Turning Cartwheels

22/02/2022

Got to love some role theory!

https://fb.watch/bj_c4OChJl/

17/02/2022

Can you believe it is mid Feb already!?

I'm noticing two stories emerging so far this year ..

One: the summer break just didn’t refresh us as it normally does, and that is not surprising after our experience of the last two years of pandemic! I'm having a lot of conversations about exhaustion and the struggle to get going.

Two: we have dived into work head first, are madly swimming to keep our heads above water, and have not had any time or energy to even think about planning for the year ahead!

So, I wanted to share some tips with you, about how I have kick started my year, in the hope it may be useful.

Here are my 5 steps for motivating yourself and creating your vision for the year, plus a free resource to support you to create your 2022 vision board.

Travel well my friends,
Sarah x

Can you believe it is mid Feb already!? I’m noticing two stories emerging so far this year .. One: the summer break just didn’t refresh us as it normally does, and that is not surprising afte…

15/02/2022

Always love creating magic in groups!
Great video from my gorgeous friend Steve about how to
do this. Enjoy!

Want to learn the skills of a facilitator? Our Advanced Facilitation Course might be for you!

Join our upcoming info night here: https://lnkd.in/gg5-En4V

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=311122784327467&ref=sharing

Want to go further in your facilitation? This unique course develops your leadership, management, community and life skills to harness the power of groups.

03/02/2022

What a great start to 2022!!

Information sessions for our Advanced Groupwork
Facilitation Course at Groupwork Centre have kicked off and the team are getting excited as we start to meet potential participants.

We successfully completed last year's course with 32 participants in November 2021. The 2021 mob were an incredible bunch of humans to share the pandemic impacted year with. I feel very grateful to have been part of it. And what awesome participants from around Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand. Such wisdom, courage and skills.

Moving this experiential course online last year was a risk, and boy am I happy we took it, we tapped into our creativity, learnt lots as we went along and found a way of being online that was as close to ‘in person’ as we felt it could be.

We so look forward to taking our learnings into our design for this year's course, and are really looking forward to creating another amazing learning experience in 2022!

I am so grateful to be walking alongside awesome educators Steve Ray, Nancy Nuñez and Henry Fowkes. It’s always a joy my friends.

You can see the course information and sign up for an info night at the link below.

Want to go further in your facilitation? This unique course develops your leadership, management, community and life skills to harness the power of groups.

15/12/2021

My first published article!
What a great way to end the year.
Yay!

https://lnkd.in/dbsJcm9A

School staff have learnt a lot about maintaining student engagement online. Facilitation expert SARAH NORTON offers her best tips for taking these strategies back into the classroom.

23/09/2021

First order ready to be delivered! thanks for the support!

20/09/2021

Hi FB friends, love it if you could share this around to anyone local you think may be interested ...

This is a project my kids are running over school holidays (11yo and 13yo).

They created the text and photos, and will be riding their bikes to deliver, if you choose that option (unless i take pity on them for long distances! ;)).

We hope they make your school holidays in lockdown a little easier... here it is ...

GARDENING TOOLS FOR YOUNG KIDS
Are you looking for things to do this school holidays?
If so, this package of gardening tools is a great way to engage your kids to get creative in the garden.

Contains:
• 3 robust gardening tools
• Nasturtium Seeds (5 seeds)
• Instructions for planting

Cost:
$3- Pick up in Newport (near Newport Station)
$5- Drop off at your house (within 10km of Newport Station)

03/09/2021

I’ve lost it!
Have you seen it?
I had it somewhere, but it seems to have disappeared!!

I don’t feel very good without it, and the more I look, the harder it seems to find!
What can i do?

I’m not talking about that odd sock in the washing, or the pennies down the back of the couch…I’m talking about my MOTIVATION!!

I struggled last week to get motivated. I felt like I was walking through thick slimy mud and it kept getting thicker! I was almost at a stand still! I felt a flatness, and it oozed onto everyone around me.
And, of course, catch 22! … I ended up not motivated to find my motivation!!

