Doing Being Doing: Recent Episodes
Shalini Menon
Who is a facilitator? How do they become stewards of creative spaces and thoughtful conversations that affect change? In this podcast, we engage with all the dimensions of a facilitator, their doing and being. We explore diverse mediums used in facilitation, unpack how to build an inspiring career pathway and listen to powerful stories of facilitators across the globe. Join us every fortnight to meet a peer who crafts transformational learning experiences for communities, organizations and individuals.
I have never facilitated a group of people with disabilities. Mostly because I never thought I have what it takes and also the deep fear of failing. What if I suddenly realise I am not a great facilitator after all.
In Episode 2, Moses Chowdari, Executive Director of Enable India simplifies what it means to design learning spaces for people with disabilities and keeps it very very real. What struck me the most during the interview is there is no “special formula” - it is just what Enable India calls ‘celebrating the human spirit’.
Practitioners of experiential education, globally, are guided by the work of Kurt Hahn. Hahn suffered severe sunstroke in 1904 which left him permanently disabled and required a long period of recovery in darkened rooms. It is in this period, Hahn shaped his thinking and philosophy around the power of great outdoors and learning by doing.
We met Moses Chowdari, Executive Director, Enable India who is leading the organisation’s strategy and vision to enable not just people with disability but invest in an entire ecosystem that commits to equal opportunities.
Have you ever “second guessed” yourself when it comes to training people with disabilities? Do leave us your comments on our social media - linkedin and instagram.
In part 2, we continue our conversation with Gagan Sethi and engage with 5 questions that our listeners left us on social media. Join Doing Being Doing on linkedin and instagram for more conversations. In the previous episode, Gagan sets the context - he says he is an educator, a political one. It is key for educators to ask political questions and also understand the politics of their constituency. Through this conversation, we also unpack the politics and identity of the facilitator and how it also impacts our ability to ask the right question and steer conversations for reflections. He says a facilitator’s job is to create a space where people can have honest conversations first with themselves, and then with others.
Gagan Sethi, founder member, former Executive Director and Managing Trustee of Jan Vikas, a leading NGO based in Ahmedabad has a trail of accomplishments, distinguishing him as a grassroots activist and co-creator of quite a number of institutions - a few of which have gained national and international stature. Established in 1977 by Professor Contractor and Gagan Sethi, Jan Vikas has since expanded its institutional field manifold but most importantly positioned inclusive perspectives through a broad canvas of relationships, and collaborations. Many around Gagan Sethi would say that he excels in strategic thinking. He has a canny way of sensing political templates in institutional fields and interesting ways of analyzing organisational issues for interventions. His perspectives in organisational development, which appear to stem from insights rather than the run of the mill managerial versions - stand quite apart from the mainstream approaches.
In part 2 of Episode 11, Prerna tells us that while one need not be a lawyer to become a POSH trainer, you need to be well versed with the law.
There are ample resources available online that will help you interpret not just the law but also various case judgement that have helped shape our understanding of the law. For e.g., one can follow Live Law and Bar and Bench for regular updates on legal judgement related to sexual harassment.
With regards to certification, at the moment, there is no central body that provides certification on POSH. However, there are many organisations that provide certificate courses on POSH, including the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and Institute of Legal and Management Studies.
Join us as we engage with the politics of being a POSH trainer - the unlimited possibilities, a fast growing community and the emotional readiness to walk this path.
In this episode, we are talking to Prerna Goel Chatterjee who has been working as a POSH Consultant and Advisor since 2015.
Her work includes strengthening organisations existing policy on prevention of sexual harassment at workplace in compliance with the law; help create a gender-neutral POSH policy; support organisations to comply with POSH requirements as mandated by the Act; provide support in setting up of Internal Committee; and conduct training for Internal Committee members as well as employee awareness sessions with a focus on implications on POSH in the new normal. Currently, she is also the Vice President of Maharashtra Anti Sexual Harassment Council, WICCI (Women's Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry).
In this episode we will uncover who is a POSH Trainer, what do they do and how they upskill themselves
In part 2, we return with Sarabjit to deepen our understanding of personal mastery - how do we design such journeys. Sarabjit describes Personal Mastery as both a science and an art, one that is an endless pursuit. A moving target! It is about looking into oneself from multiple facets. With one’s own and other’s perspective to gain a fuller picture. The idea behind all entendido, an organization he started, is to create opportunities for mirroring. If there was a mirror that did not reflect your external image, however, projected parts of your character, would you want to stand in front of it? That’s what an entendido experience is designed to do across modalities.
Sarabjit Singh Walia has been an experiential educator, facilitator, counsellor for over 2 decades. He has worked with young adults from across the world with most of his work experience in USA, Australia & India. He has worked with more than 10,000 young adults as well as educators across the world.
