FACILITATION OF REFLECTION BEFORE OR AFTER CONFLICT

People are often blind to their own views. Mezirow (1991, 1997) recommends discourse as a way of identifying and considering preferred ways of acting. The conditions for discourse seem ideal at first glance, but Action Science dialogue groups show that they can be created:

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It is easier to help a person to identify, name, and vent powerful feelings before or after a real or perceived threat occurs. The facilitator can more easily create a safe environment in which to extract and address fears, separate real from imagined consequences, and help a person develop both single-loop and double-loop approaches to working with the conflict.

An Action Science consultant facilitates dialogue about a situation, or a “case,” in which a person charts both what was said (in the right column) and what was thought or felt but not said (in the left column). The consultant helps to identify mismatches between intentions and actual consequences. They draw up a ladder of inference, identify assumptions, and map links between assump­tions and actions. They role-play alternative actions.

Facilitators can also engage people in anticipatory reflection of alternative worldviews in order to step outside of current mental models that restrict new insights and skill development through the use of expressive ways of tapping into tacit experiential knowing (Davis-Manigaulte, Yorks, and Kasl, 2006; Yorks and Kasl, 2003). Some examples might illustrate this approach. Richard Leachman (1999), for example, uses abstract paintings along with word descrip­tions to help people create, populate, visit, and experience new worlds. He then invites people to revisit a problem through the lens of experience created by their foray into this new world. Other experiential educators engage people in dance, poetry, metaphor, guided imagery, or painting. Dr. Bruce Copley (1999) designs learning that uses all of the senses. He devises exercises that connect people to their physical worlds and that then enable them to see how this con­nection opens up new points of view. He helps people to learn from people, ani­mals, plants, and inanimate objects. “Through this ‘whole person’ involvement the mind, the body, the feelings, the spirit, the experience, the idea and the meaning become one” (pp. 4-5). Activities such as these are useful for creat­ing habits of being that are the basis of establishing an empathic zone (Yorks and Kasl, 2002).