In speaking to friends and clients, I realised I was not alone in this experience.
I am sharing my learnings in the hope it may help you find yours if you are similarly stuck.

So, what did I do?

1. I acknowledged that I had lost it rather than blindly trying to push through:
I found space (not easy in lockdown! a cuppa, hiding on my front deck worked) to sit and really feel what was going on for me. While I sat in this space, as uncomfortable as it was, I realised I did NOT want to be here.
I wanted to change the situation, the first shoots of my motivation peeked through the dark soil

2. I talked to someone useful:
That evening I went for a walk with my partner (before curfew!). The simple process of having someone listen helped me begin to shift my stuckness. I started to gain perspective. I also asked how he copes when he loses motivation? “Just start”, he said! So ‘Yang’, and actually pretty good advice 😊

3. I increased my self care -
Which I have to say, on reflection, was pretty lacking! It’s a real balance working, homeschooling, ensuring there is food for the many breaks in the day, playing domino championships so screen is minimised, even having my beautiful family around 24/7! So I went for that swim, did that yoga, read that book

4. I found the thing that brings me joy -
Doing something creative always brings me joy, so I took myself to that zone where time disappears and I get completely absorbed in what I am doing. I love writing, so I wrote this blog!

5. I created boundaries and a more structured format to my day -
So simple and so easily lost in the chaos of everything. I set myself a daily schedule and let everyone know when I am available and when I am not … and funnily enough I realised they don’t need me as much as I thought they did!!

The sun seems a little brighter today, the wind feels gentler, my energy has shifted.

Phew!
I found it, my motivation returned
These are challenging times, be gentle on yourself

I hope, if yours is lost, you can find it too
(hint: it’s not down the back of the couch!)

Take care, Sarah x


If you want to:
· Get motivated
· Gain new insights
· Resolve problems
· Have clarity about your goals
· Find a sense of purpose
· As well as increase your emotional wellbeing
Call me for a free 15minute chat and let's see what we can create 0423 984 304

03/03/2021

Tips for Facilitating a Successful Webinar

Another first!!

My first introduction to the webinar world .. I could not have done it without you Henry Fowkes!

This was a 1 and ¼ hr webinar on “Facilitating Successful Groups”.
We covered 4 key areas: Benefits of Groupwork, Role of the Facilitator, Creating Safety and Engagement.

So, for those entering the webinar world I thought I would share some of my learnings … love to hear yours!

Enjoy!
Sarah

Learnings:

• That it is invaluable to have a tech support person, Henry Fowkes you are a star!

• Waving ‘hello’ to everyone when they arrive sets the scene beautifully, especially when there is lovely background music (Henry again😊), and allowing them to say ‘hi’ when they arrive creates a lovely energy to start

• Running through a quick zoom orientation at the start, so we are all on the same page and being clear about how we wanted to run the session, eg all on mute, speaker view for me and Henry, unless in small groups

• Having participants on mute until they go into small group work works well

• Clear roles of the presenters, Henry was “The Voice” of the group, I was the presenter and main facilitator.

• It makes it more engaging when there are two facilitators riffing off each other, and also allows space to breathe for the presenter

• Mixing up delivery activities eg presentation, waterfall sharing, small groups keeps people engaged

• Waterfall chats are a quick way of assessing engagement and accessing the wisdom of the group for everyone to read (where you put the question in the chat and people add their answers below)

• Stepping people through what is happening next, eg we are going to put you in small groups now and this will happen, creates a sense of trust

• A 1 ¼ hr webinar takes hours to prepare for!!! … client negotiation, design, creating slides, chat notes, agenda … my perfectionist may have got a little carried away, but don’t underestimate the time it will take to prepare … the good news is you then have the resources for future webinars!

