(Me leading the Count 6 activity)
In the fields of experiential and environmental education there are many processes that we use in our programming. There is the Group Process: Form-Storm-Norm-Perform-Transform, The Adventure Sequence: Icebreakers-Trust Sequence-Initiatives-Peak Experience, and the Experiential Learning Cycle: Experience-Reflection-Processing-Application to name a few.
I remember when I first began facilitating ropes course programs I had a very formulaic process. I had learned a sequence of games, my trust sequence, a series of initiatives, then onto the high ropes, and then a final debrief. The process worked fairly well. My groups provided good feedback and I felt like I was doing good work. It was not much different when I began running outdoor/environmental education programs. I had learned how to run certain activities, knew my schedule for the program, and knew a certain amount of the local natural history. The length of the program really didn't matter. I would adjust the length of my talks and the length of the activities. And again, I felt that I was doing good work by getting people out into nature, and people gave me good feedback.
I was doing what I thought was good work, and at the sam time I was beginning to feel a little stuck in a routine. I remember hearing the statement from my friend Tom to "Not get attached to how I think things SHOULD look.". It was an evolutionary moment for me. This was combined with reading Stephen Covey's ground breaking book; 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It was the first book I had read that talked about-at least how I interpreted it-the habit of process. And that it was not a clean thing. It might be messy, and a challenge. It was when I received this two gifts that I really began to examine how I was doing things.
It was an internal change. I realized that I was not only a facilitator of other people's process, I was in the process whether I wanted to be or not. I had my own process, and by keeping it formulaic I was limiting possibilities. I made the conscious decision to really trust, and embrace process. I also knew in the back of my head that I could always fall back on the formulas that I knew. I must say that it was an adventure. Not necessarily and easy thing, but it was an adventure and full of learning.
I tried new processing techniques in both the ropes course programs I was running, and in the outdoor educational programs I was running at summer camps. I decided to learn more knots, read more books on teaching, personal development, and adventure education. I also was beginning to help run train the trainer programs for a ropes course company, which provided me with a whole new arena to explore process.
Deciding to be part of the process also entered into my school work at college. I began to look at eduction, and my own educational process, in a different way. I began to bring aspects of my camp knowledge of groups and attitude around play and learning, and my newly found knowledge of adventure education, into my own learning. It was an entertaining and rewarding time. I began exploring how seemingly unrelated topics were actually complimentary.
Now, I will admit there have been times when I have tried to remove myself, or exert control over the process for a variety of reasons. In almost every case, the results of the programs or activities I was leading when I remained "in control" of the process rather than flowing with it, were not as rewarding for me. They may have been good programs for the participants, but for me, it felt dull. Something was missing. That spark. That feeling of being "in" the process, rather than trying to control it.
Now I am not encouraging just throwing activities out there and sitting back and let things go. I am saying to learn more about the processes that you use in your work with your participants, and then trusting that they will work. A frustration I see in new camp staff I work with is that they see seasoned staff doing wonderful things with apparent ease. What they do not see is the work that went into being able to do things with apparent ease. The seasoned staff have a strong foundation from which to work from, and that collection of experiences and knowledge of how things can work, allow more seasoned staff to perform and create with a greater sense of ease .
For example, doing icebreakers/ de-inhibitizers at the beginning of a program serves multiple purposes regardless if you are running an adventure program or an environmental program. You get to physically warmup participants, give some ground rules, set the tone, observe behaviors within the group, and have some fun! Another example is building skills in an intentional manner. Doing at least trust leans and Willow in the Wind before engaging in more dynamic spotting activities.
And having said that, and not being attached to how I think things should be, there are times when you have to rely on your observations, intuition, and the process to guide what you do. You still have to keep your participants safe, but sometimes doing things out of sequence, or spending more time on a specific activity, is exactly what is needed. The group's process, it just that, the group's process, not yours. We are guides on an expedition of experience and learning. And our awareness of the process is a critical component of being a guide.
In this age of trying to control everything, letting go and trusting the process can be difficult. I admit, that it can be a challenge for me at times even after all these years of facilitating. It can also be a challenge if you work with folks who are not as aware of process. Allowing the energy of the group, the activities, and your facilitation/teaching to be free and flow can be a little scary/exciting. and the results can be amazing.
And a final story that I feel goes with this theme. I was listening to an interview with George Lucas on NPR recently about his experiences over the decades in film. One of things that impressed me was when he was talking about the process he went through in the 70's and early 80's when he was making films. For those of you who don't know, that is when the original Star Wars come out. Anyway, Lucas was talking about how back in the 70's he, Spielburg, Coppola, and others would get together and look over each others work and provide feedback. They would look at scripts, and even watch rough cuts of their films together. Can you imagine that happening today in most fields? These folks created some of the biggest movies in history, and they trusted their collaborative process to make things better. That is one of things I really admire in the fields of experiential and environmental education, there is an active movement to share information and skills for the betterment of our programs. So, the next time you are out there with a group, trust the process and enjoy the ride.
No activities this time, but next time there will be several classics with some variations. Until then, enjoy exploring the connections you find, or create, in your life.
Link to Lucas interview:
Please leave comments here or email me at:
And a bit of self promotion, I will be presenting a pre-conference workshop on
Ecological Processing Methods and Models
at the National Challenge Course Practitioners Symposium (NCCPS)
in Boulder, CO on February 24th.
The conference runs from the 24th until the 27th. Here is the link:
I am also presenting workshops on
Ecological Processing Methods and Models and Using Initiatives to Teach Ecological Literacy
at the upcoming Residential Outdoor Environmental Education (ROEE) conference at Camp Galilee in Lake Tahoe, NV.
http://roee.raincloudpub.com/
February 12-15, 2010.
Posts
