Tēnā rā koutou katoa… Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou, i runga i ngā āhuatanga o te wā – te puawaitanga o te Koanga me te hokinga mai o Hineraumati, hei whakaohooho i a tātou ki ngā tohu o taiao. Mauriora!
Season’s greetings from Participatory Techniques New Zealand. This newsletter is to keep our clients and Technology of Participation training and facilitation network up to date with events that have occurred in 2019, and to let you know what is coming up for 2020.
2019 Training Highlights
Being a Facilitative Leader: Module 7 course delivered for first time
An important milestone was reached in 2019 with the delivery of Module 7 of the Facilitative Leadership Program (FLP) for the first time in this country, marking the completion of the full suite of Facilitative Leadership Program Modules offered here. As with other Modules, we adapted the standard Technology of Participation (ToP™) content and co-created our design with Tuihana Bosch of Te Mauri Tau. Core to this was the weaving of leadership perspectives from Te Ao Māori (Rangatiratanga and Te Tuakiri o te Tangata) with the ToP™ FLP stances of a facilitative leader.
While Modules 1-3 focus on techniques (what we need to do as facilitators) and Modules 4-6 provide knowledge frameworks (what we need to know), Module 7 addresses our internal stances – or how we have to be as facilitators. This provided for some challenging and searching discussion on what this means in light of our colonial history, conversations which we navigated together with aroha.
Here is what some of the participants said:
- “Kei te koi o te wero whakohooho i te tika me te pono, kia mahi tahi ai ngā mahi whakaora i te ao, i te tangata – he mauri whakaoho.”
- “Hugely beneficial to get Māori perspectives and introduce Māori concepts… and to explore your own style and learning how others’ leadership styles are/ can be so different.”
- “Refreshed my awareness of the power of facilitative approaches. Opened up the potential of more authentic ways of being. Recharged my sense of responsibility to the world.”
- “Gave me new understanding of how to look at leadership and be a leader.”
We mihi to all who participated in the June event, pioneering this Module in its NZ format. And we extend our deep gratitude to Mark Butz from Canberra who once again crossed the moana to support our delivery. Ka mau te wehi!
Beef + Lamb NZ catchment group facilitator training – first course held
In October we delivered another first in facilitation training with our inaugural Facilitating Effective Catchment Groups training for Beef + Lamb NZ. The course brought together 16 people from Southland to Waikato, mostly independent operators working with catchment groups in a range of situations. For this reason, they valued not only the new skills they learned, but also the chance to connect and network with others. As usual, we gave everyone an opportunity to facilitate a session using the ToP™ methods. In this case, we applied the methods to working through the Beef + Lamb NZ 5-step catchment planning process, with all participants taking a role as catchment group participants. Much valuable learning resulted for us as trainers as well as the participants! Richard Parkes from Beef + Lamb NZ, who has attended our training at Te Mauri Tau, was the course organiser and our co-trainer. Congratulations to Beef + Lamb NZ on this positive initiative.
This article is reprinted with thanks from the 11 December newsletter of Participatory Techniques New Zealand.