In this episode, we talk to Sarabjit about his early days as an adventure educator and his journey towards understanding and designing learning journeys for clients. We attempt to understand what personal mastery is and what does the pursuit of such journeys entail.
Part 2 of Episode 9, we dive deeper with Iqbal on her experiences inside school systems in Punjab, India. A grounding and very real narration of the struggles and triumphs of designing and facilitation sessions with young boys and girls, amidst giggles, gossip and genuine concerns. Do catch Iqbal on her podcast “Hai Yeh Jawaani” for more.
Meet Iqbal Judge, an educator based in Punjab, India. She has worked extensively with schools and teachers attempting to break stigma around menstrual and reproductive health, and engage young people in conversations around sexuality. We had a chance to uncover her journey as she took these historically “taboo” conversations into classrooms on a conservative, traditional society. Iqbal also runs her own Podcast called “Hai Yeh Jawaani” - it is filled with stories that role models how to have uncomfortable conversations with young people, safely and meaningfully.
In part 2, we uncover what a breakthrough moment is and how facilitators design for those moments. Gwyn shares the ‘Arch of transformation’ , a very interesting design tool that allows trainers and facilitators to pay attention to the different stages of engagement and learning. We found this conversation abundant in real life examples that Gwyn shares in response to our questions. We also talk about COVID 19, online facilitation and what it means for a facilitator’s doing and being. Personal Website www.gwynwansbrough.com
In this episode we talk to Gwyn who has extensively worked on teacher capacity building and youth development. Gwyn Wansbrough is an international facilitator, learning experience designer, and course creator. She focuses on empowering educators and team leaders with the skills to make learning more creative, engaging, and human. She specialises in ways to create learning experiences that lead to breakthroughs. Gwyn holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University. She recently stepped down as Executive Director of global facilitation training organization, Partners for Youth Empowerment, scaling programs to over 15k educators and team leaders in 15 countries. She has collaborated with organizations and schools around the world including the Ashoka Foundation, WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education), private foundations, departments of education, and universities. She publishes a weekly newsletter on creativity, facilitation, and learning called The Quest, and she launched an online cohort-based course in October called Breakthrough Facilitation for professionals who lead virtual groups. Personal Website www.gwynwansbrough.com
Be an ally, not a voice over. Our guest Divas Vats, Community Worker and Acumen Fellow responds to our questions around facilitating and designing training for historically marginalized communities. We engage with our dilemmas, anxieties as we understand what it takes to facilitate a room with power differentials.
What does solidarity as a facilitator mean? What does being an ally mean? If one is not from a marginalized community, then can one facilitate such a group? We asked tons of questions in this episode, and Divas responds generously. Join us in our attempt to build a more informed view on working with marginalized communities, messing things up and learning from it.
Be an ally, not a voice over. Our guest Divas Vats, Community Worker and Acumen Fellow responds to our questions around facilitating and designing training for historically marginalized communities. We engage with our dilemmas, anxieties as we understand what it takes to facilitate a room with power differentials.
What does solidarity as a facilitator mean? What does being an ally mean? If one is not from a marginalized community, then can one facilitate such a group? We asked tons of questions in this episode, and Divas responds generously. Join us in our attempt to build a more informed view on working with marginalized communities, messing things up and learning from it.
Development sector or non profit sector remains an unexplored territory for most facilitators and trainers - a space to create social impact. Increasingly, in our network we have found great examples of people shaping a fulfilling career in social impact spaces that are not just limited to activism.
If you have often wondered how could you facilitate while solving complex social problems around us, our guest Arjun Shashidhar, busts some myths, shares fun stories and tells us there is no formula. ‘Schooled by randomness’ is an episode that celebrates what ambiguity and lack of a formula presents - the opportunity to innovate, be creative and take risks. Every person you meet is an opportunity and offers a possibility for a new perspective.
Through this conversation, Arjun shares his journey in social impact spaces and everything he learnt from it - all by chance. He brings with him humor and delightful stories from his days of being a radio jockey.
Development sector or non profit sector remains an unexplored territory for most facilitators and trainers - a space to create social impact. Increasingly, in our network we have found great examples of people shaping a fulfilling career in social impact spaces that are not just limited to activism.
If you have often wondered how could you facilitate while solving complex social problems around us, our guest Arjun Shashidhar, busts some myths, shares fun stories and tells us there is no formula. ‘Schooled by randomness’ is an episode that celebrates what ambiguity and lack of a formula presents - the opportunity to innovate, be creative and take risks. Every person you meet is an opportunity and offers a possibility for a new perspective.
Through this conversation, Arjun shares his journey in social impact spaces and everything he learnt from it - all by chance. He brings with him humor and delightful stories from his days of being a radio jockey.
How does being a man or a woman shape our facilitation? Does it affect our doing and being?
