Facilitation, Reflective Practice, Supervision

Facilitation

We offer a full facilitation service for events such as:

  • Organisation / team / board awaydays
  • Strategic planning sessions
  • Team building
  • Conflict resolution

Our process

We work closely with the commissioning organisation, co-designing the event through detailed conversation focused on:

(a) their best hopes for and from the event: what do they want to be different afterwards?

(b) the current context: what’s uppermost for participants right now?

Whilst we tend to seek a key link person in the organisation, we work hard to bring the voices of all participants to the design process (particularly re content), and on the day we ensure equality of voice.

We are highly experienced facilitators, with a deep understanding of the role, which is to hold a process for participants so that they can be at their best, individually and collectively, to address the content and realise their best hopes from the event.

As with all our work, our facilitation is solution-focused: we draw on the strengths (resources, resourcefulness, knowledge, experience) amongst the participants, catalysing their collective efforts to picture and move towards their hoped-for change.

We always seek a meeting with the key link person, and perhaps others, a month or two after the event, to ensure the organisation creates this protected space to reflect on the event, progress since, and thoughts re any further steps from here.

“I wanted to personally thank you for the workshop you facilitated yesterday. The feedback I have received from all has been very positive. It has made me think about what we, as an agency, need to do better, differently and do for the first time. Thank you once again and I’m sure we will be calling on your services again.”

“May I thank you for the way you facilitated this difficult meeting and for your input into the very positive outcome.”

Reflective Practice, Supervision

Reflection and reflexivity (this latter is about examining what I am bringing to a work situation, perhaps one I’m struggling in – e.g. hopes, fears, assumptions, prejudices, unconscious biases, tiredness…) are about stepping back from the cut and thrust (“the swampy lowlands” – Schön) of day-to-day work and asking 5 Core Reflective Questions we use.

As community workers, social workers and health workers throughout our careers, all of us at Zebra Collective value reflective practice. We hold frequent reflective sessions internally, and offer such input to individuals and organisations on request.

The value of reflection and reflexivity

People who work with people who are in some distress can become depleted, and their practice can drift from their values and what they know is good practice. Reflective sessions are an opportunity to recharge the batteries, to notice (and have others notice, acknowledge and validate) our good practice and current struggles, and to re-engage with our core values. And, where this happens in teams, this is an opportunity for teams to re-engage, reconnect and grow.

Zebra has extensive experience running reflective practice sessions with groups, teams and individuals: some as one-offs, some as large programmes over time, some as ongoing (e.g. monthly) session contracts.

Furthermore, all our workshops – training, development sessions, facilitated team events – have a reflective culture, with plenty of opportunity for participants to consider, discuss, and ask about the implications of the learning for them professionally and personally.

For enquiries or further details please email info@zebra.coop.