S1 E22 Playful Facilitation
Episode Audio
Sarah Filman shares what she’s been learning about making facilitation more playful!
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn.
Transcript:
The following transcript was auto-generated and may contain typos or spelling errors.
Welcome to the share whatcha learned podcast. I’m Amy Petricek, a learning enthusiast and the host of the show. The Share Whatcha Learned podcast is designed for learning professionals to share something they're learning in the field of instructional design. Today I'm talking to Sarah filmin about playful facilitation. Hi, Sarah, welcome to the show.
Sarah Filman
Thank you. How are you?
Amy Petricek
I'm doing well. I'm very excited about our conversation. listeners. You don't know this. But Sarah and I were recently hanging out talking about kind of some of the things she's been learning and up to in the world. And I was like, Sarah, this is a podcast episode, we need to talk about it. So it part two for me, but part one of for our listeners of a conversation we've already had, so I'm excited to share it with the world.
Sarah Filman
Same me too.
Amy Petricek
Great. Well introduce yourself, Sarah, like, who are you? What are you all about? And I'm going to say, I know Sarah and a couple different capacities, but this playful facilitation thing is going to be really fun to talk about. And I even might even say your backgrounds kind of playful and fun. So let's hear.
Sarah Filman
Yeah, well, and I've jotted down in my notebook, my guesstimate for how many times we'll say play or playful in this episode, and maybe you can count it and put it in the show notes or something because it's yeah, we're gonna say it a lot. I think I can't hear. Well, thank you for having me, Amy. So my name is Sarah filmin. I'm a leadership coach, a playful facilitator, improv and sketch comedian, cat mom, living in living in Seattle, Washington. And I'm really passionate about how play and improv can support kind of transformative growth and radically inclusive spaces.
Amy Petricek
We have this I'm calling it playful facilitation, this episode title. Talk to me about playful facilitation. I think that title is kind of unique. And for me, it sums up the conversation we had previously. So I'd love to hear like what is playful Converse playful facilitation to you?
Sarah Filman
Yeah, so I guess let's start with the playful side and play can take so many different forms. But when you're really in that like playful flow state, you're kind of at the edge of your comfort zone. So it's like challenging, but also exciting. It's, and it's also kind of comfortable. And because the stakes are lower. It's truly a space to play. And it's pleasurable, it's joyful. So when I think of playful facilitation, it's facilitation that is really trying to optimize for those things. Oh, and one other thing I want to mention is, is plays connective when you're playing with other people, it's incredibly connective can build empathy and relationships. So playful facilitation is really taking those characteristics of play and making sure that the experience you're curating really is like optimizing and valuing those things.
Amy Petricek
Okay. So I would argue that good learning is a risk free environment for people to try on different experiences, or skill sets to be successful in protecting the professional world like in their work. And I think sometimes in corporate world, we get a little bit hung up on like, maybe like these professional world words. And so I think the word play is something we stray a little bit from in the corporate world. But I love that you're bringing it in, because I think we all can relate to that. We all know what play is we've all experienced play in our lives and are like, Yeah, I want that in my training.
Sarah Filman
Yeah, absolutely. And and I think that that's one of the things that I've wrestled with through my career is what does it look like to be a professional, who is competent and has experience but who also I feel most myself and most alive? When I am exuding a playful and light energy? How can those things be in the same place at the same time, and I think that kind of traditional professionalism doesn't make room for that. And that's one of the things that I'm passionate about. And you also mentioned risk free. And I think risk free is interesting, cuz I think one of the things that play can be really good at is lowering the risk, and making it safe for you to take risks, and try out what it feels like to take bolder risks, but the stakes are lower.
Amy Petricek
So I know you'll talk about this later, but I've previously attended. You've called them other sessions or her playful meetings for meeting leaders, playful meetings for meeting leaders, which I've previously attended with you. And it's this beautiful merging of play and I would say like the corporate world of your improv background and your corporate background, because I'm excited to talk more about that later, I'm just like jumping the gun and getting excited. Let's talk about all the things but I I think we'll go there. What makes Sarah unique to me is your ability to I've always heard improv is the yes and mentality. And I think you excel at that so well in life outside of just the improv stage but in life and so I'm I experienced a facilitation like none other when attending one of those meetings previously and was Whoa, this is what facilitation could be mind blown.