In this episode, we uncover what feminism looks like in the practice of facilitation. How does it liberate us from confining & rigid structures that we may have inherited from our family and our society?
This episode is also our tribute to the incredibly fearless feminist leader - Kamla Bhasin, who left us a few months earlier. Our hope is we can support our listeners - men, women and those who don’t relate to either - to find a perspective that feminism empowers everyone who has been affected by oppressive, patriarchal structures & systems.
If you work with marginalised communities and intersectional identities, or are interested to begin work with them, this episode is a good primer. If you are curious about working with collectives - women, tribes and many other invisible, vulnerable communities - and want to understand the connection between feminism, facilitation and movement building, do listen to this episode. We hope you find a perspective that equips you to shape your doing and being, in exactly the way you want to.
How does being a man or a woman shape our facilitation? Does it affect our doing and being?
In this episode, we uncover what feminism looks like in the practice of facilitation. How does it liberate us from confining & rigid structures that we may have inherited from our family and our society?
This episode is also our tribute to the incredibly fearless feminist leader - Kamla Bhasin, who left us a few months earlier. Our hope is we can support our listeners - men, women and those who don’t relate to either - to find a perspective that feminism empowers everyone who has been affected by oppressive, patriarchal structures & systems.
If you work with marginalised communities and intersectional identities, or are interested to begin work with them, this episode is a good primer. If you are curious about working with collectives - women, tribes and many other invisible, vulnerable communities - and want to understand the connection between feminism, facilitation and movement building, do listen to this episode. We hope you find a perspective that equips you to shape your doing and being, in exactly the way you want to.
This episode is for everyone who has ever wondered how change happens and more importantly, what does being a facilitator mean in social impact spaces. With Danny, we explore what would the analysis of power mean, how could that shape people’s understanding of the world and influence their changemaking journey.
Danny brings humor and incredible lightness to what is a very complex conversation around systems change, the power of the collective and designing empowerment journeys.
If you are a facilitator who wants to understand what an empowerment journey is and have been curious about how people could step into power, to dismantle powerful systems and groups, do give this a listen and leave us a comment on our social media handles.
(Trigger Warning: Please note that this episode of the podcast contains a small part that addresses mental health issues and suicide. Some people may find this disturbing. If you want to avoid this content, do skip from 10:31 till 11:49 of this episode. Listener discretion is advised.)
A lot of training and organization level strategies have begun to put gender equity and inclusion at the centre of their work. We are beginning to see a rise in opportunities for facilitation that perhaps didn’t exist or were negligible a decade ago. There are more POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace) trainers, DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) practitioners seem to be more visible and a lot more trainers stepping into territories of gender equity and LGBTQIA activism.
In our third episode, we explore gender fluidity and queerness in learning spaces with our guest Anthony Chettri. As a 21st century facilitator, how do we bring fluidity in learning spaces, embracing the feminine and masculine of our own selves, thereby extending fluid and sensitive spaces for our clients. The big question is how do we do this when working in socio-cultural contexts where we are yet to fully understand and embrace members of the LGBTQIA spectrum.
Anthony brings a whole lot of love, stories and questions to challenge our assumptions and help us become kinder and more aware in our facilitation practice. Perhaps, kindness & awareness is not enough… but with this episode we are committing to start somewhere. We are staring with the question, “How do I become a gender fluid facilitator?
How does one become a facilitator?
We unpack this question to discover facilitation cannot be taught. Yowza! It is really through experience, self enquiry, peer/self feedback that one becomes facilitator - not just to facilitate workshops but to explore one's own self. Mastery is so deeply rooted in one's relationship with self, therefore ability to connect with people around.
While Facilitation cannot be taught, says Vishwas, we can learn the art of processing - which means asking sharp questions that can enable reflection and thinking. So in this episode, Vishwas breaks down what Simon Priest originally wrote as "10 commandments of adventure programming". We believe those commandments are applicable in all spaces and contexts and can really guide your design and decision making as you craft learning experiences for your audience. To read more about the 10 commandments and the PIES model, please follow us on Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook - we will update details on each page.
More about Vishwas & Experiential Leadership Institute at: https://www.experiential.institute/deep
Our first episode - 'Holding Space' is where we interview Nadia Chaney. Nadia is a multi-disciplinary artist, community arts facilitator and facilitation trainer. She is known for her ability to clarify and simplify complex concepts, to work joyfully with participant resistance and challenging dynamics, to engage powerful diversity and inclusion practices, and for her creative and bold arts-based group process design. She is the founder of The Time Zone Research Lab (community arts-based research into the nature of Time) and Toolsi (on demand facilitation training).
More about Nadia Chaney:
www.nadiachaney.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadia-chaney-59637021/
https://www.instagram.com/eternalflux_/
Link to Toolsi: https://toolsi.passion.io