Carmen Barnhoorn

Learning from Trust

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vertrouwen

How do we encourage quality professional conversations, where trust and personal safety are guaranteed? This remains an inspiring question for me as a facilitator. Trust and safety are a prerequisite for any participant of a professional conversation to show vulnerability, and a requirement for deep learning.

Examining your assumptions
Learning at the surface level, where you are seeking a practical solution to a problem from your usual assumptions, is sometimes simply necessary and useful. But learning to examine inherent assumptions is, of course, a much more personal process that raises more uncertainty and fear, and therefore demands more from the learning environment. Not just from yourself, but from the facilitator as well, as from the tools used. Leading intervision (peer review) I therefore like to call it a professional art, similar to coaching.

InteractionViewer
Last week I had an interesting conversation with my colleague, Hans Paul Sparenberg in Leiden. He developed the InteractionViewer, which is an online tool to correctly work out peer review cases in advance. It is also possible to use these, at a later stage, for other conversation types. The interesting thing to me is that this tool is based on cognitive psychological principles. This is of enormous help in the beginning of peer review cases, as the case can be properly and extensively prepared beforehand, (the intervision has already started!) and it promotes commitment, the discipline of the contributor. In addition, it encourages all to think about his or her assumptions. And you can do it online!

On 7 March, Hans Paul and I, along with Sibrenne Wagenaar, will lead a webinar through Losmakers. Together with colleagues, we’ll explore how this tool works for us. This will be a small pilot and not a real peer review, but now I want to examine how we can maintain the highest possible quality of this professional conversation. So, how to remain safe, what is needed to build trust and, perhaps most importantly, can this trust actually be realised?

Online intervision – a survey of 3 tools

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online intervisie tools

1. Emtbe.com or e-intervision. It is a tool that:

online intervisie 1

  • Implements in writing and asynchronously.
  • Uses 9 different well-known intervision methods, for example Balint, incident method, ten steps etc.
  • The facilitator creates a group, enters participant data and plans the duration of each phase.
  • The facilitator starts the intervision process and monitors progress through the various stages of the methodology. However, the digital environment structures the phases independently.
  • The facilitator occasionally sends messages from the portal to monitor the progress of the intervision. The role of the facilitator is still important and calls are made for a separate facilitator.
  • The writing process forces participants to formulate questions properly.
  • The messages run through a secure server. The process is therefore, in a digital sense, secure and confidential.
  • The entire intervision group, with a facilitator, is controlled by E-intervision BV. For example, an intervention can take place in the event of a facilitator’s absence.
  • The tool can also save documents.
  • The tool makes the logistics of intervision convenient and transparent, and ensures progress.
  • The intervision can take place from anywhere in the World.
  • The tool is available in Dutch, French and English languages.
  • Within the tool there is no synchronous interaction. This can take place in the intervision group in a F2F meeting, in addition to the tool. For example, the tool can complement F2F intervision meetings.

 

2. Interaction Viewer or iV. It is a tool that:

online intervisie 2

  • Sees intervision as an application for online qualitative data gathering.
  • The tool can also be used, for example, in the exploratory phase of strategy development or conflict management.
  • The tool has a cognitive psychological, scientific basis and applies this knowledge in the area of judgement.
  • It focuses on planning meetings and the preparing, sharing and deepening of cases.
  • The tool does not work with any particular intervision method.
  • The goal is to create strong cases online that can be shared at the meeting. The detailed online case can also be projected by a beamer during the F2F meeting.
  • The tool asks the contributor questions about cases to be elaborated, explores the situation, shifts and regroups answers.
  • The tool also works visually, but is based on text.
  • The result is a detailed case study provided by the contributor, which is digitally shared in advance with the participants and introduced at the F2F meeting.
  • The online tool therefore facilitates pre-work for the F2F intervision of both the contributor and the participants.
  • The tool improves the discipline of the intervision process for the analysis of the case, and the planning of meetings.
  • The tool makes possible the building of a case file as a basis for group education.
  • The tool provides the formulation of lessons learned.
  • During the process, support is always available from IV.
  • The tool costs 37.50 euros per month.

