Lydia Mosi: Confessions of a Facilitator

Name: Lydia Mosi

Location at time of writing: My office at the University of Ghana, Accra Ghana

I am a lecturer, research scientist, DIY enthusiast, home gardener and now…facilitator. I am keen on training and mentoring the next generation of African scientists to “think outside the box” and unlock their authentic potentials by building critical skill sets. I love facilitation because it achieves this creatively and effortlessly.

I didn't expect facilitation to teach me…

Creativity. The ability to appreciate different perspectives, through play and simple activities is a definite highlight of what I’ve learnt as a facilitator. I am amazed at how it is possible to come up with alternative, new and novel ideas and ways of doing things when judgement is suspended. Facilitation affords me the opportunity to create the conditions where others can think, contribute and co-create solutions that are innovative and meaningful to them. My role is to hold the space for ideas and perspectives to evolve and to see uncertainty yield to creative transformation. That proverbial light bulb moment which only you can experience and be deeply moved by……

In my part of the world…

A lecturer at a university is known to come to class and teach hours using slides with copious text with seemingly monotonous discourse. Some students totally skip class because of this. What facilitation has taught me is how to change this conception by introducing creativity to teaching and learning. I find myself continuously looking for creative ways to facilitate my classes by falling back on skill sets I've picked up as an ASLP fellow, and as a budding facilitator for Inclusive Innovation, in order to enhance teaching and learning. A simple “I'd like to invite you to think, try, discuss...” is such a powerful way to elicit a response from an otherwise disengaged group.  A highlight of facilitating a class, for me,  is how I have adopted one of II's evaluation tool, PPCo, to obtain feedback and responses from students in the seminar class which historically suffered from low student participation and contribution to discussions. 

One time, everything went sideways…

Facilitating a workshop involves intricate planning down to the detailed agenda and for this reason, it is rare for everything to go sideways. There are those moments though, where all this planning can result in wasted effort and poor outcomes, if the participants are not “present.”

There was a time when I was supposed to run a 2 day workshop on research leadership, in which I had painstakingly planned every detail with the client and confirmed full availability of the participants. The morning of day one started with a bang, with all the participants present and deeply engaged, until the first break. Then a few of them started going in and out, missing the build up and key activities.  The client informed me that there had been an impromptu meeting for some of the participants who had to momentarily leave between the sessions. By lunch time, there had been so much flux and interruption that I decided to terminate the workshop. What I felt in the moment was disappointment with all the time and effort made, but I was content in my decision because continuing with “absent” participants would have ticked the “yes” box for “workshop delivered” but ticked the “no” box for “transformative impact.”

My weirdest / most wonderful tool is…

I'm torn between two: Ask the Expert and one of our Art of Deferring Judgment painting activity. Ask the Expert is fun activity and pulls even the introvert in the room out of their shell. It is high energy, full of laughter and also unlocks creativity that one doesn't even know they possess.

The Art of Deferring Judgment is a life changing activity, and causes us to rethink how we criticize other people's ideas and creativity. It is profoundly transformative and causes us to reflect introspectively and learn how to build one's ideas rather than crush them with our words and actions.

If I could change one thing about how we work together on this planet...

It would be our “heart-set.” This is a term that I first heard from our colleague Izzy. The right heart-set is empathy, inclusivity, humility, warmth, seeing the good in everyone, caring for one another, respecting and appreciating nature, being kind and generous with our time and being seen. Alas, I cheated! One thing evolved to a list of things, but (in Maggie's voice and tone) "wouldn't it be great if we all had the right “heart-set” for each other and nature?

And to answer Puleng's question from her confession; "How did you end up as a facilitator?"

I ended up as a facilitator because it was inevitable! I experienced an explosion of new knowledge and learning as an ALSP fellow and was simply fascinated by the II facilitators: Tim, Anina, Connie, Esh, Maggie, Binyam, Alisa and Ava and ended up with a HMI…."How might I do what they are doing in my area of influence?” The rest, as they say, is HISTORY!

My question for the next confessor...

Who or what has influenced your facilitation journey the most?

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