Reading

Sitting on my desk now are several books about facilitation from the organizational development perspective, written by experts in the field (as well as some online readings). One reading from an eBook on facilitation edited by Biech, called "Creatively Debriefing Group Activities" (author: Beaulieu), had a nice summary of the debriefing stage of a facilitated learning activity.

In short, the debriefing stage occurs right after the experiential learning activity, and is intended to help participants understand what happened in the exercise and why it happened. Ideally, they can then apply this knowledge to their organization or work situation. Some of the questions asked at this stage include:

1. What happened during the activity?
2. Why did it happen?
3. Does anything like that ever happen in work (at home, in life, etc.)?
4. Why does it happen?
5. What might you do differently to improve the work (home, life, etc.) situation?
   

Overall, in the debriefing stage, participants can process what they've been through, and apply the learning in a relevant context, such as their work or life situation.

The article was also interesting because it outlined some inherent challenges of the debriefing stage. Debriefing the activity is usually harder than the activity itself because, according to Beaulieu, it forces participants to speak in public, give spontaneous or unplanned comments, follow a structure that is sometimes only known to the facilitator, and to discuss objectively a situation that they were a subjective participant in. It also is hard sometimes for participants to analyze their own and others behaviors and motivations right after the experiential exercise.

Beaulieu suggests some creative ways to debrief groups, which I would like to follow up on in my own practice. He suggests, first of all, to give people advance time to prepare for debriefing, perhaps by giving people time to read, reflect, or discuss in small groups the questions that will be posed.

One creative way to debrief, which I would like to use, is to use a game-like activity that extends the energy and spontaneity of the original exercise into the debriefing period. For example, I could have participants in a drum circle reflect on the debriefing questions for a minute, and instead of saying out loud their answer, ask them to use the drum or percussion instrument to express their answer or feelings about the experience. Finally, he also suggests moving the focus of debriefing from the facilitator to pairs or small groups, where participants are more likely to "own" their learning, and may feel less constrained to speak about what they experienced.

I'm excited to begin using debriefing techniques in the two drum circles I will be facilitating in February. Drum circle facilitation as a new way of facilitating groups was pioneered by Aurthur Hull, considered the "father of the community drum circle movement", and I am currently reading his textbook on drum circle facilitation--"Drum Circle Facilitation: Building Community Through Rhythm".

Reviving the Blog

The act of revisiting this blog has a special sense at this time in mid-January, during a cold and snowy northern Minnesota winter. The sun is slowly and surely lengthening the days as this month goes on. That means it is time to return to the Circle, and pick up some threads that were left over from a previous project in which I explored teambuilding methods, including group drumming, for organizational development. This time around, the thread I want to focus on is how to use debriefing methods to process the experience of a facilitated "percussion-based experiential exercise", to borrow a term from my colleague Keith Russell from the University of Kansas.

Here's a taste of what this semester's project will be "all about":

My research questions are: What are some best practices skilled facilitators use to debrief experiential exercises? What is the funneling facilitation technique? What is it used for, and why?

Which debriefing techniques are most effective in percussion-based experiential exercises (group drumming), and why?

And my learning outcomes: 1) to learn more about debriefing techniques (such as funneling) used in group facilitation. 2) To more effectively facilitate group learning with debriefing methods, and to evaluate their use in percussion-based experiential exercises (group drumming)

As I planned out my project calendar and envisioned how the next few months would go, I got an excited feeling, as well as a lessened feeling of anxiety--funny how filling out a calendar can help you settle into a better mental space. I can see that the pieces of the puzzle should hopefully fall into place to have a successful "journey". I'm already slated to do a percussion-based exercise for a "Traditional Skills Workshop" next month (sponsored by my workplace, Bemidji State University's, Office of Sustainability), and have a couple of other drum circle opportunities in the works. I hope that the synergy between this project and the drum circles continues to build. I am excited about what the next few months will bring!