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Sharing experiences of
facilitation through
writing
Part 1
Journal of the Association for
Management Education and
Development
Volume 25 ● Number 1 ● Spring 2018
e-ORGANISATIONS & PEOPLE, SPRING 2018, VOL. 25, NO. 1 PAGE I WWW.AMED.ORG.UK
Edition Editors: Steve Dilworth and Bob MacKenzie
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e-ORGANISATIONS & PEOPLE, SPRING 2018, VOL. 25, NO. 1 PAGE 51 WWW.AMED.ORG.UK
Contents
Playful facilitation methods for
serious purposes
Alice Fox and Alison Donaldson
The facilitation approach described here, though developed in artistic contexts, can easily be adapted to
tackle serious organisational issues like team relationships, collaborative working and strategic planning.
In a nutshell, it involves combining movement, material and words to create an emotionally safe, trusting
landscape that is conducive to honest, brave exchange. Our reflections are based on two particular
events, separated by a couple of years, in two different oriental locations. We begin by describing a visit
to Taiwan, where we worked with a group of older people to prepare them rapidly for a live collaborative
performance featuring ice and ribbon. The other (earlier) event took place in Cambodia and, though it was
based on similar principles, the context was quite different: a group of staff from all levels of an NGO
managed to develop a draft strategic plan by writing on fruit and teapots. In both cases, a playful and
creative way of working enabled those involved to bond rapidly and achieve something useful and
positive.
Key words
facilitating, groups, movement, materials, verbal communication, writing, human relationships, strategic
planning, playfulness
Introduction
In November 2017, we (Alison and Alice) flew to Taiwan to spend a few days in the vibrant city of Taichung
where we were to take part in a conference on Inclusive Arts Practice (Alice’s speciality). Our hosts were
the British Council and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. While there, we spent time working with
a small group of older Taiwanese people ('elders' – about six women and one man), preparing them for a
live performance in one of the museum’s public galleries. We had limited information about the elders, who
appeared to be relative strangers to each other and who were probably not in the habit of performing in
public. What was clear, though, was that their language was Mandarin and the museum would provide a
translator.
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Contents
The performance that we developed together included a number of ‘ingredients’: movement, materials
(blocks of ice, long pieces of red ribbon, marker pens, and pieces of cloth and tracing paper), as well as
words, spoken and written. We rehearsed with the elders over three afternoons, and on the third day we put
on a 10-minute public performance (with both of us joining in).
My first ever visit to Taiwan (by Alison)
Alice and I had been friends for a few years and had often had
conversations about our respective professional interests. One
day, a few months before the Taichung conference, Alice
mentioned that she was going to work with a group of elders
while she was there and was hoping to collect stories from
them. I pricked up my ears immediately and expressed an
interest in joining her to work with her and the group.
As it happened, Alice was looking to travel to Taiwan with a
small number of women she trusts, and to my delight she
included me amongst them. From the start, I was excited about
seeing Taiwan for the first time. Years earlier, I had done some
basic Mandarin lessons, and I am a lover of the Oolong tea that
grows on the island. In addition, collecting stories was some-
Credit: tvtropes.org (‘Useful Notes’)
thing I had done plenty of. I spent about 10 years, for example, working with Macmillan Cancer Support,
gathering stories from groups of health professionals to serve both as a record and as a way of evaluating
the charity’s investment (Donaldson, 2013; Donaldson, Lank, Maher 2011). It was clear, however, that in
Taichung there would not be enough time to hear, let alone transcribe and edit, lengthy stories told by the
elders. For a live performance, we needed more concise, poetic forms.
While anticipating the trip, I was really curious to find out how Alice would work with the group. As my own
work is normally focused on words (written and spoken), and I have limited experience of drama and
performance, I felt slightly apprehensive about my contribution. But that was the point – for Alice and me to
bring our different backgrounds together and to test collaborating together.
Street scene in Taichung. (Photo: Alison Donaldson)
On our first day in Taichung, we walked
from our high-rise hotel to the museum to
see where we would soon be working. On
the way we took in the urban atmosphere
of the city with its colourful signs and
Chinese characters, and the swarms of
motor scooters. When we reached the
museum, the contrast was striking: we
found ourselves in a calm and spacious
modern building surrounded by green
space. A member of staff showed us round
and took us to the gallery in which we
would be
e-ORGANISATIONS & PEOPLE, SPRING 2018, VOL. 25, NO. 1 PAGE 53 WWW.AMED.ORG.UK
Contents
working, and I noticed how Alice looked carefully at the room before confirming that she could work with it.
