Puleng Makhoalibe: Confessions of a Facilitator

Name: Puleng Makhoalibe

Location at time of writing: South Africa

A bit about me...

I am a Mosotho girl, based in South Africa, enthusiastic about Africa and loves working across the continent. I carry multiple identities and I’m enthusiastic about the continent as a whole. I also have a background in Computer Science but have spent the last eleven years transitioning completely to being an educator, facilitator, coach and consultant. So I still carry multiple identities in my professional life that manifest as and when needed. 

Being a facilitator gives me an opportunity to work across cultures, continents, disciplines, races, genders, diverse communities every single week. Therefore I remain curious, aware, engaged, and forever learning. I call myself an alchemist of the human minds, creating atmospheres for people to tap into their humanity and co-create magical solutions that emerge when people are just ushered to simply “being”. 

I didn't expect facilitation to teach me…

Humility. One of the best facilitation assignments I have had, that fundamentally shifted my view of facilitation was the African Science Leadership Programme. In my excitement to meet my fellow African Science leaders from all over the continent, I realised very quickly that as a facilitator, I was there to create space for them to think together, to co-create, navigate and have leadership conversations. The facilitator role meant constantly being aware that I am in this place to serve; and being obsessed about the delegate’s experience and creating as many serendipitous experiences as possible for them. Developing the ability to be 100% present and obsessed with the delegate’s experience is what was the gamechanger for me. Being absorbed to the present moment - in service to the thinking environment, and delegate’s experience, means, also being aware of every opportunity to accelerate the experience, and leverage the energy in the room; it also means being aware of the negative energy and understanding that you are a custodian of energy. Not only your energy but most importantly the energy of x number of people in the room. 

The heart I carry into every facilitation assignment is that of selflessness, and being in full service to humanity. My ultimate goal is ultimately for each participant to leave a workshop feeling, “I am great, I am a thinker, and a problem solver who is creative. And I am transformed.” I often leave, physically exhausted, but emotionally full  and happy from seeing my energy invested in making others feel amazing and doing amazing work. 

In my part of the world…

I often use this to connect, have conversations, and remain curious about other cultures. Because I work across the continent in Africa and run programmes that ignite cultural curiosity, II gives me an opportunity to explore, enjoy, and experience other people’s approaches. Our colleague, Leo from Chile, once took us through his unique approach on facilitating divergence through a dance in 2018. I found this to be a powerful way to embody diverging principles. Tee, our colleague from Malaysia, also has the most extraordinary ice-breakers, and I always make sure to learn from him. We also work with scientists across different fields, from across the world, curiosity is ignited with every conversation. Creativity, as much as curiosity, are crucial in facilitation. Being genuinely interested and immersed in the experience of participants, but also of fellow facilitators. I have also learnt to laugh a lot with my fellow facilitators. Have loads of fun: work hard and play hard and enjoy each other. 

One time, everything went sideways…

I learnt from creatives that they call mishaps - “Beautiful mistakes”. I have encountered several of those since I started facilitating two decades back. One distinct moment that sticks out is when we were facilitating a wonderful, artistic experience of painting trees. Our lead facilitator for that activity couldn’t facilitate it and we needed to fill his big shoes. This resulted in a complete rethink of this activity, spending more time on thinking about how to make it contextually relevant to Africa. Eshchar Mizrachi and Alisa Govender did a very good job of researching and spending time on sharing about African Artists and positioning it from that perspective. We also modified the activity to force the outcome to have more white space and elegant trees. 

My weirdest / most wonderful tool is…

My weirdest tools are energisers… thinking about an ice break that links to the next stage of the process you are about to take delegates through. Thinking through a short activity that can prepare delegates to unblock different parts of their brains for all the different activities we do in a workshop has been quite intriguing for me. The most wonderful tool that prepares the room and without fail brings a giggle and lightheartedness to the room is Picasso in a bag. I love the way the element of surprise creates a fun atmosphere that immediately brightens everyone’s face and brings joy. I am yet to see a participant that does not giggle through this activity that brings out a child in everyone. 

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

If people could create a space for each person to reflect, share, and be acknowledged. Everyone in this world needs to know they matter and their thoughts and contributions are valued. If we could create psychological safe space for people to tap into their imagination and unleash the inner child. I think it’s important for facilitators to fully understand the power of divergence and encourage and equip participants to apply divergent thinking before converging. And take every opportunity to impart the knowledge of the creative process so that people can feel equipped to use the tools after our workshop, we would have carried the legacy of our Creative Problem Solving Process founders: Parnes and Osborn. 

If you could copy & paste one facilitation skill from anyone you know, whose would it be and why?

It would be Tim Dunne’s way of being fun, yet stern, but also very aware and open-minded to tweak a process to what serves the energy in the room, in that very moment. 

My question to our next up, Lydia Mosi, is:

How did you end up as a facilitator?

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