The class meets all day Friday and a half-day on Saturday. The first day covers the Art of Participatory Leadership, the role of a facilitator, and team/group dynamics. The second half-day covers how to navigate group and individual conflicts, manage meetings, and how to facilitate strategic planning processes. This class is designed to be interactive with careful consideration of the diverse and collective interests of the participants. The class design allows for different cognitive learning styles, for the special and complex challenges of cross-cultural learning, and for collegial sharing.
This class includes lectures, case studies, a panel discussion, large-group and small-group discussions, and problem-solving exercises. At the end of the class participants will be asked to write a final paper incorporating what they learned during the seminar. Options for the final paper include:
Case Summary Paper. This paper demonstrates the student's experience with facilitation and/or strategies for future facilitation.
Investigative Paper. This paper investigates a topic related to facilitation. This paper should include a literature review and practitioner tools related to the topic.
Observation and Analysis Paper. This paper involves: (1) observing a facilitated forum in the community (retreat, strategic planning session, public meeting, etc.); (2) a description and analysis of the session; (3) recommended tools and strategies for improvement.
The final paper is due Monday, July 10.