I facilitate organizations to better fulfill purpose by:
- Holding space for emergent possibilities
- Designing and running meetings and trainings that are connecting, effective, and lively
- Finding and trusting your group’s wisdom
Library
Over years of helping groups function well, a considerable body of written work has accumulated to support that journey. I post articles, handouts, workshop exercises, and other writings freely for the public, in order to support you and your group’s development. Aside from my own work (and a few guest posts by friends), there are also pointers to resources by others.
- All
- MOST POPULAR
- ARTICLES
- EXERCISES
- HANDOUTS
- Agenda Planning
- Appreciative Inquiry
- Blocks and Concerns
- Committees and Delegation
- Community Building
- Conference Planning
- Conflict Resolution
- Consensus Decision-Making
- Decision Boards
- Equalizing Airtime
- External Resources
- Facilitation
- Feedback
- Formats
- Gift Economy
- Ground Rules
- Notetaking
- Opening Meetings
- Planning and Preparation
- Queries
- Reopening Decisions
- Roles
- Samples
- Teal
- Values
- Visioning
- Voting
Teal Handout
Quick 1-page intro to liberated or "teal" organizations (similar to what's posted on the Overview page).
Advice to Newly Forming Cohousing Groups
Just what it says.
A-B-Q triads
These roleplay scenarios each have 3 roles—A & B (who are in disagreement with each other), and Q (who is trying to help). Based in typical community living situations, some take place at meetings and some not.
Agenda Planning Article
Basic guidance for agenda planning.
Agenda Planning Exercise
Lots of potential items, only one meeting, how do you choose and sequence? For group practice and learning.
Agenda Planning Factors
Questions for screening potential items.
Agenda Prioritization Tool
How to allocate a group’s scarce attention. (Guest post by Ronaye Matthew)
Appreciative Inquiry
Short overview including sample interview.
Committee Formation
Types, requirements, and effective composition.
Community Meetings: Getting Off to a Good Start
Range of possibilities for helping groups get present.
Comparison Chart: Consensus vs. Roberts Rules
Consensus decision-making vs. Robert's Rules of Order majority voting.
Conflict Points
Useful information to keep in mind regarding conflict resolution, key principles and steps.
Consensus Attitudes
Attitudes that help in learning to embody the spirit of consensus. (Guest article by Mayana Ludwig)
Consensus Basics Article
Older overview.
Consensus Decision-Making (from Change Handbook)
Short, distilled overview from The Change Handbook.
Consensus Decision-Making: What, Why, How
More recent overview includes a sample policy groups can adapt. If you only have time to read one piece on consensus, make it this one.
Consensus Flow Chart
Steps in the consensus process.
Consensus Points
Condensed version of basic info, such as how an item moves through the meeting, what helps it work well, and structures (agree/stand aside/block).
Consensus Queries
A set of questions to engage with. If your group can dance with all of them to its satisfaction, chances are high that your consensus process will succeed.
Consensus Types
Tree's "Quick & Dirty" Guide to the Biodiversity of Consensus Decision-Making Processes
Dealing with Conflict
Strategies for dealing with difficulties, including reflection, feedback, third party support, and a straightforward set of steps for approaching conflicted situations.
Decision Boards (and Committee Decisions)
Explains how some communities use simple tools to move smaller decisions out of their main meetings.
Decision-Making in Cohousing Communities
Reports the results of an informal survey on decision-making at cohousing communities, including the use of consensus, voting fallbacks, who is eligible to participate, and some of the tools relied on.
Dynamic Facilitation for Group Transformation
Review of a training course in "Choice-Creating," a mode of facilitation that is especially well suited to dealing with "impossible" problems or people.
Email Guidelines
Suggestions on what to use it for, what not to use it for, and some other things to keep in mind about this nearly ubiquitous communication form.
Eugene Meeting Venue List
Tree's List of Participatory Event Venues in Eugene, Oregon.
External Resources & Links
External resources that Tree likes but did not create.
Facilitation Points
Basic principles, managing open discussions, facilitator's rap, working with blocks and concerns, roles of the facilitator, etc.
