Collaboration in conflict: Convergent Facilitation
From our training collective cousins, Navigate and Tripod:
Finding Collaboration in Conflict: Exploring Convergent Facilitation as a process for making difficult decisions in groups
Would you like to learn how to facilitate groups that are stuck in disagreement to move forwards?
Do you want to better support groups to come up with decisions that work for everyone?
In this 3-day training, we will be exploring a process called Convergent Facilitation and learning how to facilitate effective collaborative decision-making. Convergent Facilitation is a method for bringing a group to decisions that everyone supports, by going into the disagreement and finding a way forward that includes what really matters to everyone involved.
Where and when
Dates: Thursday evening 28th February – Sunday 3rd March 2019
Timings:
Thursday 6.30pm arrival for 7pm start – 9pm
Friday 10am – 5.30pm
Saturday 10am – 5.30pm
Sunday 10am – 4pm
Location
The training will be held at a wheelchair accessible venue in central Edinburgh. We will confirm the venue closer to the date.
Who is this for?
This workshop is for people who are actively involved in facilitating
groups working towards social and environmental justice. We would also
like to hear from you if you’re just starting your journey as a
facilitator but have a clear context to apply your learning.
If you aren’t sure if this workshop is for you, please get in touch and we can talk about it.
What is Convergent Facilitation?
Convergent Facilitation is a model developed through practical
engagement with groups and organisations over many years by Miki
Kashtan, a facilitator, trainer and author. As well as being a specific
decision-making model, it offers principles and practices that can be
used in facilitation and communication in lots of different situations,
and can be applied to other processes (including Consensus Decision
Making and Mediation).
You can find out more about the process by watching this short Youtube interview with Miki Kashtan or by reading this summary here.
Learning goals
This training will be focused on learning through experience and
practice, supported by a clear map to make sense of the process.
In the training, you will:
* Learn and practice Convergent Facilitation, a process for bringing
groups that are stuck in disagreement to a way forward that everyone can
support
* Learn and practice a range of key facilitation principles and skills
from Convergent Facilitation that can be applied to facilitation in many
contexts
* Gain confidence and trust in your ability to hold and facilitate
groups that are polarised or experiencing tension or disagreement
* Explore some options for handling complex power dynamics and moments
of conflict and emotional intensity in groups and supporting the group
get on with what it’s come together for
* Be part of a temporary supportive ‘learning lab’ where we can experiment and try things out together
Practical details:
– The venue will be wheelchair accessible and easily reachable by public transport.
– We will provide hot drinks and snacks. You should bring your own lunch.
– If you are travelling from further afield for the training and require
accommodation, please get in touch. We’ll do our best to find you a bed
or crash space accommodation.
– We are planning an evening social on either Friday or Saturday evening – details to be confirmed!
– Detailed practical information will be sent once participants are confirmed.
Cost
We operate a sliding scale for participating in our workshops:
Individuals from funded organisations, larger charities & NGOs with a training budget: £400
Individuals from smaller charities and NGOs with very limited funds: £200
Waged individuals: £100
Students and unwaged individuals: £50
If you can afford to pay more it allows us to offer more spaces for those who cannot.
If cost would be prohibitive to your participation, please get in contact to see about arranging a subsidised or free place. We want our workshops to be accessible to everyone.
This training is jointly organised by Tripod: Training for Social Action and Navigate Coop. Part of the costs of this training are generously covered by Alert Fonds.
How to apply:
Fill out this questionnaire by 14th January 2019. We will confirm places by 22nd January 2019.
About the trainers:
Paul Kahawatte
I work for Navigate as a mediator, facilitator and trainer. My work is
grounded in my experience of studying and applying the principles of
Convergent Facilitation, Restorative Circles, Nonviolent Communication
and Community Mediation. I’ve been exploring these and related processes
over the past 9 years, and I’m passionate about drawing on them to
support restorative and collaborative systems and processes in
empowering social change. I see the ways we engage with conflict, share
power, make decisions and work together as central to unleashing the
potential of our movements, and I believe better ways of doing these
things are fundamental to a world that works for everyone.
Kathryn Tulip
I’ve campaigned on a wide range of social and environmental justice issues for more than 30 years and have been offering training and facilitation to grassroots groups with Seeds for Change and now with Navigate for 14 years. I’m continuously re-inspired in this work by the commitment and creativity of the people that we work with. My way of working is influenced by Training for Change, the field of Process Work, the work of NVC and conflict facilitator Miki Kashtan and my Buddhist practice. I’m passionate about supporting groups working for social and environmental justice to be as effective as they can be in achieving their goals. I believe this can be achieved through working collaboratively, communicating effectively, attending to the power dynamics in the group, addressing conflict, applying an anti-oppression lens to their work and valuing sustainability so that together they can create a thriving, effective and resilient group.
See previous Rhizome blog posts about Convergent Facilitation from 2016 –
A new approach to deciding difficult issues: Convergent Facilitation