She would somehow find a way to integrate the benches fixed to the floor in the middle of the performance
space.
The next day we started working with the elders. The first revelation for me was the way in which Alice
opened the session. In the organisational context, I had seen plenty of ‘warm-up exercises’, including some
that involve movement, and I had initiated many rounds of verbal introductions myself.
Alice knew from experience that movement can help people leave their distractions behind and ‘land in the
room’. So she started by inviting each person to dream up a spontaneous physical movement or gesture to
introduce themselves to the others. She then got us all to speak out our name and make our gesture. Soon
we were performing our gestures as a group, and within minutes, people not used to appearing on stage
were performing together quite naturally. It looked beautiful.
I noticed that I felt relieved at not having to articulate verbally who I was, or to feel under pressure to sound
interesting or accomplished. The gestures were accepted by the group without any need for discussion and
they became our ‘sign names’ or personal signatures, expressing something essential about each one of
us. In effect, rather than plunging straight into speaking, we were getting to know each other in a very
different way, through movement.
Later, Alice got us working in pairs, passing small blocks of ice to and fro. The ice dripped, changed shape
and finally melted away between our fingers. Looking into one another’s eyes while passing a melting piece
of ice to and fro, edging closer step-by-step, was an intimate and bonding experience. Not a single word
was exchanged. Afterwards, to keep our hands warm, she invited us to come up with some special hand
movements like rubbing and smacking them together, which ultimately became part of the public
performance.
Practising hand movements. (Photo: British Council)
e-ORGANISATIONS & PEOPLE, SPRING 2018, VOL. 25, NO. 1 PAGE 54 WWW.AMED.ORG.UK
Contents
Everyone was asked to share associations and stories inspired by ice. Some of these were moving, some
unexpected. We noticed, for example, how, given the warm climate in Taiwan, some of the elders associated
ice with something pleasant and cooling, rather than cold and uncomfortable to touch.
At some point, a stranger wandered into the gallery, apparently expecting to join in. We had no idea who
she was but Alice was quick to include her without asking any questions – a good reminder for me that the
context of our activity was inclusive art practice.
By now, Alice and I were pondering whether the elders, having
shared their personal experiences of ice, would feel comfortable
expressing their thoughts about ‘love’. To our mild surprise, they
seemed to have no difficulty. (Months afterwards, while working
on this article, we learned that the pronunciation of ‘ice’ in English
sounds similar to the word for ‘love’ in Chinese – a nice
coincidence.)
The next task was to get some of the words and phrases about
ice and love written down on pieces of tracing paper and cotton
cloth (materials carefully chosen by Alice to bring out the elegance
of Chinese characters). Once this was done, Alice and I invited
the rest of the group to order them into a co-authored ‘poem’.
Despite my Mandarin lessons, I had little clue about what the
characters meant (a new experience for me, as I tend to be very
alert to the word choices that people make). But fortunately
everything was interpreted for us by our dynamic young translator,
Christin.
Poem emerging. (Photo: British
Council)
We didn't (couldn’t!) edit the poem at all but as a piece of writing it was rather lovely. Though some bits
sounded sentimental to my ears, others seemed profound (possibly Taoist or Buddhist inspired – for
example: “If you have everything you have nothing. If you have nothing you have everything. Everything is
nothing, and nothing is everything.”)
Minutes before the live performance. (Photo: British Council)
On day three, in final preparation for the
live performance, Alice got two people
to read out the poem (one of the elders
in Chinese, followed by Christin in
English) while the technicians who had
been assigned to us made an audio
recording. This enabled us to use a
recorded bi-lingual version of the poem
as an evocative soundscape during the
final performance, rather than
projecting the words onto the walls of
the gallery (as we had originally
anticipated).
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Excitement grew as we watched the audience arrive. Alice then brought us into the performance space one
pair at a time. Some performed their duets on top of the benches, while others stayed on the ground, thus
creating a two-level spectacle for the audience. The 10-minute performance was professionally filmed and
later edited for sharing on the web.
Passing ice during the live performance. (Photo: British Council)
Underlying philosophy (by Alice): using movement, material and words
Our aim was to combine movement, material and words to create an emotionally safe, trusting landscape
that was conducive to honest, brave exchange.