Sarah Filman
Well, thank you. And I appreciate you saying that and that moving through the world with that. Yes. And with that improv mindset is specifically what I'm passionate about. There's a whole field called applied improvisation, which is about taking the skills that great improvisers do on stage like listening like yes anding and building on each other's ideas like failing joyfully and saying, Wow, these skills are great leadership skills. They're great to support your personal development, your leadership, development, conflict, mediation, disaster readiness, may name it, those skills are useful in those contexts. And so applied improvisation is taking those skills and putting them into other situations like professional environments. And so one of the main tools in my tool belt as a playful facilitator are these applied improvisation techniques,
Amy Petricek
Say the technical word again, because I think this is important to call out and for me to remember and store in my memory box plied improvisation
Sarah Filman
Applied improvisation.
Amy Petricek
Thank you.
Sarah Filman
Yeah, there's a whole network, the applied improv network, as well as the global play brigade are two communities that I'm a part of that have that are incredibly generous. So if anybody, any listeners are curious about this space, those are two communities, I would really recommend checking out great, wonderful people.
Amy Petricek
Thanks for this added bonus of resources. Thank you. So I know that you have done some facilitation in your life, that's maybe not your primary day job at times. But that is that has definitely been a skill set you've acquired. So talk to me more about like, where did you start to identify this need for playful facilitation and or like some of the gaps that you started to identify?
Sarah Filman
Yeah, and we touched on a bit earlier, but I was thinking about, when I look back on my childhood, young adulthood career, what are the experiences where I, my positive experiences where I learned, and it stuck, and I really integrated it into my way of being, and they were all all had some element of play, of being able to explore things, experiment with things, whether that's ideas, and concepts or physical things. And so pulling that into facilitation just made sense to me to create those experiences. And then as a, as a person, I felt more authentic when I approached facilitation playfully. I have experienced a lot of anxiety in. And I think that a playful mindset as a facilitator is one where you lower the stakes on yourself and say, what would it look like to play with this? What would it look like to experiment, and being able to put on that mindset as a facilitator has been transformative for myself and for participants, because my ability to loosen my tight grip on my agenda, and be willing to really play with what's present, and what the participants are offering, just makes for a more engaging, fun, experience.
Amy Petricek
It also sounds more vulnerable to me, it would be easy as the facilitator to stand outside of the metaphorical box and say, Okay, I'll have you go in there and you play. I'll stand out here and shout you directions, tell you what to do next, but actually to like borrow from Brene Brown or Teddy Roosevelt quote is like to actually step into the arena and engage that with them and say, like, Okay, I'm gonna kind of live into this or lean into this risk as well and and be willing to deviate and not be so you have a structure but also be willing to move fluidly in the moment.
Sarah Filman
I love that word vulnerability. I think as a facilitator, there's a huge opportunity to embody that vulnerability. Especially when when things don't go well or your mistake has happened. How you show up in that moment can really impact the experience and your participants. So and I think that play is a great opportunity for everybody to kind of show up more vulnerably and be willing to connect in curious weird fun ways.
Amy Petricek
I think one of the things I enjoyed about attending your session previously was, I noticed that most if not everyone kept their cameras on in the Zoom Room, which I remember thinking, Oh, that's interesting, because we've all been in a lot of meetings these days, especially two years into a pandemic, where we're shutting off her zooms, and multitasking or just listening. And so like, people are really engaged in this, but also the amount of, I would say, joy and laughter as well. Not that like, it's just all jokes, fun games, whatever. But it's even the playfulness around, maybe what would be considered failure, like, Oops, I didn't do this correctly. But we can all collectively kind of chuckle at like, yeah, that that's pretty funny that that's how that shook out, but dust yourself off, and you'll get back up and you'll find your way. And that just really stood out to me, in contrast to what we normally see or understand facilitation to be absolutely celebrating mistakes, is is a huge part of improv, some of the most beautiful, fun, engaging scenes are just start with something that maybe somebody didn't intend.
Sarah Filman
And and I think that that's one of the reasons that in terms of growth and development, it can be so powerful, because we all have these relationships with mistakes and failure, that in many cases don't serve us anymore. They're holding us back from taking risks or from trying new things. And so like shifting your relationship to mistakes can be incredibly powerful. At an individual level, or a team level, or a group of strangers as you came together in that particular workshop. Yes, I remember being like, I don't think I've ever been this friendly with this many strangers before. But here we go.
