Facilation as dressage?

Johnnie Moore

Johnnie Moore

I’m Johnnie Moore, and I help people work better together

I was having a chat about faciliation with Rob Paterson on Skype and he came up with the analogy of dressage. If you watch this (amazing) Youtube of a horse doing its thing chances are you’ll be watching the four-legged animal not the two-legged one. After all, its the horse that’s doing all the work, and the guy is just sitting there.

In fact, the rider is doing all sorts of small stuff with his muscles to co-create the show – but he’s not drawing attention to himself at all.

It’s not a perfect analogy, of course. Facilitation isn’t about control but I’m focussing here on the apparent lack of activity, the discipline that requires, and allowing the other(s) to be the star, not yourself…

Share Post

More Posts

Leading from the clown

I shot this in a single eight-minute take, which is in the spirit of an experience of Ralf Wetzel’s workshop, Leading from the Clown. Clown training is probably the deepest and most challenging work I’ve done. Enjoy.

Noticing

The power of small gestures and noticing

Small p presence

Getting away from grandiosity or solemnity. small p presence is about being open to the life around us

Small i improv

Facilitation is often about small, subtle acts of noticing and experimenting

More Updates

Emotional debt

Releasing the hidden costs of pent up frustrations

Aliveness

Finding the aliveness below the surface of stuck

Johnnie Moore

Dateline Toronto

So I’m in Toronto for a few days, for the conference on Improv in Business. Looking forward to an inspiring time. This evening we kicked off with a performance of

orange camper van

Deliberately developmental

I had some good conversations yesterday prompted by my post about Jaffa Groups. This idea has been forming in my head for a long time, and it’s fun to finally

Johnnie Moore

Liminality

Viv McWaters writes about liminality. When you’re asking me to change a particular behaviour (even if it’s for my own good or for the well-being of others, or even the

Johnnie Moore

Thoughts for the day

These came to be via Tony Quinlan from Terry Tillman at 227company. “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”