Facilitation Primer
This 21-page document covers topics including principles and methods of facilitation, formats, roles in meetings, and more.
Facilitator Role
An over-simplified job description; bulleted list on eight aspects of the role.
Feedback Handout
Things to keep in mind regarding feedback and how we deal with upsets.
Feedback Preference Form
Sample form for group members to fill out.
A Few Basic Process Points for Happy Community Life
Just what it says, excerpted from an conversation in Communities magazine.
Floofy Meetings
Alternative sessions for community-building.
Games for Meeting Up
Personal Scavenger Hunt (American) or Personal Bingo! (Canadian version).
Gift Economy
Description and inspiration for consulting on a "joyful value exchange" basis. (Tree operated this way for over a decade.)
Gifting Circle: A Feedback Process That Feels Good
One example of how to create a container for sharing with honesty and respect. (Guest post by Diana Leafe Christian)
"Green Team" Roleplay
Classic roleplay situation for a nonprofit, facing the dilemma of whether or not to accept a specific large donation.
Ground Rules List
One basic suggested set, and some other possibilities.
Ground Rules Handout
Why, how, and some ideas for ground rules
Group-Building Exercises
Instructions for 35 group games for fun, bonding, or insight.
Handling Inappropriate Blocks in a Consensus Process
Because haven’t you always wondered?
Hiring Members
Advice on what to avoid and how to make it work out well when hiring members as professionals during housing developments.
Holding Space
Brainstorm list on the energetic qualities of gathering presence.
The Importance of Nurturing Dissent in a Consensus Process
Bringing balance to the other side.
Innerwork: Working on Your Issues with Someone (Whether or Not They Come Along)
8 exercises for working out your conflicts with someone without relying on their participation.
Inspiring the Next Stage of Liberation for Intentional Communities
An approach to decision-making that requires consultation rather than consent.
Meeting Formats
Short descriptions of more than two dozen formats suitable for use in meetings. Many alternatives to whole group discussion.
Meeting Preparation Handout
What to attend to before the meeting starts.
Checking for Agreement
Variety of methods for assessing in the moment the level of group agreement about a proposal.
Notetaking Guidelines
What to remember to include when writing meeting proceedings for the record.
Pacing & Transition Scenarios
8 more scenarios for small group roleplays, focused on the theme of practicing pacing and transitions in facilitation.
Possibilities for Transformational Conferences
How to plan events for 50 or more people that are interactive, engaging, and generally fabulous.
Powers of the Facilitator Role
A naming of powers that often come with the role, as a step toward transparency and awareness.
Process Skills Sampler
A few simple exercises culled from various sources.
Process Team Checklist
Advice for groups who are forming a committee to assist with conflict resolution.
Queries during Conflict
Questions for group members to consider when facing an entrenched conflict with significant charge and upset.
Question Practice Scenarios
Community scenarios written as part of a workshop on learning to ask good questions (can be used in other ways, too)
Reopening Decisions
8 possibilities for rules about this and a sample community for each one.
Resources Handout
Quick list of useful group process resources
Roles in Groups
Overview of different types of roles group members play, and exercises for increasing role awareness and flexibility.
Sample Agendas
For meetings of 90-120 min.
Sample Vision Statements
From several communities and other organizations.
Sample Visioning Agenda
The writing of a vision statement from scratch in a 1-day meeting, using an Appreciative Inquiry approach.
Self-Awareness Questions Exercise
Nice quick pairs format.
Send It to Committee
What are they, why use them, how to use them effectively, who should be on them, how to build trust between committees and the rest of the group, and more.
Short Facilitation Challenge Scenarios
Set of challenge scenarios typical of meetings, for small group practice.
Songs for Gathering Groups
Lyrics for songs that bring groups together.
The Special Place of Blocking in Consensus
Diversity of opinion on block functionality.
Strengths & Attributes Worksheet
Tool oriented toward project management, could easily be revised to address other needs.
