by Petra Juhászová (UK)
‘Community in groups occurs only when the individual members are collected in themselves and centred.’
Bert Hellinger
Sometimes we think that we can do alone without the help of others. There are times we need to get off of our high horse and admit that we need help. During my work where I facilitate sessions for people from different backgrounds and walks of life the most important thing for everyone is to feel safe. Whether we talk about a session for a group of people who came together for the first time or they’ve known each other already.
When we decide to work in a group – whether we are a facilitator or the leader of the meeting, it is important to make sure that everyone knows whatever they have to say, their opinion matters. We need to respect that people are different. Therefore, their contribution is different. An extrovert could start invading the limelight to show off their skills and thoughts, while an introvert would need a little more time and space to start sharing. Especially on those ‘brainstorming’ meetings looking for new approaches. One of the most common mistakes occurring in a ‘brainstorming’ meeting is judging the ideas as soon as they are said. This is really discouraging to the participants.
As you can sense the dynamics of these kinds of meetings and group works are not helpful. They might solve a short term problem, but the participants were not really exploring ideas outside the box. They ‘played it safe’. If we don’t encourage everyone to share their ideas, but only those who always shares, then we’re going to always have the same kind of solution. Just because someone is not interrupting in mid-sentence to share their ideas doesn’t mean that they don’t have anything valuable to say.
Source: iCN Issue 30 (Group & Team Coaching); pages 24-25
About Petra Juhászová
About Transformational Life Coach, NLP Practitioner
Petra helps people get unstuck and connect with their inner strength. Using family or systemic constellations she creates a space where they can have a look at the different systems they are part of and see the dynamics that have been hidden from their eyes. This ‘seeing’ allows people to decide what is the next step forward and helps with letting go of anything holding them back. One of the many techniques Petra uses in her work includes EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique).