 

3. Zoom or Zoom.us. It is a tool that allows synchronous online work and:

online intervisie 3

  • Is used as an alternative for, for example, Skype, because it is more stable and has more possibilities.It also provides a more professional working/learning environment.
  • It is used for webinars, coaching, synchronous online learning groups etc.
  • It also has a chat option, a whiteboard, screen share, you can upload PowerPoint. You can also turn off all videos, form subgroups, place screens next to each other (gallery view). So, it is very flexible and dynamic.
  • You can record and save sessions in MP4. This can, for example, be used for contemplation afterwards.
  • Zoom can be used for online synchronous intervision: in conversation, with questions/comments in the chat, the facilitator drawing on the whiteboard.
  • To properly guide this process could require a second facilitator.
  • Using this tool, you use the power of personal interaction, the power of the written formulation of questions/comments and the power of the visual (whiteboard).
  • Zoom costs $15 per month.
  • Zoom is appropriate for online synchronous intervision, for example over long distances and in different countries. In practice, F2F sessions don’t seem to be missed all that much. F2F sessions could still take place, but will then serve “human, social needs.”

Conclusion:
The three of these tools have their individual strengths and offer several advantages. For online intervision, a combination of different tools appears to be the best solution.

Come gli europei potrebbero rapportarsi alla vita nel 2017: la bellezza può essere la chiave per l’appartenenza

by
Parijs

Non ci sono risposte facili a grandi problemi, anche se alcuni di noi sono disposti a dare le loro. E risposte facili non aiutano neanche a rimanere internamente in pista, anche se potrebbe sentire in quel modo. Il mondo non è un posto semplice ma, come l’essere umano , infinitamente complicato. Tutti noi siamo venuti a saperlo ora, suppongo.

Disconnessi
“Questo e’ ancora il mio mondo? “, ci potremmo chiedere guardando indietro ai recenti attacchi in Europa: Parigi, Bruxelles, Nizza, Monaco di Baviera – e purtroppo questa non è la fine della mia lista.
E ‘ triste ma vero che la brutta faccia della violenza sembra unire tutte le magnifiche culture europe in questo momento attraverso la nostra sofferenza, l’ansia ed il dolore. Ed allo stesso tempo la profonda bellezza di ciascuna delle culture potrebbe offrirci la possibilità di fuga, la via d’uscita dal nostro sentimento di “unheimisch” , di estraneità, di disconnessione.
Lo psicologo e filosofo italiano Piero Ferrucci descrive nel suo libro Beauty and the Soul (La Bellezza e l’Anima ) (2009), cosa succede quando ci sentiamo vuoti, scoraggiati e, peggio di tutti, fuori luogo. Siamo chiusi nel nostro mondo interiore, ci sentiamo disconnessi; siamo ‘agli arresti domiciliari’. Questo accade spesso quando gli altri non si comportano come noi pensiamo si dovrebbero comportare, quando sentiamo tanto dolore o quando siamo stanchi. Quando non ci riferiamo più al modo di pensare altrui.

Vivere la bellezza
E ‘ di vitale importanza per noi stessi in momenti come questo, di liberarsi dagli ‘arresti domiciliari’ ed aprirsi al nuovo. Ferrucci sottolinea la relativa facilità di vivere la bellezza come un modo per elevare noi stessi in questo senso. ” Vivere la bellezza è una vittoria sullo scoraggiamento “, come dice lui .
Nel nostro disorientamento potremmo tendere a pensare che è saggio contrastare il male con il bene, se abbiamo l’energia, per neutralizzare i suoi effetti dannosi . Ma ci sono persone molto sagge (come lo scrittore russo Dostoevskij) che dicono qualcosa di diverso : “La bellezza annulla il male”.
Vivere la bellezza è anche, a parer mio, il modo più personale e facile per elevarsi dalla pesantezza , dall’ingiustizia e per creare spazio mentale. Essa ci porta anche a celebrare la vita e ad essere ancora buoni verso altre persone.

