✨Reflect 2021✨ - MURAL MURAL on the wall, what will facilitation look like in the future? 🪞

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Reflection makes the future happen. At some point, someone stared at a Model T, and they thought, one day the car will drive me. Someone stared at the vacuum, and they were like one day, the vacuum will just vacuum the floors itself.  The world changes when we reflect on what is and dream about what could be. 

Facilitation is just like that old car and vacuum cleaner. We know what it is now, but what will it become in the next 5, 10, 25 , 50 years? 

What will facilitation look like when we have the first moon colony, an underwater research station, or a depot on Mars? What will it look like in an ever-changing world impacted by climate change and a growing population? What questions will we be thinking about? Why will facilitation matter, and how will it happen? 

Tell us your thoughts on the future of facilitation below, and we’ll send you a small gift of gratitude for your meaningful contribution. 🔮

This post is part of Reflect 2021. Join us for the virtual event on December 9, where we’ll look back at how teams (like yours) kept innovating in the ever-changing landscape of work — and prepare to move forward into another exciting year of collaboration. As we close out 2021, join our team on December 9th to think about the year and get ready to kick off 2022 with a bang. Register for the event, and chat Plus, share, discuss, and connect in the MURAL Community on posts that say ✨Reflect 2021✨. We will be sending small gifts for members who join in and add to the discussion.

manuel

At first I assume that robots and AI software will replace me in the first place as the facilitator and then they will even replace my participants. Therefore AI will in 20+ years make workshops inside their algorithms with themselves and the answer to the workshop's challenge will always be 42 ;-)

Christina

@Amanda Loving this question! I am going to answer with a healthy dollop of wishful thinking in terms of how I would like those of us that are in the classroom today to evolve, as we prepare the facilitators of a good tomorrow:

We will design ways to help our students learn from each other on topics important to them.

We will ask ourselves if the ways we are doing things encourage students to be competitive or collaborative, and why.

We will think of ways to reward and foster empathy and compassion and team spirit that is inclusive of all, not just the football stars and cheerleaders.

We will experiment with different ways to use technology so that it makes life better, not more scary.

We will figure out how to address all the factors that go into creating a school shooter and help our charges learn to articulate their emotions in nondestructive ways, maybe also via the use of creativity-developing murals.

And they will take what they have learned to do and value into their professional lives, and create schools and workplaces where more voices are heard and respected.

That is the future I would love to build.

lsh385000

I used to think that I should call myself a consultant, rather than a facilitator, because consultants were valued more. But in the last two years, I think facilitator value has increased as people struggled to find ways to facilitate conversations and connections online.

At least that's my experience. I now call myself a virtual facilitator more than a consultant. I've really enhanced my skills and experiences since learning Mural and learning to facilitate online.

manuel

@lsh385000 I absolutely agree - facilitation becomes more and more important and many now develop an appreciation for it. Thank you for sharing the "transformation" ;-)

ridtz

What if we can look into a reflected surface- a puddle of water, a glass wall, a lake- and find our reflection thoughts projected on it. Would this be a possible version of doing reflections in a metaverse- a refectiverse?

manuel

The water/surface would help you to find your thoughts and solutions. Cool!

If that becomes true, @ridtz , I am looking forward to MURAL's "Reflect 2042" event in 21 years ;-)

Christina

And I am looking forward to our own main man @manuel's segment, Back to Basics: Digital Design Thinking Workshop in today's Reflect 2021 event! As an instructor I have been amazed this year at how much design thinking can help me build better classes, especially online, and hearing the perspectives of this awesome Community member is sure to offer some great ideas to take into 2022.