Desiree Paulsen Facilitation

 I want to emphasize that we need to reconnect humanity through different ways of interacting and engaging. Dialogue and conversation is a better form of reconnecting humanity than just using debate.I have always found Margaret Wheatley's writing on the topics of new ways of leading, new ways of interacting and new forms of organisation very interesting and I have drawn from her work often in my practice as a facilitator and organisational development consultant. As an independent practitioner  I still use this approach in my facilitation and I am very grateful for a wonderful community of practitioners where I learnt most of what I know today! We also need to reconnect to the concepts of Paulo Freire - giving voice and conscientising in mobilising communities and civil society to fight for their rights!    "Hu man conversation is the most ancient and easiest way to cultivate the conditions for change – personal change, community and organisation...

The role of facilitators working with organizations in crisis (A reworked piece I wrote a few years ago for a newsletter for the previous organisation I worked at www.cdra.org.za) ) In organisational systems crisis should be seen as a natural part of normal organizational development. Some organisations manage to work through crisis whilst others may allow it to destroy them or refuse to see or recognize the crisis (opting for a denial or 'head in the ground' approach). Crisis may be full blown or it may be simmering underground and often presented under the guise of “we need new leadership, we need restructuring or we need teambuilding”. The symptoms are: relationships have broken down, colleagues no longer see the good in each other only the bad, gossiping has reached monumental proportions, cliques have formed often around those who have more power and those who have less (often around differing ideologies, philosophies, rank/position, gender, culture, race, ...