The Common Ground Network for Life and Choice Manual

• Ask participants to read through Part 2, Second Small Group Dialogue Session.
• The main points are reviewed and questions invited.
• Note that while active listening is critical in the morning, and facilitators should stick
with it where called for in the design, in the afternoon they can be more flexible and
use it as needed, where it would be helpful.
VII.
Questions and Answers up to this point.
BREAK
VIII.
Practicing Skills for Dealing with Strong Emotions and Statements. (45 minutes – begin
at start of hour 3)
• Have participants read Part 6 of the General Guidelines for Facilitation.
• Pass out the Partner A and Partner B Sheets. Explain that these are intended to be
illustrative of highly emotional or otherwise challenging statements that could be
made by dialogue participants. Be reassuring that these are “worst case scenarios”
not frequent in our experience.
If Alternative One is used (see below) it doesn’t matter which sheet people get. If
Alternative Two is used, assign people to dyads and give an A sheet to one of the pair
and a B sheet to the other.
• Practice format explanation (read to trainees):
“In this practice exercise you will be rehearsing the recommended responses
described in part 3 of the General Guidelines for Facilitation that you have just read.
You will take turns in the facilitator role. Someone role-playing a dialogue
participant will read a prepared statement or question from the Partner A or Partner B
sheets. The role-playing facilitator will make an intervention.
It is important to go through each section on the Partner A/B sheets in order, and to
keep in mind from which section the statement is being read. Each of these sections
of statements corresponds to a lettered paragraph in Part 5 of the Guidelines. The
participant role-playing the facilitator is to practice using the specific intervention
described in that corresponding paragraph. We know this is an artificial construct
because in real life, you might use more than one response; or, any one of several
possible responses might work. But for purposes of practicing, follow the Guidesheet
so you get the experience of using each type of intervention.”
Alternative one: (With a small group) The Training Leader reads the statements from