DEALING WITH COMPLEXITY – ONLINE WORKSHOP

Dates: 10 & 12 September 2024
Time: 3-6pm CEST
Location: Zoom
Language: English

This two-session workshop is designed to equip facilitators with the essential skills and strategies needed to navigate and thrive in complex, uncertain, and dynamic environments. Participants will gain a deep understanding of what complexity means in the context of facilitation and learn practical approaches for managing it effectively.

Day 1 will focus on building a foundational understanding of complexity. Participants will explore the nature of complex challenges and discuss various frameworks and approaches for addressing them. They will engage in discussions and exercises that clarify the concept and how it manifests in their work with groups. We will introduce the topic of empathy and Nonviolent communication approach and explore how it can support us in strengthening our own resilience and address complex topics in dialogue, avoiding simplification and polarization.

Day 2 will focus on practical approaches useful in addressing and navigating complexity. Participants will discuss how to create a safer space to hold difficult conversations. They will work with real-life cases and learn hands-on methods on addressing complex topics. That session will allow participants to apply the concepts and strategies discussed in the first session to real-world scenarios, fostering a deeper understanding and practical competence in dealing with complexity. Day 2 also brings some methodological ideas which can be useful in various training settings.

By the end of the workshop, participants will have a solid understanding of complexity in facilitation and be equipped with the tools and strategies needed to support the groups and more effectively manage and thrive in challenging situations.

This workshop covers:

• theoretical approaches on how to understand and address complexity
• how discomfort, complexity and tension can be a benefit of a training 
• empathy and non violent communication approach in dealing with complexity
• ways of dealing with polarisation and simplification
• various methods and practical approaches

You will experience:

• • a good balance between theory and practice delivered in 2 three-hour-long online sessions via Zoom
  • interactive online sessions implemented by experienced facilitators
  • a learning community, with opportunities to exchange ideas and gain feedback from other participants

This workshop is for you if:

• • you are facilitating working with teams and groups
  • you are active in the field of education or personal and professional development
  • you want to get to know different approaches on the topic

This workshop is part of the Facilitator Qualification Course – a 1-year long learning journey that gets you fully equipped as a facilitator knowing how to create democratic learning spaces, to design and facilitate group processes of participation, co-creation and learning.

Facilitators

Bětka Wójcik’s background is in pedagogy and she has worked as an educator and facilitator since 2010. Her topical expertise includes dialogue and empathic communication (NVC), conflict transformation, youth empowerment, civic and non-formal education. She enjoys both online and offline facilitation and she is passionate about creating safe spaces for real exchange and learning together. Working with people and designing methods and trainings brings her often to the state of “flow”. At her community work, she supports and co-creates projects and complex programs which empower young people, changemakers and communities in Poland and Georgia. The dream about creating a world where everybody’s needs matter drives and motivates her to work.

Matthias Haberl enjoys working with complex and relevant topics such as conflict management, power, project management and moderation techniques and the challenges to set up a proper training regarding those issues. He has extensive experience in the field of facilitation and education. He is the co-author of a publication regarding online facilitation for the German Publishing House Waxmann Verlag, the co-creator of the Educational Programme “ENJOY” and the co-author of the Online Plattform “Competendo”, dealing with competency-based learning.

Marta Gawinek – Dagargulia is a born cosmopolitan and lover of diversity, an educator and facilitator for 15 years now with very thorough experience in online facilitation. Her professional passions are lifelong learning, civic education and the development of key competencies for the working environments of tomorrow. She is an experienced project manager and team lead who has created spaces for empowering individuals and communities in Georgia, Central Europe and Germany.