• Small groups are gold, and keeping the same small group throughout helps build connection and a level of comfortableness

• Less is more, giving time for people to engage, reflect and discuss allows a deeper understanding and ‘stickiness’ of the content

• It is weird talking to a screen and not seeing people!

• Having online evaluation forms to link in the chat at the end means more likelihood of getting feedback .. genius!

• Taking people off mute at the end so they can all wave and say ‘bye’ creates a lovely full stop

• And finally … that I loved it … online webinars may not create deep connections in these large groups, but it does make the content more accessible for more people. Participants from all over Victoria connected without them having to leave their desks. That’s got to be a good thing 😊

So, in conclusion:
I have been obsessed with this webinar for the last couple of weeks. It did feel like a big step into the unknown.

Online groups I am comfortable with, but a 1 ¼ hr webinar to 66 participants is a different beast.

I learnt so much in the preparation and the delivery .. and I loved it!

Well ... I did put “courage” on my vision board for this year!

24/02/2021

Stupendous to be back doing in person workshops after 11 months of online!

What a great day Andrea Jones! Loved working with you and the beautiful group we had 😊.

The main reflection I walked away with was how easy it was to be back ‘on the boards’, my natural habitat after 20 odd years, a bit like riding a bike.

Now, do not get me wrong, I am enjoying the adventure, exploration and convenience of online … I find in my therapeutic groups the level of safety can often be higher as individuals are already in their ‘safe space’ at home, I’m not chasing small groups back to the large group when they are deep in conversation, I have easy access to slides, music, videos, all these things and more.

But … reading the energy of the group I find so much easier in person, I didn’t have to work so hard.

Love to hear reflections about what advantages you are finding about online and how it compares to in person.

Travel well my friends, Sarah

energy

11/02/2021

Over the last few months I have had the pure joy of swimming with a wonderful bunch of women every morning down at the beach. We call ourselves the Jellyfish and we "aqua chat" as we swim. It's great for my mental health.

Now, having grown up in the UK I have certain 'feelings' about swimming in Australian waters. I'm fine with my jellyfish friends because we chat and i don't think about what could be below.

Recently however, I have been dancing around the edge of my fear of looking into the depths while swimming freestyle, "was that a shadow? did something move over there?"

So, this morning I dived (!) in ... I went swimming with a friend who heads out into the deep deep water ... yes, it was scary, yes i saw shadows .. but, as Nelson Mandela so beautifully puts it “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

I know it may not sound like a big thing, but gee it felt great, the buzz i got from conquering my fear was awesome.

So, it got me thinking, one of the goals I am going to include in my planning this year is to dive into the scary stuff.

Let’s get out of our comfort zones!

What will you do this week that scares you?

11/02/2021

In 2005 I had the awesome opportunity to participate in the Groupwork Centre's Advanced Group Facilitation course.

At the risk of overselling ... it was life changing! Both personally and professionally.

Yes i gained skills, confidence and a whole kit bag of tools and processes. But most importantly, i got to understand who i am and invited my authentic self to step out into the light.

As scary as that can be, as facilitators, it is how we do our best work. It is how we connect the group, it is how we enable collaboration and it is how we learn and grow as individuals.

And i see so much need in the world for collaboration.
.. so, here i am 15 years later, having been an educator on the course since 2006, letting you know that this year we are going online!

I am working with 4 incredible facilitators Steve Ray, Nancy Nunez, Henry Fowkes, Che Biggs, we are really excited to be able to make this offer.

So, if you are interested, check it out ...



https://groupwork.com.au/courses/advanced-group-facilitation/
Advanced Group Facilitation Program Online - Groupwork Centre
GROUPWORK.COM.AU
Advanced Group Facilitation Program Online - Groupwork Centre
Want to go further in your facilitation? This unique course develops your leadership, management, community and life skills to harness the power of groups.

Want to go further in your facilitation? This unique course develops your leadership, management, community and life skills to harness the power of groups.