Process: Infoco minutes: 2013-07-09

Agenda:

Infoco (facilitators' group)
7/9/2013
6:45-8pm
Present: Michael P, Jillian, Elph, Amy H

Agenda
Checkins
Next Community Meeting
Next work season
Next infoco meeting
Laird training document for discussion - levels of the conversation

Next Community Meeting

Willie offered to do a refresher about online community resources. We do
have a lot of new folks and folks who may not use all the electronic
resources even if they have lived here a long time - pretty much all of us
use some things and not others!

How about we do a semi-alternative meeting focused on GO resources - our
electronic resources but others too.

- refresher on our electronic resources - Willie
- TV - does ANYone know how to use it? Jeff C?
- recycling - what goes where, in rolloff and bicycle sheds, reminder that
you can recycle batteries, styrofoam, lids, etc - Hermann
- compost - what can go in it or not - Catherine

Ask Catherine if there should still be a new member welcome for Cindy, and
if she'd be available to do a compost refresher info/Q&A at the monday
meeting. Also if she has a sense of which GO resources are the most
confusing for new people.

Jillian will call Jeff and see if he could do a 10 minute demo on how to
use the TV system.

Jillian will email Willie and ask him how much time he'd like.

Amy will check in with Hermann and Catherine.

We could probably meet in the Game Room, willie can use projector.

Jillian has plenty of chocolate to bring, courtesy of Becky H.


Next work season

Jillian has emailed facilitators, will report back if she doesn't have
enough, still waiting to hear from Sarah and Alicia.
Michael would like to continue as facil in training. Process did not have
anyone else waiting to do that as far as we know.


Next meeting

Next infoco meeting, 2nd Tuesday is August 13, 6:45 at unit 18.

Laird training, Levels of the Conversation (handout content is at end of
minutes)

Nine layers of the "onion", a very useful way of laying it out, how to
think about it.

Do you have to be intimately familiar with the group to be able to do this,
re level 5, what is not being said?

No. People often give physical or verbal hints about when they're disturbed
about something, body language, even if not speaking. Outside facilitator
can sometimes be really good because not burdened with too much knowledge
of peoples' patterns, not coming in with any assumptions about people.

When you hear things being repeated, you can put things together and state
the agreements, show the group where they are already in agreement, that
helps move things - level 8 very crucial.

If its a big clump of stuff you're trying to move forward on, you can break
it down in to little pieces, identify what we have agreement on, and that
feels good to the group to see the progress made.

This reminded me of the Lara method - for me its helpful to have an
acronym. I wouldn't remember 8 levels but I might remember acronyms.

facilitation handout content follows.

Minutes:

Weekend VIII • Levels of the Conversation

As should be clear by now (it is, after all, Weekend VII), the vast
majority of the facilitator’s time is spent working conversations. (Dealing
with emotional/energetic undercurrents is an important skill, but it’s only
a tiny fraction of your time on duty.) So let’s think a bit more deeply
about what’s going on in a conversation…

I invite you to think of each conversation as an onion, which we’ll now
proceed to peel:

First Layer: What was said?

It is absolutely necessary for you to hear what people are saying
accurately. While this is generally relatively straight forward, you will
undoubtedly encounter individuals whose style, diction, vocabulary, and/or
organization of information are such that you will have to work very hard
to understand what they’re saying.

Second Layer: How to restate viewpoints concisely?

While not always needed, the skilled facil can offer contact statements on
demand, indicating to the speaker’s satisfaction that they have been heard
(at least by the facil). Do not fail to note the adverb “concisely.” There
is a Mark Twain anecdote which applies here: he once apologized to someone
he’d written to about the length of his correspondence by saying he was
sorry, but he didn’t have time to write it any shorter. Brevity is not just
the soul of wit; it is the heart of attention.

Third Layer: Where are we at?

The facil should always know where the group is at in the conversation
(what has been said collectively, not just individually) and where it is at
in the process. The essential skills here are the ability to summarize
accurately and plainly, and the ability to track and make plain the process.

Fourth Layer: How to connect statements one to another?

As a facil you need to see the aspects of commonality (especially when
others do not) and weave them into a fabric which can, ultimately, sustain
agreement. You need to learn tosee the links between statements.

Fifth Layer: What is not being said?

You need to develop the capacity to step back from what is happening and
ask if there are any ghosts in the room—obvious questions that are not
being asked or spoken to. Invite these unspoken ones to join the party.

Sixth Layer: Where does the group need to work?

This is a complex question which combines “Where is there confusion?” with
“Where is there energy to explore for agreement?” It is the facilitator’s
job to steer the group productively, which involves both what to look at
and how to look at it. Often it is a matter of posing the right questions,
and in the right sequence.

Seventh Layer: Where is the conversation headed?

The skilled facil will learn to look ahead of the curve and steer the group
away from dead ends and unnecessary dangers. Part of this is time
management (don’t go where you cannot gracefully stop or return in the time
available), part of it is understanding the pitfalls of the selected path
(assessing the potential for burying the axles instead of working out of
trouble), and part of it is knowing the capacity of the group (not leading
the halt and the lame into heavy traffic, where stamina and agility will be
needed to make it through safely). When this skill is practiced well, mtgs
are experienced as easier and lighter because the facil has chosen a better
path, and heroic extractions are not needed.

Eighth Layer: What agreement is possible?

All along, the skilled facil is thinking about how the weavings of the
Fourth Level can produce a durable fabric that will hold an agreement about
what to do with the issue at hand. How can the agreement be framed such
that everyone can identify with it and support its moving forward? The
skilled facil has a broad understanding of what “product” and “agreement”
can look like. Sometimes it is a policy; sometimes an action; sometimes a
process; sometimes an assignment; sometimes a pause.

Ninth Layer: What remains and where will it land?

Often, the group has not tied up a topic with a ribbon and bow. In those
times, the skilled facil makes sure that the next steps are identified and
some one or some cmtee has been identified as the implementors or shepherds
of those steps. You need to think holistically about all the pieces that
comprise a safe landing and make sure that none are forgotten.
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