tangible. They can also be small and intangible, but just as deep. And small changes can be a base for further change. Also change not always emerges in the way we expect it. When I apply this to myself I also need to celebrate the smaller success more, acknowledge it’s potential and appreciate it’s form or appearance. In my professional and private life.
Last but not least, being on a journey (of any kind) allows you to meet wonderful people, who can inspire your, teach you, affect you in so many ways. Sometimes it’s only when you return ‘home’ that you realise how and to what extent. Therefor I hereby want to thank everyone I met and shared with me! Special thanks to people who have supported me and given me advise about applying AI throughout this journey, Ralph Weickel and Annet van de Wetering.
The most special of thanks to my love Daniel Cordell, for being crazy enough to have come with me on this journey. For staying by my side, for looking after me, for coping with the various challenges (including me haha!), for picking me up when I was feeling down and keeping me positive, for telling me I am stronger than I think I am. I love you!
And now?….the journey continuous!
IN4D 