The Talkers and the Listeners
Concrete ways to deal with one of the most common problems in meetings: balancing participation from more assertive vs. more shy members.
Teal Overview
So what's this "teal" stuff all about anyhow? A short intro.
Teal Resources
Resource Page for an ever-growing list of materials related to "teal" and evolutionary organizations.
The Top 10 Most Common Mistakes in Consensus Process and How to Avoid Them
Just what it says, the short and skinny for those in a hurry.
Values in Consensus
A list of values that underlie consensus decision-making.
Values into Action
Process steps for how to move your values from nice fuzzy statements into real, specific actions with community support.
Visioning Handout
1-page handout covering basics about what a vision statement is and why have one.
Voting Fallbacks Handout
Guidelines for voting fallbacks to consensus.
When Community Land is Privately Owned
Suggestions for how to make this common challenge turn out as well as possible.
When Upset Arises during a Meeting
What goes into making the judgment call about whether or not to go deeper into the emotions, guidance for going forward with it, and how to lay it aside if the answer is no.
Working with Blocks & Concerns
Advice & guidance in condensed format.
Group Works
Why is it that some meetings bring life to your soul, while others leave you wishing you’d never stepped in the room? What happens at the best ones, that makes them productive, fulfilling, sometimes even magic?
In addition to considerable client work, my experience includes founding and stewarding the Group Pattern Language Project, collective nonprofit publisher of Group Works: A Pattern Language for Bringing Life to Meetings and Other Gatherings. This project drew together more than 50 experienced facilitators to distill the core wisdom of healthy group dynamics, resulting in the creation of a 100-card deck. Since publication in 2011, Group Works has been used by thousands of people in dozens of countries to plan events, reflect afterward, assess skills and gaps, problem-solve dilemmas, bring energy and spirit to sessions, and more! Available for free download.
Liberated Organizations (aka “Teal”)
The book Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux currently serves as a major inspiration and influence. Part of a movement toward evolutionary, liberated, or “next stage” organizations, this work is inspiring people around the world to design associations driven by clear purpose, welcoming people’s whole selves, and distributing power and authority to achieve fantastic results.
Clients
In the past two decades, i*ve worked with more than 200 organizations—nonprofits, businesses, government agencies, cooperative living associations, faith congregations, activist troupes, educational institutions, conferences, and assemblages of every sort. Examples include:
Sperry Tree Care (2013-2015)
Family-run business with 20 employees. Led group in looking together at current issues, including business succession and cross-departmental cooperation. Facilitation of bi-weekly management team meetings, monthly family meetings, occasional all-staff sessions.
Organically Grown Company (2015 & 2016)
Developed and led trainings for meeting leaders within a company of 250, attended by all levels from CEO to truck drivers, to increase skill leading all kinds of meetings from shift change to financial review. Assisted in drafting guide to healthy meetings, supported implementation of improved meeting practices.
Unitarian Universalist Church of Vancouver (2013)
Using Appreciative Inquiry and World Cafe methods and the services of a graphic recorder, facilitated full congregation in discernment and selection of priorities to focus on for the next few years. Â
British Columbia, Canada (2009-2011); California (2005-2007)
Students designed and led real meetings on host communities’ toughest issues, supported by coaching and teaching from Tree. In depth training and learning with eight 3-day workshops in each series. Aimed at regional capacity-building among cohousing groups, which are self-managed condo associations of one to three dozen households, run by consensus and sharing the work.
Parkinson’s Resources of Oregon (2011)
Keynote presenter at annual conference of 60+ support group leaders for people with Parkinson’s disease. Led interactive training with table practice to address skills such as supporting people to go deeper and stepping in when someone talks too long.
About Kavana
I feel blessed with a calling in Frederick Buechner’s sense: “Where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” I take pride in being an eclectic and adaptive practitioner, tuning into the group and balancing structure with flexibility. I’m a pragmatic idealist who believes in the power of high-quality conversation to generate collective action for change; i* find following a group’s energy to see where it leads an endless source of learning and growth. Fundamentally, my work is guided by values of curiosity, service, integrity, and love.
