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A picture is not only worth a thousand words but it can also elicit a thousand words. As an audio-visual anthropologist and digital storyteller, Darcy Alexandra has studied the relationship between text and pictures for more than 10 years. She employs audio-visual production like photo and video documentation and digital storytelling as a means of participatory inquiry with diverse research partners. In an SDC Lunch & Learn she encouraged participants to explore new ways to look at and use images.

By Natalie Frei

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This blog post draws a colorful picture of what it means to be the facilitator. A facilitator has many roles to play before, during and after a workshop or learning event. But what are these roles? And how do we as facilitators see ourselves? During a Lunch & Learn event a group of facilitators reflected these questions in a visual way and uncovered a series of interesting metaphors. 

By Jany Barraut and Nadia von Holzen (more…)

The SDC Learning & Networking Blog is about sharing and learning. Every speaker and participant at the 2015 Leaders Forum wanted to both share and learn beyond the forum’s rapid-fire 15 minute presentation format. Sharing and learning require a degree of courage and persistence. At the outset of the dialogue, Doris Leuthard and Yolanda Kakabadse explicitly instructed all participants to discard bashfulness and “Be a pain” to senior speakers and officials during breaks. This open invitation to debate was enthusiastically accepted and insight-fuelled discussions coursed throughout the corridors during breaks.

By Lawrence McGrath, Institute for Media and Communications Management of the University of St. Gallen (more…)

With facilitators it is the same as with dancers or hosts: Intensive preparation is crucial for the final result. As facilitator I see myself in the role of steward or host, as the one who ensures the workshop is a welcoming place, invites participants to connect and enter into conversation and observes attentively the evolving process.

 Nadia von Holzen, SDC

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… or do you feel like a monument, a tourist guide, a gardener, a porter when you are acting as a facilitator? What is your preferred metaphor? I am going to explain why I like the metaphor “a good facilitator is like a dancer on the stage” and why I think it is really helpful to better understand the own role at a given moment of a facilitation process.

Ernst Bolliger, Agridea

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Building up a network and keeping it alive is like lighting a fire and keeping it burning! This article is the second of a series of contributions in which we share experiences and ideas on how to use metaphoric language in facilitation.

By Corinne Sprecher, Agridea 

 Fire the element of excitement, motivation, dynamics and energy (more…)

When our thinking and solution finding gets stuck we feel that some “outside the box thinking” could bring us inspiration and insights.

By Nadia von Holzen, SDC

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With „Creating images in mind and memory“ we start a new blog series. We reflect what images and metaphors can do. We promote that images and metaphors belong to every facilitator’s toolbox. (more…)