Thought-provoking ideas, and transformative tools and training for working with individuals, groups, organisations, and communities.
Where Roles Dance: A Journey into Group Process Work
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Dear Reader, We caught up with ANZPOP Faculty Trainers Bec Lang and Grzesiek Zielinski recently as they were preparing for their upcoming workshop, Where Roles Dance: A Journey into Group Process Work and their conversation about group dynamics was too good not to share... Grzesiek: I remember when I was a kid, maybe seven years old, living in this neighbourhood in Warsaw. It was built during communist times with these big apartment blocks, and there were lots of kids everywhere, gathering around the playgrounds. Bec: Oh wow. Grzesiek: First, they were gathering around their apartment houses and playgrounds, then connecting with other groups. At the end, there were groups of more than 50 each. We started walking with sticks, asking parents to make us swords and shields, or making them ourselves from whatever we could find. Some had really sophisticated wooden axes and beautifully painted shields. It was also the time when you couldn't buy many things in the shops, so DIY. Bec: I think it's a fabulous story. One of the things I like about it is when you talk about the Poles -- it's so in you. I can see in your body how you were a Pole in that moment. You fully occupied the role before you got to it, so that also enabled you to role shift. Grzesiek: In what sense? Bec: Well, I think it's harder to role shift if you haven't been supported to fully occupy one side. But if you can really fully occupy a side, it's easier to switch roles. I think one of the things that happens, particularly in conflict when you get to the edge, is to allow yourself to really fully, completely be in the role -- to really speak from the role, to find something in yourself that normally doesn't get spoken. Grzesiek: That's very interesting, what you say. When people get a chance to embody the roles and really go into this altered state of one position, then stepping into the other side and experiencing themselves in the other role is more doable, and the shaming could be decreased, and the backlash avoided. When working with group process, we look for roles in the group and assign them to the spots in the room. These roles are physically there, and people are walking between one role and the other. There's something important to understand here: a role is more than a person, and a person is more than a role. A role is more than a person because roles need multiple people to unfold them and express them in full. And a person is more than a role because we are not restricted to only one role - we are a multirole species, each containing different aspects and voices that can emerge. We encourage everyone to step into these roles and represent, express them and then move to the other role to do so. Everyone has a chance to experience and speak from different roles. Every time you step out of one role in the room and walk into the other one, you physically cross the edge. But I think often people physically walk from one position to the other, but in themselves, they are not changing their roles. Their voice sounds the same. The body posture is similar. They don't really change. Bec: I totally agree with you. I'm sure I've done it - swapped roles, but haven't really swapped roles. I haven't worked the edge before I've swapped roles. Grzesiek: An edgy part means this part of the role that's incomplete. Something in me is holding me away or making it difficult to get there -- maybe to speak something or to feel something. Bec: This is great, because what I'm thinking about -- the first role of being Polish is deeply in you, in your identity. It's personal. So it's fully embodied. When you stand as "I am a Polish person," there was something so congruent. Whereas when you went to the other side, it's a role only. I think the slowing down to speak out the edgy part of the identity -- the thing that's disavowed, the thing that's almost too hard to say - I use that even with mainstream groups. "If you could say one more thing that almost feels too hard to say, what would it be?" And people can often come up with something. Bec: Yes. I think you're more likely to have less shame and less backlash if you can be supported to go slow and be supported to speak out about what's happening at the edge. It's more grounded. This exploration of roles, edges, and the dance between individual and collective identity is what we invite you to experience in: To sign up for the workshop, go to the Process Work Play website: click here Level Up Your Facilitation Skills Speaking of group dynamics and facilitation, if you're thinking that upping your facilitation game might be your next growth area, or you think it might be the skillset that propels your team's capacity, we have some amazing offerings coming up. There are limited spots in each training so everyone gets to practice, and they're only on offer once this year. Facilitation Masterclass Series 5 x 3hr online sessions A deep-dive series into the core challenges of transformational group facilitation. This is for you if you facilitate groups regularly and want to develop mastery in the deeper layers of group process, you've hit challenges like burnout or power dynamics and want tools that address both the inner and outer work of facilitation, or you want to strengthen your leadership presence while staying grounded and adaptive in complexity. Grab your spot in the July cohort now Working with Conflict in Groups 2 x 3hr online sessions A focused, practical training to grow your confidence in handling conflict constructively. This is for you if you work with groups and often feel unsure when conflict arises, you're looking for practical, immediately usable skills to help groups navigate tensions, or you're newer to group facilitation and want a focused introduction to Process Work-informed conflict tools. Register here for the upcoming June cohort Diverse States of Getting Along - Process Work Community Conference 22 & 23 August, Gold Coast Want to hang out with us and explore how we can hold these spaces together in action on issues in our country? Join us to learn about and experience culturally transformative ways to collaborate and facilitate work across diverse perspectives. Get your conference ticket here See you there! The ANZPOP Team |
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Thought-provoking ideas, and transformative tools and training for working with individuals, groups, organisations, and communities.
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