I was falling into the trap again. I agreed on the pattern ‘input followed by conversation’ because of the promise the input (about 45’) would be conversational. It wasn’t, at least not in my understanding. It would have been with little buzz groups engaging the audience. But asking questions is not doing the job.
I promised myself to be more ‘stubborn’ next time I facilitate a learning event. Either the input is short or conversational or we do it the flipped way.
In the teacher trance, we all become attached to explanation and answers, and the surprise of discovery becomes a threat. But discovery is what really imprints learning.
Johnnie Moore
Let’s flip the pattern:
The participants
The flipped way brings participants’ stories and questions to the table first: What they know about the topic; what they experience; what they find challenging. In a first conversation the audience formulates jointly a few key questions to the speaker.
The speaker
The speaker – expert, keynote speaker – is listening first. As resource person she or he is responding to questions and thoughts from the audience. Through this flipped setting the resource person gains a sense of who is sitting in the room and can give her/ his ideas and messages (if necessary) a final turn to really match the participants’ aspirations.
The organizers
The preparation of the workshop’s invitation starts with a clear understanding of what participants bring to the table in terms of experiences and challenges. By reaching out to the participants before the workshop the organizer gains a clearer picture about their expertise, needs and questions. It’s a task of matching/ shaping the organisers intention with participants’ expertise and needs with the resource person’s potentials.
Facilitator
It is long before participants entering the room that I do my job by advising the organizers to design the most stimulating and engaging workshop. As facilitator it is my task to connect participants and to open the space for meaningful conversations.
It is through conversation that knowledge flows directly from person to person, learning takes place, insights are gleaned, connections are made and relationships are built.
David Gurteen
I really want to see and facilitate more flipped inputs. What’s your experience?
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Learning moments 
10/08/2015 at 8:54 am
Hi Nadia, I am curious,I cant’s make sense of your opening remarks 🙂
I agreed on the pattern ‘input followed by conversation’ because of the promise the input (about 45’) would be conversational. It wasn’t, at least not in my understanding. It would have been with little buzz groups engaging the audience. But asking questions is not doing the job.
The process you adopted is not clear to me and you don’t explain why the “input” (what ever that was) was not conversational.
Would love it if you could expand for me 🙂
thanks David
11/08/2015 at 5:05 pm
Dear David,
Thanks for your comment and for helping me to put in words what I really want to express. Lengthy inputs interrupted with few questions are in my view and experience far from conversational. To me plenary inputs interrupted by questions are ‘small scale activators’ because only one person is speaking while 20 are listening. And there is an additional problem with plenary discussions, some love talking while others are silent.
What in my view really engages the audience are short buzz groups people talking in small groups and reflecting what they heard, inquiring a question the speaker throws in. In buzz groups many people are speaking. The room is noisy and filled with many little conversations.
In the flipped way, what I want to see happening from the beginning is 20 people engaged in conversation bringing to the table what they know on the topic at hand and the challenges they are faced with. Only after a first conversation the speaker steps in, with a sense of the group’s expertise and challenges (what he/ she just heard and observed). Based on this he/ she is answering questions and adding thoughts in an input.
What do you think?
Best, Nadia