Desiree Paulsen Facilitation

Facilitating Race and Transformation Processes Vision board done in 2018 I have been doing race and transformation work most of my life, but professionally as a facilitator now for about 10 years and as an organisational development practitioner for 17 years. I became an activist at the age of 10 after the 1976 riots and the area around our school was under siege from apartheid police forces –  At the same time my primary school teacher provided most of my formative political education in essence providing our young minds with much needed decolonized education - my first act of activism was to distribute pamphlets for boycotting Fattis and Monis, a food company that was treating its workers unfairly.  My grandfather Dr Norman Murison, a community doctor and banned activist in the 1960’s was the other person beside my parents Norma Tobin and Ernest Tobin who were conscientising me and showing me what the apartheid government was doing to our people and our cou...

How do we begin to heal as a nation? How do we begin to truly ‘see’ each other? Sharing the pain, sharing the hurts, getting angry? We are all wounded in different ways – we carry the pain in different ways and we express it in different ways! In the movie ‘Colour of Fear’ (a documentary about a race based process) by Stirfry Productions they quote Rumi who says: The cure for the pain is in the pain. Most of my work as a transformation facilitator has been about this – sitting in circles with people, allowing them to share their feelings and emotions, become angry, share rawness, cry and be sad, vent and be mad, express love and joy, laugh and be silly. This catharsis has been powerful for those involved. My realization as a facilitator has been about the power of just holding a space for each other (which forms a huge part of the process), not having to answer, argue or present any viewpoint and debate – but just to merely share our personal experiences and stories and listen. T...

Purpose of this course:  We are being called upon to transform from the personal to the organizational level – for many this is new territory! For those leading – new ways of being and doing is required. For those facilitating –new approaches and methods are needed. This workshop is about finding a deeper form of engagement with diversity and transformation processes in organisations as well as exploring the inner work required at a personal level. We have to move beyond the rhetoric and ‘just talking about it’. This workshop will emphasize the  doing  of transformation so that any one no matter where they are in an organisational system can initiate change and transformation. Venue: The CDRA Centre ( www.cdra.org.za ) -  52-54 Francis street, Woodstock Dates:  Wednesday 6 Dec  (9.30am – 4.30pm) , Thursday 7 Dec  (9.30am – 4.30pm),  Friday 8 Dec  (9.30am – 1.30 pm) Cost: R3000 per person  To register mail  desireepaul...

Some thoughts from my work this month of October: I have worked with NGO leaders, Organisational development practitioners, Students, Lecturers, Educators - the processes I have facilitated have happened in an international school exploring what transformation and diversity means, a course on facilitating transformation in organisations, a university honours course on organisational management,a university first year course on diversity exploring diversity in organisations, a university engineering faculty exploring decolonisation, a corporate investment company diversity training programme. The work of diversity and transformation whether individual or organisational is a continuous journey that takes one deep within and challenges us to collectively find meaning together. The work is about the redefining of humanity out of a deeply divided and fragmented, unequal, violent, constrained past to building one that is peaceful, free, whole, equal, connected and coherent. It i...

AFRICA SPIRALS OF CHANGE  Africa Spirals of Change contributes to the strengthening and transformation of teams and organisations. We do this by tapping into collective wisdom and courageous integrity assisting them to become more authentic, purposeful and effective in their vision and mission in the world. Our processes revitalize, renew and harness individual and organisational energy, knowledge, expertise and skills from within. This contributes to improving the lives of individuals and organisations on our continent and beyond its borders. AFRICA SPIRALS OF CHANGE Africa Spirals of Change contributes to the strengthening and transformation of teams and organisations. We do this by tapping into collective wisdom and courageous integrity assisting them to become more authentic, purposeful and effective in their vision and mission in the world. Our processes revitalize, renew and harness individual and organisational energy, knowledge, expertise and skills from within....

My previous blog post ended with this paragraph: There are many ways to do diversity work but the real power lies in creating a space for honest conversation and deep listening whether it is in a large group, in smaller groups, pairs or triads. The more we can connect as a society and create spaces to talk the less we will find the need to spew out our hatred on social media! I believe that because we have become a society obsessed with electronic engagement, from email to whatsapp, from facebook to twitter, we are not having real conversations and may even have lost the art of conversation. We hardly make the time to talk to each other even when we work in shared open plan spaces. Without honest face to face conversations our society will remain locked into our frozen perceptions about each other. We need to begin to name every part of the elephant and how it affects everything we do. Have you heard the favourite saying ‘not everything is about race?’ – yes we...