Amy Petricek
So thinking specifically of learning and development professionals, what are some tools that we could keep in our toolkit, as we look at creating some more engaging, I mean, if we're getting down into the weeds of slide decks, and or actually facilitating sessions, what are some recommendations or tools that you would advise, think asking yourself what assumptions you are making about what needs to be true say in your agenda?
Sarah Filman
So for example, at the beginning of your session, you have everybody introduce themselves. But wait a sec, do they have to introduce themselves? Does it have to be verbal? Could it be in some other medium like a drawing? Or could somebody else introduce themselves as a different participant? That's called like, upside down introductions? Could they write a poem about themselves and put it in the chat? So a lot, you know, it's having your, as facilitators, we all have like our go to kind of tips and tricks and actually being willing to look at them and say, Wait, does it have to be done this way? And then kind of engaging the senses? What? How could we play with that in a different way? So that's less a particular tool and more a mindset and a willingness to look at what you've done and say, Could it be done a different way. And then I think it takes the next step of being willing to yourself as a facilitator, run, like do take that risk, and try it out with participants, and it might flop. But one of the beautiful things about flopping during play is that there's always still something to learn from it. It's whether it flops or not, your enthusiasm for it can go a long way, a great facilitators, energy and vibe can carry the room, it's incredible. I rely on that precisely 96.8% of us YaSM, for trying it, just to see what happens, you know, we get in these workshops or these meetings, and we can just really go on autopilot. And I think that a playful lens on things is to say, what if we didn't go on autopilot, and being willing to try it?
Amy Petricek
I think especially in light of the, the world, the virtual world, we're all in now we have, in some regard started to build these routines and structures within the virtual world. I think, you know, early on, maybe there was I would almost say like a little bit more openness to creativity, because it's new for everyone. But now that we've been in it for two years there, maybe we've developed some standards. And so I love even just hearing, like you process potential ways of challenging those structures that we've started to establish, like writing a poem in the chat as your introduction. How fun would that be? Right?
Sarah Filman
Yeah, I mean, it's totally normal to develop habits. And you know, because they serve us because when you're when everything is changing, like it was, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, it's there's a lot of opportunity, but it can also be really overwhelming. And so like putting down those stakes, and creating the new status quo can like free up our mind to think about other things. But then we forget that those stakes were choices that got made it one point in time, and that those sticks are not permanent. And we can lift those up again. And I think that that's true in facilitation. That's something that's very present in coaching as well of like, what are the rules that we're operating by that were actually a choice that we just, there's so habituated that we, we don't even remember that they were once a choice.
Amy Petricek
Are you all catching on? Like she's wonderful, I hope hearing this and just enjoying this conversation as much as I am, because I'm always learning and growing and playing one with Sarah. So I hope you all as listeners are enjoying this as much as I am.
Sarah Filman
It can't see but I do turn red with embarrassment, right?
Amy Petricek
So here's the bonus of audio only right? Let's talk a little bit more I've I've been like hinting at because again, I'm just so excited to share some of the things you're up to in the world that you've been, it's a culmination of all of your learnings around play. But tell us about some of the opportunities that you have specifically created to foster play.
Sarah Filman
Yeah, so the one that you've you've been talking about the playful meetings for meeting leaders. That was a workshop series that I conceived of early in the pandemic, when I realized that a lot of managers meeting leaders facilitators were thrust onto this virtual environment without their kind of typical tool set, to how to create great experiences. And I had experience managing a hybrid team at a nonprofit so had been experimenting for years with how to do this was also pulling in my improv experience. So that particular workshop series is about what are, you know, five to seven minute, easy to implement and approachable activities that people who run meetings can immediately take into their next meeting or workshop, and do with their participants. So kind of creating, connecting collaborating in a virtual space?
Amy Petricek
I would say what I love about those sessions is that while there absolutely is application for facilitators to learn and grow here, it's really you said this kind of passively with anyone who holds meetings. So like you, me, your friend who like is a remote employee, like anyone who's even in an in person setting who might hold the meeting, even if it's five people, like a manager, director, like it's such a broad spectrum of people that this could apply to. I'm specifically calling out facilitators because I'm, I know that some instructional designers will do facilitation as part of their work and or build the slide decks to support facilitators. And so like waving the flag of like facilitators, absolutely, like, check this out. This is you will have fun, you will play you will, Sarah will call you to new places that you didn't know, you could go or do in a Zoom Room.
