Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.
Picture it: a beautiful autumn day in a magical setting in the heart of Paris. It almost feels like we are in the countryside. The participants are settled under a marquee. The resident peacocks try to join in. This is the setting of our last workshop. We’d like to just sit and enjoy our surroundings for a bit, it’s rare that you come across such a beautiful place, but we are not here to relax!
What does it mean to facilitate an Action Painting Workshop?
You have to give out instructions loudly but calmly for each stage of the activity to as many as 120 participants. You need to reassure participants who are often way out of their comfort zone by being caring and understanding whilst not losing sight of everything else that is going on in the room. We are everywhere at once. There are questions about the themes; someone needs more paint; this person didn’t hear the instructions…
No time to slow down.
So what do you do when a person, right from the start, decides not to participate, and cannot be convinced, standing there, arms folded across their chest? And what can we say to the big kids who want to relive their toddler days by throwing paint over their colleagues faces (with or without their consent…)?
It’s not easy to manage all this in a fast paced environment.
In these moments we try to live by the words of the very wise management coach Claude B.: “We must always return to the notion of the collective work.” If you spend too much time on the loners who don’t want to participate you will lose sight of the bigger picture, the rest of the team.
As Quebecers, we are very well placed to understand the scope of this concept. In ice hockey (our national sport!), we play collectively: it is a team effort. Well, in Action Painting Workshops too.
If someone doesn’t want to do the activity, it doesn’t happen often, but often enough that we are talking about it, well it’s their loss. We try to convince them to have a go, that’s part of our job, but if there is no changing their minds then we should encourage them to move away from the group, to go and have a coffee rather than compromising the smooth running of the workshop.
And in the case of the participants behaving as toddlers, if the group itself has not been able to fix the situation, it is up to us to do so and quickly before the entire table starts to ooze with paint.
Perhaps it would be enough simply to ask them calmly whether they really want to participate in the activity? And then gently, not always easy to do, make them understand that they are preventing their colleagues from enjoying themselves. Unfortunately, there is no penalty bench in Action Painting Workshops!
By concentrating on creating a successful workshop and making sure that the willing participants are enjoying themselves maybe the loners and the troublemakers will see what they are missing out on. It’s worth a try!
So, yes, thank you Claude, we will always try to remember that in the case of team building activities, the team does come before the individual.
"Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much" – Helen Keller
