Fusion food and facilitation
This week I have been in Eindhoven on a four day facilitation skills course that uses constructionism (more to follow) to help assess the ‘hidden’ intelligence in a room of attendees. We have been put through our paces at Seats2Meat Eindhoven an inspiringly entrepreneurial social enterprise. Seats2meet is Dutch and has a business model that relies on meeting room rental to cover the costs for the free availability of the space/canteen/facilities for new businesses, social enterprises, and non-profit making organisations. These organisations sign up to a social charter that provides a framework for a community of likeminded people. It self policing, a hive of activity, and really positive in terms of atmosphere, and a sense of salience. All this housed in an old Phillips light bulb factory. An otherwise declining light industrial building put to good use fueling the next wave of ideas.
What has struck me more than anything is the calibre of facilitators I have been sharing this week with. The time spent working one to one and in groups with my nine European colleagues has been incredibly useful. Arriving Sunday night and returning tomorrow we have started at 8ish and worked through til 10pm finishing up individual projects and applications of the techniques we have been learning. Finishing at this time, I have had 20mins to clear my head on the walk back to the hotel tired with the pace, the full on nature of the technique and the sheer variety of learning methodology. 4 days with not one single powerpoint slide, has been deeply influential on us all. Proper skills training, using a variety of proper teaching methods and approaches.
My late evenings have been spent finding restaurants that are open at this time, settling in and ordering something that is going to match the day. Food that can inspire, challenge and be successfully different. Most of these restaurants have been proponents of fusion food a craze that continues in Holland for blending of two or more cuisines. Whether that be Spanish thrown together with Japanese, or last nights malay and french effort its been a mixed bag of tom yum foam, with pimenton prawns or a prawn cracker topped with olive oil snow. The highlight gave me an omelet with chilli sauce in the centre, a sort of thai egg wagon wheel. Luckily this sense fest was accompanied by 7 wines to taste*. It’s fair to say that my evenings have been filled wanting some identity and confidence back in the kitchens of my hosts.
Whilst not wishing to be confused for AA Gill. This local trend sounded a connection. My days have been filled with framing questions, grounding approaches and metaphors this one is too approximate an opportunity to pass over. It strikes me that I have been making a similar mistake in our strategic kitchen. I think I need to get considerably better in defining where I as a consultant starts, and where me as a facilitator ends. Across all the agencies I have worked in we have consistently clouded the two roles. As a consequence failing to do either job with the clarity of purpose required, the independence needed, or having missed out on our input mid session when we have been guiding the group. It’s fusion of competencies.
One requires guidance, framing questions and independence and the suspension of solution provision. The other value judgement, input and subjectivity. Both have huge value but the danger exists in the middle ground facilitating the answers to core questions where we feel we should also be part of the answer. As a consequence influencing and skewing the result. This lack of clarity is a concept that I have seen present in many if not all of the facilitators I have worked with over the years in healthcare, and as much so in myself.
I feel the solution is for more of us to be up-skilled and competent to a much higher level than the marketing communication industry requires us to be. Accompanying this to strive for a set of guiding approaches/set formats that allow us to work across each others accounts when independent facilitation is needed. I think this should be pretty doable for I/us here at Hive. We have more leadership level people per unit business than anyone else. Our resource model insists on an hour glass in place of a pyramid shape with our senior members making up a healthy wodge of client focused talent. We have the resources to get us all to a beyond industry level of competence, the desire to develop standardised approaches for typical challenges and certainly the humility and track record in learn from other sectors.
The week has been a steep learning curve and provided me not only with a new vocabulary, but a new respect for my European colleagues in their professionalism and discipline. From technical skills, to focus and purity of role I hope to put much of this into practice at Hive. I shall be striving for some fission, and kicking fusion into touch.
*This was a week of training permitting some low level relaxation. It’s possible to drink 7 glasses of wine on your own in a restaurant by following the following guide; You certainly need a tasting menu, and do start with a beer, and a copy of a good book ideally something featuring food, drink and servant girls. Ignore the wine list and suggest your restaurant match each course. Do bare in mind that these types of gaffs will insist on sending 3 little bites to amuse prior to one of your starters arriving. Then hang up your taste buds, and travel the increasingly hazy world.