Movement
The use of movement helps people ‘land’ in the space and feel safe
in it. But why bring movement into the group before words?
Essentially because the brain doesn’t know everything. Movement
helps us to become more attentive and to listen to our heart and gut.
Material
When working with materials, each item has to be chosen carefully.
The red ribbon, for instance, jumped out at me in a stationery shop
in Taichung the day before we started working with the elders. Like
ice, it is sensuous and potentially symbolic. A length of ribbon can
silently link two people together, creating a physical connection
whilst measuring the distance between them. It also lends itself to
cutting with scissors, scattering scarlet snips in pretty patterns on
the ground.
Mu-Dan Chang (張牡丹) cutting ribbon.
(Photo: Mei-yen Liu (劉美燕)
e-ORGANISATIONS & PEOPLE, SPRING 2018, VOL. 25, NO. 1 PAGE 56 WWW.AMED.ORG.UK
Contents
In the performance, each pair worked sensitively and responsively, moving together gradually, keeping the
ribbon reasonably taut while snipping away at the ends. The diminishing ribbon highlighted the growing
physical and emotional intimacy as the performance progressed.
As for ice, everybody can connect it with some experience. They may also be able to make metaphorical
associations with it. For instance, thawing ice could symbolise the growing warmth between people as they
get to know each other. Another advantage of ice is that it ‘does things’ – changes shape, turns to water,
drips and vanishes. And by noticing how people respond to these qualities, we can learn something about
them and about the cultural differences.
Words
But all this emphasis on movement and material does not mean eclipsing words altogether. While materials
are well suited to evoking feelings and associations, and they create opportunities for abstract and emotive
forms of expressions, language can offer us a higher degree of precision. It is worth noting, however, that
in a performance the value of words is not to ‘explain’ anything, nor to ‘translate’ movements into language.
Another way of putting it is that words act as one ingredient among many, in this case providing a poetic
soundscape for the live performance.
Combining all three
By combining words with material and movement, we hoped to encourage people to go beyond cliché and
abstraction and tell their personal stories. One of our main research questions was: Can performing with
ephemeral, sensuous material such as ice and ribbon rapidly create understanding and closeness within a
newly-acquainted group? During our time with the Taiwanese elders we were able to observe how the use
of movement and materials quickly brought people together, encouraging them to speak openly and
authentically. It was an opportunity for them to express, hear and feel powerful evocative messages. And it
created meeting points as well as a series of shared experiences and intimate connections between them.
This complex and varied set of personal exchanges and developing relationships can be understood as
‘meshworks’ (Ingold, 2011). The performance also supported an authentic dialogic exchange, a place to
‘dwell together’. Or, as Richard Sennett has put it:
“To counter the fetish of assertiveness by opening up an indeterminate mutual space, the space in which
strangers dwell with one another” (Sennett, 2013, p23).
Variation on a theme: a tea party in Cambodia
Each new group comes together with a different purpose, so it is always
important to make a judgment about which materials to introduce and
what people will do with them. A couple of years before our Taiwan trip,
Alice had worked in Cambodia with about 45 people for a non-
government organisation (NGO) called Epic Arts. The collective aim
was very concrete and practical: to come up with a three-year strategic
plan. The group encompassed all strata of the organisation (directors,
artists, caretakers etc.) and a range of departments (e.g. education,
buildings, performance). Readily available materials included teapots,
Cambodian fruit with words.
(Photo: Alice Fox)
e-ORGANISATIONS & PEOPLE, SPRING 2018, VOL. 25, NO. 1 PAGE 57 WWW.AMED.ORG.UK
Contents
tea cups and tropical fruit, all of which were both cheap and culturally significant. The fruit was part of
everyday life and locally grown, while the teapots were intended to evoke the English tea party ritual.
The process that Alice designed in Cambodia was quite different from that in Taichung. First, she got each
person to write down their personal achievements and goals (“What worked well? What do you want the
group to know about you?”) directly onto the fruit, as an unusual way of introducing themselves to each
other.
Later on, the teacups, saucers and teapots served as surfaces for each person to write down what they
thought their team should do next. People took turns talking and writing, so everyone had a voice, whatever
their position in the organisation.
Finally, tea was poured into the teapots and the whole group had a convivial tea party, with everyone sitting
on the ground, whatever their official status, chatting informally while drinking tea and eating up the pile of
accumulated fruit. By the end, the directors were astonished by the high ambitions of their workforce and
the productiveness of the session. The three-year plan had been created. A playful session had produced
a solid result.