Serbatoio europeo
Che conforto sapere di avere così tanto di questa roba preziosa in Europa! Che serbatoio pieno di medicine per il nostro sconforto!
Quindi spero sinceramente che in questi giorni voi siate in grado di vivere la bellezza dei prati verdi della Gran Bretagna, la bellezza dei magnifici edifici di Parigi o la bellezza del Mar Mediterraneo a Nizza .
Spero che siate commossi dalla bellezza del volto attento di un buon amico a Monaco di Baviera, che vediate la bellezza dei colori del buon cibo in Italia e che godiate della splendida atmosfera ironica di Bruxelles.
E che pensiate in questi momenti quello che penso io quando vedo le enormi nuvole quasi-Vermeer nei Paesi Bassi:
“Sì, vi appartengo! Questo è ancora il mio mondo. ”

Carmen Barnhoorn MSc
ICF International Coach, Psicologa, Facilitatore
L’adattamento del testo in lingua italiana: Emanuela Fulli

Fonti per l’articolo
Ferrucci, P. (2009) Beauty and the Soul: The extraordinary power of everyday beauty to heal your life. New York, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin.
Campbell, J. The Hero’s Journey (2003) , Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work, Novato, New World Library.
Dostoevskij, F., De Idioot, (2013), Amsterdam, Van Oorschot.

How Europeans could relate to Life in 2017: Beauty can be the key to belonging

by
Parijs

There are no easy answers to great problems, even though some of us are willing to give them. And easy answers don’t help either to internally stay on track, although it might feel that way. The world is not a simple place, but like the human being, infinitely complicated. We all have come to know that now, I suppose.

Disconnected
“Is this still my world?”, you might ask yourself, looking back on the recent attacks in Europe: Paris, Brussels, Nice, Munich — unfortunately this is not the end of my list.

It is sad but true that the ugly face of violence seems to unite all of our magnificent
European cultures at the moment through our grief, anxiety and pain. And at the same time the deep beauty of each and every culture might offer us the possibility of an escape out of our feeling “unheimisch”, estranged or disconnected.

The Italian psychologist and philosopher Piero Ferrucci describes in his book Beauty and the Soul (2009) what happens when we feel empty, discouraged and worst of all, out of place. We are closed in in our own inner world, feel disconnected; we are ‘under house arrest’. This happens often when other people are not behaving like we think they should, when we feel a lot of pain, or when we are tired. When we aren’t relating to the other persons’ way of thinking any more.

Experiencing Beauty
It is vitally important to release ourselves in moments like this from our own house arrest and to open up again. Ferrucci underlines the relative ease of experiencing beauty as a way to elevate ourselves in this way. “Experiencing beauty is a victory over discouragement.”, as he puts it.

In our disorientation we might tend to think that it is wise to counter evil with goodness, if we have the energy, to neutralize its damaging effects. But there are very wise people (the Russian writer Dostoevsky for example) who say something else: Beauty counters evil.

Experiencing beauty is also in my opinion the most personal and easy way to be elevated from heaviness, from injustice, and to create mental space. It also leads us to celebrate life and still be good to other people.

European reservoir
What a comfort that we have so much of this precious stuff in Europe. What a reservoir full of medicine for our discouragement!
So I sincerely hope that these days you are able to experience the beauty of the green grass in the United Kingdom, the beauty of the magnificent buildings in Paris, the beauty of the Mediterranean see in Nice.

I do hope that you are moved by the beauty of the attentive face of a good friend in Munich, that you see the beautiful colours of the good food in Italy and enjoy the beautiful ironic atmosphere of Brussels. And that you do think in these moments what I think when I see the huge Vermeer-like clouds in The Netherlands: “Yes, I do belong! This is still my world.”

Ferrucci, P. (2009) Beauty and the Soul: The extraordinary power of everyday beauty to heal your life. New York, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin.
Campbell, J. The Hero’s Journey (2003) , Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work, Novato, New World Library.
Dostoevsky, F., The Idiot, (2013), Amsterdam, Van Oorschot.