Lili Gros talks about her facilitation approach for the Never Done Before Festival. She uses the metaphor of peeling an onion to describe shedding roles and showing up authentically. Her session invites people to get uncomfortable, drop their mental filters, and see group dynamics differently.
Chapters
Hello, Lily.
Hi, Miriam.
Thank you for taking time for this mini video.
With great pleasure.
So in preparation to the Never Done Before Facilitation Festival, for you, what does it mean to be a facilitator in these days?
I love that you added in these days to the question for me. I think the first part is just allowing myself and other people to be human and to fully express who they are. And I think I've already used this metaphor of being like an onion that peels out. And for me, being a facilitator is allowing people to peel out and to feel safe to just bring whoever they want to bring to the table, but to bring who they, who they are and who they want to to be. And it's, and it's also allowing yourself to step out of maybe your characters, the characters that you've created for yourself, the innovator, the entrepreneur, the creator, and stepping into the unknown and also allowing yourself to design what is happening in the moment, in the now, with the people that are here. Because it's all about the context. You can be a great facilitator one day, and if you try to repeat exactly what you've done another day, it will not be relevant.
Yeah, every group, every workshop, everything is different. So with this in mind, what can participants to the festival expect from your session?
I think unpeeling, just having this time to really share what's on their mind, what's on their hearts, and really unpeeling what facilitation means for them and how they can become a more authentic facilitator, whatever authentic means for them. Very keen conversations and authentic conversations and maybe a bit of discomfort and finding in discomfort because with authenticity comes vulnerability. And when we feel vulnerable, sometimes it's, you know, something that we're not used to. So my promise would be to make this discomfort of feeling vulnerable very comfortable so that people feel at ease to peel their— peel the onion and feel a bit lighter at the end of the session and have very authentic sharings.
So what would be the takeaway from your session? What can participants learn? What can they maybe do after the session?
For me, the key takeaway would be a new vision of facilitation. It's like when you peel off a layer, then you see things a bit differently. You have a— it's like taking off one of the pairs of glasses that you're looking at the world through. And since you Take one off, you have a new view. So I guess people would then have a new view of things, have a broader sense of what is happening in the room, of what is happening with the participants, and mostly what is happening with themselves. Because the group is one ingredient of the facilitation, but also how we act, how we react as a facilitator can be used as a mirror to how the group works.
Wonderful. And maybe one final question, just because I'm curious. For you as a facilitator at the festival, what excites you about that?
The co-design. I mean, it's so exciting to have people from so many different perspectives. I've had many aha moments and many light bulbs just shine, and also some slaps in the face of things that I hadn't realized at all about myself as a facilitator. And for me, it was a— it's really refreshing to be in the co-design team, even if I'm not putting that much into it. Well, at least compared to other facilitators, the co-design process is so filled with learnings. And I really hope that a lot of people can join into this co-design process because they will get so much out of it.
Thank you.
so much more out of doing this and being at the festival.
Yeah, thank you for underlining that. I think what's happening right now in the community of not only the session hosts but the co-designers and the participants is really like a warm-up for the festival. Yeah, great sharing. Wonderful. Thank you so much for your time. I am excited to seeing you at the festival, and of course before. Me too.
I'm very excited about getting to do a bit of unpeeling before and during the during the session.
