The Disability Rights Watch has embarked on a programme to build the capacity of Disabled Persons Organisations DPOs in strategic advocacy and interpretation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The first training of trainers was convened in Lusaka from 3-4 October 2014 and had board members and programme managers of DPOs supported by Opportunity Zambia in attendance. The organisations that attended this training are Mental Health Users Network of Zambia, Zambia Association for Parents of Children with Disabilities, The Zambia Association of Employment of Parents of Children with Disabilities and the Archie Hinchcliff Disability Intervention.
Here below is one key presentation made by DRW President Waliuya Wamundila at the training:
DISABILITY RIGHTS WATCH
Facipulation
Facipulation! This sounds to be a completely new word. It
seems to be combination of two words. These words are ‘facilitation’ and
‘manipulation’. In simple terms it means facilitating while manipulating. A
trainer may facilitate a workshop while manipulating the learning process. In
many circumstances, people treat the word manipulation negatively. It
apparently means twisting information or forcing change on people. We have
heard of political manipulation. So, it is important to ensure that we as
facilitators of training sessions remove this negative connotation. When people
say they have been manipulated they geel abused or badly treated and cheated.
In life we need to manipulate something in order to resolve certain situations.
For instance, a physiotherapist need to manipulate some muscles in
some ailing parts of the body in order to remove pain or strengthen the
muscles. This is good manipulation. During the process of facilitating learning
in a workshop, manipulation is used positively. The learning process is
positively manipulated to re-enforce particular thinking. This form of
manipulating is more of mental than the physical one done by the
physiotherapist.
Some scholars have indicated that most facilitators of personal or
organisational development would not like to be described as manipulative.
They’d describe their “facilitation” as a process of helping people to help
themselves, to reach a goal, to identify a path and indeed to achieve something
either set out clearly at the start, or discovered along the way. Facilitators
make the path easier, they help people get to where they want to go, or to
identify the want in the first place. Some facilitators will be more convergent
in style working with a clearly laid out target, goal, and even route to get
there. Others will be emergent. They allow the learning to shape itself as they
go along.
A physiotherapist is a manipulator. Due to trust from their
clients, they are allowed to manipulate for the purpose of good. The client
will not treat this as manipulation. In facilitating learning, the facilitator
goes into the same relationship. When necessary, they will have to manipulate
the process in order to achieve their learning goal.
In my training experience, I have done a lot of manipulation in
order to shift the thinking of people. My experience is in facilitation
learning workshops for persons with different disabilities including children.
Just imagine facilitating a workshop with all categories of disabilities,
including those with intellectual disabilities. It takes mental manipulation to
achieve your goal. A facilitator should be able to change methodologies to fit
the prevailing situation without the participants knowing what is happening.
Participants move with the facilitator because they trust his/her skills. Good
manipulators tend to be good facilitators. So, they are good facipulators.
Just imagine you are facilitating a workshop for participants who
feel they are more skilled than you in facilitating. The based is to manipulate
them positively. Use new manipulating methodologies they may not experienced.
Most facilitators like group work for their workshops. Well! It is good but add
more flavor to it. When training persons with disabilities, most especially
children, a facilitator simply needs to be a manipulator. In certain
circumstances individualized manipulation is necessary to enhance the learning
process.
We can now see what facipulation is. It is manipulative
facilitation of a learning process with the aim of achieving the goal the
facilitator has set to achieve. In many circumstances, the participants do not
even realise that they are being manipulated. The facilitator asks the
participants to get to do things he has planned to have them do. In
facipulation, it is assumed that the participants have allowed the facilitator
to help them to a better level in terms of learning or development. There is
existing trust.
There are some situations in which facipulation tends to be
negative in a workshop. Some of the circumstances are as follows:
When the
facilitator is in a conflict of interest with those who have hired him/her or
with the rest of the participants. This comes when the facilitator has interest
in the agenda of the organisation he/she is hired to work for.
When the
facilitator is not confident enough to manipulate emerging circumstances. The
facilitator pre-determines the games, group work and other methods and fails to
adapt when things change. They tend to manipulate the workshop to fit into
their plans.
When the
facilitator wants to manipulate the workshop to meet their needs rather than those
of the participants. Some scholars say that people who are formerly pure
managers of faculty consultants always tend to be rigid and conduct the
sessions like a choir.
When the
facilitator is insecure and keeps a distance from the participants.
When the
facilitator is naturally a manipulator and bully in their life. They usually
tend to push around people and so they will do it with the participants.
When the
facilitator does not know the area/topic very well. They may have been assigned
to facilitate on behalf on another person or use rot memory. The workshop
becomes very mechanical. They may use power point from beginning to end. They
may fail to take questions so they manipulate the process to themselves.
The above circumstances should never happen at all. But they
happen!
Facipulation is above asking the right questions at the right time.
It is about helping the participants get to where they desire to be in terms of
learning and experience. The facilitator coordinates the learning process.
Facipulation is an art. It is a delicate blend of facilitation in which there
is catalyzing, easing and supporting conversations and actions around issues
important to the participants.
At the same time, facipulation involves manipulation in which there
is steering conversations by participants towards their established themes and
goals, and ensuring that actions and decisions made by the participants support
their interests. It should not be towards the interests of the facilitator.
When planning a workshop ensure that you study the list of participants
and check whether there are some whom you know are difficult. Make specific
plans for them to be easily manipulated. Prepare good snacks, T-shirts, pens,
notebooks and make all the participants feel at home and want to be invited to
another workshop in future.
Assign people to groups ahead of time, and plant someone who knows
exactly what you want to achieve in each group. Talk to those whom you have
planted and tell them that you have chosen them to assist you facilitate the
process. Never put the difficult people in the same group. Engeneer the group
work questions in such a way that you get what you want. Never give enough time
for the groups to complete their work. They may never complete.
Call for feedback and ask the participants on how they want to do
their presentations. Allow one group at a time. Allow questions and comments.
Do not comment a lot. After they have presented tell them what you exactly
expected them to present. Lead them to agree with you.
Wamundila Waliuya.
October, 2014.
