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| L&T's Leadership Development Academy |
I spent a weekend a few days ago in a lovely campus in the hilly town of Lonavala attending one of the most beautiful conferences that I have ever attended in my official avatar. Organised by a bunch of professionals who call themselves "facilitators", the two day event lived up to the several definitions that go for the work of facilitation. For the uninitiated, facilitation involves a highly structured process in which the facilitator guides the participants through a series of pre-defined steps to arrive at a result that is created, understood and accepted by all participants.
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| A session in progress |
The process of Facilitation, one of the pillars of the Conference, was evident through all the activities that were planned. The fact that each of the sessions was designed as a "Facilitated Process" was in itself truly amazing and the oft repeated mantra, "trust the process", came alive in every one of the sessions - big or small group based - that I attended. Right from the start, whether it was a moment of silence or the charming introduction of the conference and the attendees, the power of effective facilitation was in evidence.
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| Another group discussion |
The conference was without a dull moment for me. In addition to bumping into new faces all the time, the sessions were designed in such a way that the engagement levels were high and everyone got an opportunity to participate in some way or the other, if they chose to. Besides, no two activities or sessions used the same method, bringing in variety and newness to the proceedings. The organisers did full justice to the second pillar of the conference, Engagement.
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| Fun and camaraderie all over |
The event itself was a confluence of 150+ seasoned, budding and curious facilitation practitioners from across India and a few from outside too. The sense of Community, another pillar of the Conference, among the attendees was equally in evidence. In the real world most of the organisers and participants at the conference are competitors, vying for the same business. However, there was none of that competitiveness or one-upmanship on obvious display at the conference. There was an open sharing of methods, techniques and ideas throughout the sessions and the learning quotient was really very high.
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| Using visual graphics to tell a story! |
How do facilitators who work so much with paper even think of making a conference eco-friendly? Well, ask the organizers of this one. With a delegate kit that had many sustainable ideas to activities that focused on Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, the green message in the conference and in small measure, for our lives, was loud and clear.
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| Colourful tools for facilitation |
Most professional conferences are platforms for networking and business development. I stay away from most conferences for that reason. For the largest part, this conference was "pure" in that there was no overt attempts at getting connected to get business, which for me was a big positive. Also, most conferences offer little learning but this one was very different. In line with the conference objective of Engaging Hearts and Minds, this well designed and neatly executed event left me energized and happy, eager for more.
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| Reason for my being at the Conference |
For me, the lasting sentiment from the conference could be summed up as a definition of facilitation, in the words of Viv McWaters:
Let go of control
Step away from everyday
Discover the new
Pictures courtesy: Krishna Prasad, Ford
