Facilitation and Philosophy

The Guide highlights the desired learning outcomes prior to, or in front of, the activity. The intent is to focus Participants on the desired learning outcomes and psychologically prepare for the activity. It involves the articulation of the following key aspects:

• Objectives - the desired learning outcomes

• Motivations - why the activity/experience is important and how it relates to other contexts

• Functions - behaviors that will help bring about success, and how to optimize these

• Dysfunctions - behaviors that will hinder success and how to overcome these barriers 

• Revisiting - behaviors or performances learned from previous activity that may apply to the current activity

The Guide offers stories, myths, or inspirations that are unrelated to the activity and that provide a metaphor for the activity and/or desired learning outcomes. The metaphoric content is delivered in a thought-provoking and/or inspirational manner to encourage analogous connections between the activity and other unrelated contexts, such as the workplace or personal life. The isomorphic content is added to the framing by the Guide as parallel themes or ideas to encourage Participants to make specific metaphoric connections. Both metaphoric and isomorphic methods are commonly applied together, however,  isomorphic content may not always be required. As with Direct Frontloading, the overall intent is to focus Participants on the desired learning outcomes and psychologically prepare for the activity.

The Guide Guides participants through a series of steps that filters and funnels the Participant's reflections in response to a question or statement offered by the Guide. Each question or statement is intended to filter out unnecessary information and focus on the essential aspects and learning from the experience. It is represented in the diagram below and further explained in the text below. This technique is intended to help review and conclude an activity and may be applied in conjunction with other techniques.

Encourages Participants to recall the experience and articulate specific points or situations related to the desired learning outcomes:

1.  Affect/ Effect: The Guide encourages participants to articulate how the specific points identified in the first step;

• Affected their own experience and emotions and

• Effected the group and overall experience

2.  Summation: The Guides ask participants to consider and/or articulate how they may be able to apply the learnings identified in the previous step to other activities within the MAG program and/or other unrelated activities or contexts.

3.  Application: The Guides ask participants to consider and/or articulate how they may be able to apply the learnings identified in the previous step to other activities within the MAG program and/or other unrelated activities or contexts.

4.  Commitment: The Guides ask participants to consider and/or articulate how they intend to commit to applying the learnings identified in the previous step, this may include what they will do differently next time and/or how they can commit to change.