1. Teaching people
not elements
Shawn Moriarty MA
now playing “With my own two hands” Jack Johnson and Ben Harper
12 thoughts on how to look at how we design and
run our programs to bring meaning to the
elements we use.

2.  Thanks for being here for this presentation.
 History-working with mostly adult groups.
 They wanted to work on specific items such as
“communication” or “leadership”
 A pattern emerged:
 Elect a leader
 get ideas in a random fashion
 try the activity-speed seemed important
 Loudest ideas were tried
 They would finish with often multiple errors

3.  So I started to write out instructions for groups for
activities that had some parameters.
 They had to tell me their plan, people’s roles, how they
planned on using effective communication, and how they
would determine success.
 Or we would have a discussion about a topic that was
important to them, leadership for example, then have a
talk about what good leaders do, and how could we
implement those traits in our day.
 We would really work on defining actions to work with.
 And I saw a change. Often small, sometimes big, but a
change.

4. Where did this idea come from?
 Denise Mitten: Talk at Prescott College
 Jay Fields: Yoga instructor
 Jim Grout: “When in doubt, give ‘em your heart.”
 And my own work with camp communities of staff and
youth.

5. In the beginning....
 Adventure Sequence:
 Ice Breakers, Trust, Initiatives, High Ropes.
 Group Process:
 Form, Storm, Norm, Perform, Transform
 Choice
 Challenge by Choice
 Group behavioral agreements
 FVC.
 A bunch of activities that can go together.
 communication, trust, planning, etc.

6. Let me be clear, those things are not wrong
or bad. They are foundational to our work.
 And...there may be other tools that can be used that
change how we can design and present programs to our
clients.
 There might be ways to augment and add to those
foundational building blocks.
 The activities we use have little or no inherent meaning.
As a facilitator we help bring meaning to the activities
and the process.

7. 1) Cycles not lines
Comfort
Zone
Panic Zone
Learning Zone

8. While there is a place for the previous model, if we can
address the stress that is present in that model, we may be
able to bring our participants farther..
 Stress can be present in our programs, even if we do
nothing we see as creating stress.
 People are different and experience experiences
differently.
 Extravert verses introvert. How can this play a role in
our programs?
 “Why are we here?”
 “My voice won’t matter.”
 “I am not good at these things.”
 John Medina’s work in Brain Rules.

9. Think in a gentle spiral
 Can we guide people
up through a spiral
progression of growth?
 Rather than the more
traditional process of
moving people out of
their comfort zone to
elicit growth.
 It might take more
time and patience. We
may have to change
how we think about
how we structure our
programs.

10. Group process
 Form, Storm, Norm, Perform, Transform.
 This happens over an entire program. It can happen during
each activity, and we are joining a group in the middle of
their process that they are going through away from your
program. And it is a cycle, not a simple line.

11. 2)Teach from your own
experience
 We are not our teachers.
 How often do we try to “be” someone else?
 Trying to lead like someone else.
 Lead to our strengths.
 Our experiences can help us facilitate/ guide from a
position of knowledge and comfort.

12. 3) If you don’t know, say so.
 We often are seen as the experts-especially from the
participants. We MUST know it all.
 Participants can only look to us for answers.
 Allow for conversations to take place to find solutions.
 it can be empowering for people to hear that you do not
know.
 “I don’t know. And let’s explore the solutions.”

13. 4) Plan enough so you can be
spontaneous
 Having a well developed program with several trials to
follow, can provide you with the opportunity to adapt to
your group’s needs.
 Develop program model so that you can move from one
option to another.

14. 5) Practice and explore
 Be curious.
 Read
 Practice with others
 Explore options to bring new ideas to your work
 Find your edges, and the edges of your program.
 Explore the shadows-if you want. I am not a therapist.
 Here there be dragons.

15. 6) Teach skills. Don’t just assume
 This activity requires .....
 I had an expectation that people knew what I meant
when I said good communication or planning.
 Where are those skills taught?
 What can we do to help this happen?
 What tools can we provide?

16. 7) Listen and gather data
 What are our participants saying?
 What are they not saying?
 When you don’t know what to do next or where to go,
ask.
 Ask the group for data on where they are, where they
are trying to go, and what success might look like in this
program.
 Teach how to listen and ask questions.

17. 8) It’s their process not yours.
 Our groups are here to have an experience. And it is
their process that we are facilitating.
 Our job is to recognize what stage of the group process
they are in, and help guide them through without
injecting our thoughts of where we “think” they should
be.
 Don’t get too attached to how YOU think things should
look.

18. 9) And, it’s your process too
 As much as we would like to think differently, we are
part of the process as well.
 And we are going through our own process outside of
the group we are working with. Pay attention to where
you are in terms of your own process, and progress in
your skills.
 Examine your own biases and expectations around what
you do as a facilitator.

19. 10) The challenge of choice
 Many programs have some form of Challenge By Choice
included in their framing of programs.
 And how much choice is actually given?
 Ask yourself how many options for choice you give in
each stage of your program.
 By giving real choice to our participants, we can help
develop their self-efficacy.
 Elements of Choice-Tom Leahy

20. 11) People are unique
 Every person is unique.
 It is not necessarily our job to change that. Maybe help
those people discover more of who they are. Unless your
program model is to radically change behavior. And then
even then, maybe we are here to guide those folks into
a different way of expression.
 Our brains are wired differently.
 Emotional Intelligence
 Multiple Intelligences
 How can we provide opportunities to allow each person
to be engaged in our program?
 We most likely can’t please everyone.

21. 12) Hold the space
 With some groups, once you have gotten them into
activities, the best we can do is to hold the space for the
group so they can do the work they need to do.
 Keep them emotionally and physically safe.
 What does that look like and sound like?
 Sometimes a group needs a space to be “built” for them.
Help them, and allow them to do the creation portion.
 Explore tools such as Council.

22. Enjoy the process and practice your guiding
skills.
 Shawn Moriarty
 A Single Footstep and YMCA Camp Santa Maria
 asinglefootstep@gmail.com
Practice helping people discover
their gifts so that they can then
give those gifts to others.
We have the potential to help
build a more regenerative
culture.