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top™: The contentless method

© ICA Associates (Canada)

•    This method is all about consciousness of consciousness of consciousness... It is not about specific topics or issues. It is not promoting any particular beliefs, ideologies or doctrines. It is not even about techniques or tricks of the facilitator's trade.

•    Facilitation is all about enabling people to be highly conscious. Aware and attentive. Experiencing every experience. Revealing the patterns of meaning and significance. Making choices that are self conscious and responsible.

•    The facilitator only has method - a method that is distilled out of the experience of living life...

•    Facilitation uses questions - much in the way Socrates used questions - to promote an open ended inquiry in the form of an open dialogue over relevant, life questions. The method is contentless. It is filled with the stuff of life.

•    Consciousness begins with attention to the events - external and internal - that drive us into life and make us aware of our limits. It is these real events that are the stuff of life; so this contentless method is focused on our experience. We are not applying eternal principles as much as we are observing and examining our experience and learning from them.

•    Even when our most cherished images and beliefs are revealed as illusory, we recognize that we are still sustained in being,,, as the unique human beings we are... We are, therefore, oriented toward the future - toward possibility.

•    As we discover that we live before an open future, we recognize that we are both obligated by the connections and relationships we have and we are, at the same time, utterly and completely free. It is this realization that leads us to the possibility of responsibility, integrity and authenticity; so we approach our life situations in a spirit of open inquiry.

•    As we encounter the possibility of individual responsibility, we recognize that our collective future is a process of evolutionary unfolding; so we search for appropriate actions that will shape our future as a society in a positive way. It is the method which enables people to recognize and process events of consciousness in ways that lead to meaningful insight and responsible action.

•    There are many ways to apply the method and many techniques which enable people to use it. Grasping the method and discovering ways to apply it to life situations is the art and science of participation.

Top chit-chat

Cynthia Lau, ToP Faculty member previously based in Adelaide and hailing from Singapore, has recently moved to Melbourne with her husband, Ken.

She writes: "I will definitely be out facilitating in Singapore on 24 April till end of May (so unable to be at the Adelaide Module 1 scheduled during this time).

We have already found a rental in Melbourne and will be moving in before I zip out to Singapore..."

Cyncerely,
Cynthia

29th March, 2007

Letter from ICA CAnada

6th March, 2007

Hi all,

I really appreciated being a part of the ToP facilitator business meeting and the ICA event in Melbourne. I arrived home safely on Monday January 29 after my trip to Uluru with Jeanette, exchanging +40C heat and long sun for -10C cold and short dark days.

At the ToP facilitator business meeting Joan had asked me to send some of our material on the "contentless method",which is part of the "underlying dynamics of the ToP methods". It is all about the profound level of ORID, which is the structure which underlies all ToP methods and, I've discovered, most other methods that work well with the way human beings process information.

I'm attaching a document which forms part of the background we use for a participatory presentation in our course "Art and Science of Participation". If you want to see the outline of that course, it is on our ICA Associates website. [See article left regarding Contentless Method].

We do this as a talk while putting up a giant matrix on the wall, and then having participants take other methods and run them through the "four phases" and add them to the matrix on the wall.

... I think this might be useful for (increasing) understanding why ToP™ works.

Take care,
Jo Nelson

ICA Associates (Canada)

group facilitator competencies

The following file was uploaded by Tom Schwarz to the ToP Faculty/FLP group yahoo list server on 5th May, 2007. As Tom writes, "simply log-in to the ToP list serv, look at the ‘Files’ section (left hand side) and download.."

What follows is an excerpt of one competency group description; please refer to article for further detail.

High-Performing (and Threshold) Competencies for Group Facilitators
Jean-Anne Stewart
Henley Management College, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, UK
ABSTRACT

This paper proposes a model of group facilitator competencies, produced as a result of a doctoral research study. This research was undertaken in the context of group facilitation in a workshop environment, where several people meet in a face-to-face situation, under the guidance of one or more people taking the role of workshop or group facilitator. An overview of the research strategy and design is presented, followed by the research findings... (including) a proposed facilitator competency model.

Summary of differences high-performing competencies
Competency group Description

1) Interpersonal competency
communication
*Very clear verbal communication with good use of words, language and tone.
*Sees, infers and acts upon non-verbal communication, using wide knowledge of theoretical models.
* Perceptive listening, using sensing and intuition to elicit meanings and emotions.
*Can use cultural awareness to work with the group.
*Demonstrates greater empathy and sensitivity to the group.
*Influences the client and group to stretch and challenge themselves.
* Works flexibly with the group’s suggestions.
* Can lead the group using both directive and facilitative ‘shepherding’ leadership styles.
* Capable of using paradigm stretching and breaking techniques to
encourage creativity.

Journal of Change Management
Vol. 6, No. 4, 417 – 439, December 2006

MAPPING TRAINING COMPETENCIES TO ToP™ FLP

In South Australia, ToP™ Facilitative Leadership Program Modules 1-5 have been mapped to state training competencies by ToP Faculty/FLP colleague Jennifer Repper, enabling governmental subsidies to be offered to participants to attend, thus providing substantial marketing incentive and potential. (Ed.).