POWER DYNAMICS IN ONLINE FACILITATION

Date: 27 April
Time: 3-6pm CEST
Location: Zoom
Language: English

Power exists in many relations and forms in online facilitation. Power dynamics take shape within the team of trainers, between facilitators and participants, or within a group of participants. The reasons behind are manifold, some originate in the explicit roles that are shared (e.g. facilitator vs. participant), some depend on the technical circumstances (e.g. whose connection is good enough to join with a webcam) or other on external factors (are children at home, is a person participating from a bus, or sitting in a park). Again, others simply mirror the society we are living in, which gives certain aspects of our identity more weight and power than others (e.g. gender balance, age, people with special needs, “class” or educational background, and so on).

The Austrian scholar Paul Watzlawick reminds us that facilitation is a way of communication, where one person might have more power than the other. How do we deal as facilitators with the power we have in online facilitation? Which tools and methods do we have, to enable and empower participants to act self-responsibly and take over responsibility for the process?

In this three-hour workshop we will together learn about power structures and about our position in those structures while facilitating online. We will encounter and discuss different suggestions about how to concretely deal with power inequalities in online settings. These are, for example, based on classic mediation techniques, the Bezavata methodology or the systemic consensing approach. In this participatory workshop we will also provide the space for peer-to-peer learning and exchange of your ideas on how to approach the topic of power in online encounters.

This training covers…

• how to establish an inclusive work climate online
• an optimal space for discussion
• how to manage conflict situations and find decisions which cover the needs of the involved parties
• how to analyze my position of power within my team and its impact on my interpersonal relationships
• how to rebalance the power dynamics during online facilitation
• concrete tools to identify and react to power dynamics
• skills and methods for appropriate interventions
• further readings, movies and links for diving deeper into the topic

You will experience…

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

This training fits you if…

• you enjoy exploring and practicing facilitation of group processes online
• you consider power dynamics as a crucial point of good group dynamics
• you look for methods to facilitate in a more inclusive way online
• you are a facilitator or teacher in formal and/or non-formal education interested in or familiar with non-formal methods and relevant approaches
• you are facilitating online sessions and need new ideas for involvement of participants
• you are interested in tools and methods regarding conflicts and power dynamics you can use in online facilitation
• you want to connect with other facilitators, project managers and educators to exchange and learn from each other

This workshop is developed in the frame of ENJOY – Online facilitation journey in cooperation with horizontal school. ENJOY is a structure that supports NGOs, companies, administrations and individuals to transfer their strategies, meetings, workshops and activities into the digital world.

Your facilitators…

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 connected since 2001 to the Theodor Heuss Kolleg, facilitated various formats for MitOst and other organisations in the field of civil society, for universities and companies. Matthias will bring to the table his background as the project manager for the Austrian development organisation “Südwind” and as a freelance trainer, facilitator and 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).

Farouk Bahri is passionate about training engineering and strategic consulting. He is a facilitator and consultant in the field of crisis communication for multinationals and NGOs specialized in the field of social reconciliation around public or public-private partnership projects. While hosting workshops around non-formal education and intercultural approaches at the international level, he is locally a project manager and university researcher in educational sciences at the University of Tunis, engaged in the reform and the modernization of the Tunisian education system. He specializes in the development of collaborative pedagogical approaches and as the co-creator of ENJOY, he enjoys imagining and designing meaningful and playful formats in the online world. As a cultural activist, wishing to enhance the historical heritage of his country, Farouk Bahri is the author of the epic saga “Althiburos”.