Translating artistic processes into organisational settings
The artistic and relational methods described here have wide relevance, and we hope to test them in more
conventional organisational settings in future. They can be helpful to different kinds of people: managers,
leaders, academics and other kinds of practitioners, even to highly ‘cerebral’ types who might otherwise feel
nervous of moving their bodies in front of strangers.
The approach could also be fruitful in tackling a range of group issues (e.g. listening and communication,
working relationships, team building, collaborative working, leadership development, employee
engagement). What’s more, it can introduce an element of fun and playfulness into otherwise arduous and
serious tasks like strategic planning (as seen in the Cambodian example).
For facilitators more generally, working with movement and material allows us to invite people to ‘let go’ of
rational thinking for a few moments and get to know each other in a different way, maybe even understand
how those around them think. Many of us who have worked in organisations have at times felt weighed
down by negativity, cynicism, resignation or conflict. Groups and organisations who give this approach a try
might just notice trust, collaboration and work satisfaction growing in the process.
Reflecting on creative processes
It is worth considering the best way of ‘evaluating’ this kind of work (something often demanded in public
sector and non-profit organisations, like universities and charities). Our view is that, given the creative quality
of the approach, there isn’t much point in expecting people to rate their experience purely quantitatively –
e.g. on a scale of 1 to 5. It is much better to ask open questions that invite thoughtful, reflective answers.
One might even get group members interviewing each other, sharing stories and exploring striking or
memorable moments. Participatory arts research celebrates the immersive, situated, subjective nature of
the researcher and the research process. It often leads to a fertile, messy mix of resonance, new
understanding, multiple meanings and further questions.
e-ORGANISATIONS & PEOPLE, SPRING 2018, VOL. 25, NO. 1 PAGE 58 WWW.AMED.ORG.UK
Contents
While preparing this article, we reflected on how we collaborated as facilitators, and we quickly agreed that
it wasn’t a matter of two identical people sharing all the tasks 50:50. We weren’t even sure in advance
exactly how we would work together. We did know, however, that we liked each other and there was a lot
of trust between us. We also recognised and appreciated certain qualities and skills in one another – not
just knowledge and attitudes, but also our individual ‘presence’ in conversation. Ultimately, facilitating
together is more about trust and appreciation than it is about CVs.
References
Donaldson A (2013). Learning from experience: why history matters in organisational life. e-Organisations
& People, Winter 2013, Vol. 20 No. 4.
Donaldson A, Lank E and Maher J (2011). Communities of Influence: improving healthcare through
conversations and connections. London and New York: Radcliffe. Print.
Fox A, Macpherson H (2015). Inclusive Arts Practice and Research: A Critical Manifesto. London and
New York: Routledge. Print.
Ingold T (2011). Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description. New York: Routledge.
Print.
Macpherson H, Fox A (2015). Listening space: some lessons from some artists with and without learning
disabilities and their art materials. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space (EPD) 0(0) 1–18,
613093 SAGE.
Sennett R (2013) Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation. London: Penguin Print.
About the authors: complementary backgrounds
Alice: Artistic performer and director, pioneer in inclusive arts practice. Head of School of Art (acting),
University of Brighton. Winner of 2017 Times Higher Education Award for Excellence and Innovation in the
Arts. Has a knack of talking in warm, crystal clear, inspiring words..
A.V.Fox@brighton.ac.uk
http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/staff/alice-fox
Alison: Independent author and writing coach. Awarded a Doctor of Management degree in 2003.
Previously worked for McKinsey & Company and Which? magazine, and before that as a researcher in
Berlin. Loves inquiring and exploratory conversations.
alidonaldson@gmail.com
www.writinginorganisations.uk
Acknowledgements
The work described here was made possible with the support of: The British Council; National Taiwan
Museum of Fine Arts; Epic Arts, Cambodia; and The University of Brighton. Thanks also to everyone who
took part in the two events or helped make them happen, especially: Shu-Chun (賴淑君); Emily (吳麗娟);
our translator Christin (張孟貴); and the film crews and photographers. Last not least, thanks to the editors,
Bob MacKenzie and Steve Dilworth, for their helpful and encouraging comments on drafts and to David
McAra for formatting this issue of e-O&P..
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Contents
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