108 - From frustrated leader to impactful facilitator with Bjarne Holmes

workshops work

What can educators and facilitators learn from each other to benefit their practice? And where do the two crossover?

These are wide-ranging questions and the kind that open up rabbit holes of complexity… but this is exactly why I wanted to explore them with Bjarne Holmes.

Bjarne is a Professor of Psychology at Champlain College, a relationships expert, and a researcher for the remote video conferencing tool InSpace. His experience of both facilitation and education, with the added factor of developing a remote learning tool, made him the perfect person to explore this topic.

Find out about:

• Identifying the microcultures of each individual workshop and lesson
• The perils of overpreparing and how to balance our need for safety with the group’s need for self-determination
• The power in peer learning and handing participants and learners the reins
• Why experiential education should be our priority and why the lecture format is the fastest way to lose a room
• Exploring collective consciousness and group intelligence
• The merits of online, asynchronous learning (and its drawbacks)

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Questions and Answers

[01:13] When did you start calling yourself a facilitator – do you at all?

[03:48] Do you find yourself applying the same skills in teaching as you did in mountaineering?

[06:53] When participants are key to the success of a workshop, does that remove the concept of a ‘leader’?

[09:45] How did you get rid of your ego?

[10:49] How do you create learning experiences for your students?

[13:03] Why do people overprepare?

[18:25] How can educators challenge the default status of being on a pedestal and breaking the concept of ‘the person teaching and the people learning’?

[24:06] Is it the educator or the student’s responsibility if a student zones out?

[29:45] You mentioned that your classes take breaks every 20 minutes?

[30:51] Does the fact we talk about collaboration, rather than lecturing, show that our education system has developed recently?

[38:26] What have you learned from your research into relationships that helped you become a better educator and facilitator?

[42:13] What makes a workshop fail?

[43:06] Is it easier to facilitate experiential learning in an online environment?

[56:58] Do you think teachers are hesitant to adopt new tools because they don’t want to risk ‘not knowing’?

[01:02:41] Can we create digital tools that enhance learning experiences, rather than just replicate them?

[01:07:55] What is the one thing you would like listeners to take away from this episode?

Links

Bjarne's Profile
InSpace

Bjane’s podcast: Relationship Matters

Connect to Bjarne:

LinkedIn

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