Sarah Filman
Yeah, I appreciate you saying that, because it's true. Lots of people convene groups of people, and and these activities can apply you, you can do them with your parents. My parents have showed up to some public workshops that I've done, and it's been a blast. And so that there is an upcoming one, Thursday, March 24, at noon, Pacific Time 12 to one, we're doing it doing it again, bringing it back, we'll be sure to put that information in the show notes so people can sign up and register. Yay. And then the other thing that I'm really passionate about is the intersection of leadership coaching, meets improv and play. Because like I was mentioning earlier, I think that improv and play can create great containers for us to take risks, try on new ways of being and really observe and, and grow our awareness of how we're showing up in certain spaces, which is just very aligned with the role that coaching can play. So whether that's one on one or in a group, that intersection is a passion of mine and something I'm going to keep keep building experiences around wonderful and all of these experiences are housed where they are housed at my website playful perspectives.com You can check it out check out events, coaching facilitation, it's got it all.
Amy Petricek
So part of the the downside of this being audio only to my listeners is that you can't see is that Sara wears these red glasses, and they're very iconic part of her her personhood. And so when you go to the website, you'll see the logo that has these red iconic glasses, which is just really fun because it is very much Sarah but also plays on her playful perspectives name as well. So I really love that. Thank you. Yeah, and they're so iconic that when I walk into spaces without my glasses, I have not been recognized. It's a true superpower. I did not know this about you, Sara filmin. Well, let's go ahead and dive into the Rapid Round questions. Sara, the questions I get asked all of my guests and we're going to start with I'll start the sentence and you get to finish it. Learning is
Sarah Filman
A lifestyle.
Amy Petricek
Oh, I like that.
Sarah Filman
This is a Rapid Round. I mean, I could I could expand on it.
Amy Petricek
Give me Give me a couple sentence let's hear.
Sarah Filman
I think that learning is everywhere. And so it's a lifestyle to pay attention to it because whether there's something goes well or not there there is learning abounds if we just pay attention to it. So that's why I thought it was a lifestyle. I like that learning abounds if we just pay attention to it.
Amy Petricek
When you're mustering up the courage to learn something new, What song do you put on,
Sarah Filman
I put on this weird song called, came out of a lady by rubble bucket. I cannot help but dance to it. It's got brass instruments, it's got to be like it's it's quirky and weird, and I highly recommend it.
Amy Petricek
Another fun Sarah and Amy story here is that we loosely knew each other without knowing each other, or interacting and found ourselves just the two of us on a dance floor dancing. Not again, like we loosely knew each other but didn't know each other. So we're about to like say hi at that point in our relationship. And now we're like the best of buds and I hope to dance to that song with you someday and do a do over on our past dance party.
Sarah Filman
Yeah, yeah, that was New Year's. I think it was 2020 I think that that was New Year's 2020.
Amy Petricek
I think you might be right, actually, I think it was right before dancing and public spaces ceased to be. It may have been my last public dancing experience from I know, it was definitely mine. You're asked to do a brand new task with a skill set you do not yet have Where do you turn,
Sarah Filman
I actually turn to maybe a bit of meditation or centering or breathing and I say that because oftentimes when I'm faced with something new, a bit of like, kind of inner critic Gremlins kind of come out being like you you're not going to be able to learn that thing. And and centering and breathing gets me back to a place where I can reframe that and say I am capable of learning new things and that then opens up possibilities to you know, reach out to people I know or go on the internet or whatever.
Amy Petricek
Sarah without learning finish the sentence.
Sarah Filman
A dark cave. Creepy, unwelcoming drip drip. Just gonna let you keep going. Thank you. I'm just gonna end it there.
Amy Petricek
Sarah, what's the best way for my listeners to be in contact with you after the show? And is there anything that you're working on that you'd love to give a shout out for that you haven't already realizing that you called out your upcoming session. But anything else want to give a shout out for?
Sarah Filman
Yes, so folks can head to my website playfulperspectives.com And then you can contact me my email is on there as well. We've got playful meetings for meeting leaders coming up at the end of March and then for anybody who struggles with anxiety and but and but is curious about improv and the power of it. I am teaching an improv for anxiety class through CSZ Seattle in the Fremont neighborhood for folks who are in the area.
Amy Petricek
So that one would be an in person event Correct.
Sarah Filman
That is in person and starts at the end of April. Okay.
Amy Petricek
Noted. Thanks so much, Sarah for sharing all about playful facilitation with us today. Be sure to check out playful perspectives at playful perspectives.com I also want to give a shout out to you my listeners for learning with us today. Until next time, stay open, receptive and kind.