Research

Mapping the Field of Facilitation
Dr Dale Hunter and Stephen Thorpe are researching ways to map the development of facilitation in the world. Click here for a Power Point presentation and some background notes.

Sustainable co-operative processes
Dale Hunter has completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree within the Social Ecology Research Group, at UWS Hawkesbury Australia. Dale's research is about the interface between cooperative group processes and the host organisation and the barriers and keys to successful cooperative work. As part of her research she undertook a survey at the International Facilitators Conference in Toronto last year. She has also participated in and monitored an Internet dialogue on facilitator values and ethics and held a cooperative inquiry among a group of New Zealand facilitators. Click here to download Dr Dale Hunter's thesis: Facilitation of Sustainable Co-operative Processes.

Organisational conflict resolution
Hamish Brown has developed a systemic approach to facilitating organisational conflict resolution as part of a MBS in Dispute Resolution. Current models of mediation tend not to take into account the complexities of the wider organisation of which the conflict is one part. Systems thinking provides an analysis which takes the wider context into account.

Leadership Development
Hamish has recently written this article on the relationship between Leadership and cultural change. Click here to download Hamish's article in the July 2008 issue of the Zenergy newsletter (PDF format (120 KB).

Online Facilitation
Zenergy is also developing skills in the facilitation of online groups. Stephen Thorpe is completing a PhD researching ways to enhance the effectiveness of online groups. He argues in his literature review that the facilitation of relationship development is highly beneficial to the effectiveness of online groups. He believes techniques are required for facilitating online and is exploring the role of storytelling through his doctoral research. For more details on Stephen's research see his PhD website www.onlinestory.net. A ten-week online facilitation skills programme has also been developed.

Chapters in Books

Thorpe, S. (2008) The Use of Storytelling in Building Online Group Relationships. In Kelsey, S. and St. Amant, K. The Handbook of Research on Computer Mediated Communication. San Francisco: Idea Group Inc.

Thorpe, S. (2007) Facilitation Online. In Hunter, D. The Art of Facilitation. Random House New Zealand: Auckland.

Hunter, D. & S. Thorpe (2005) Facilitator Values and Ethics. In S. Schuman (Ed.), The IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Thorpe, S. (2004) Online Storytelling in IS Research. Chapter 2. (ed) Cusack, B. The Proceedings of the 2004 NACCQ Post-Graduate Symposium. Auckland, Trumps.

Conference Papers

Thorpe, S. (2004). Online Facilitation. Paper presented at Heart Politics. January 7-11, Taupo.

Master class
Senior Zenergy graduates take part in Master Classes which generate new facilitation distinctions including ways of being, models and techniques. This research takes place within an environment of powerful presence and collective inquiry. Knowledge is generated within a context of a specific purpose or intent which allows for mastery to be accessed directly from the unknown.

This co-created new knowledge then immediately informs each participating facilitator's work and is also integrated into the other modules of the Diploma of Facilitation. In this way the work of Zenergy is constantly in development as participative action research.

Zenergy Educational Trust
The fifth aim of the Zenergy Educational Trust is to support research in social ecology and group facilitation. The trust is looking to provide support for research into the field of group facilitation and co-operative organisations. Please feel free to contact us if you know of a scheme or project which needs support or funding opportunities.

Research Articles

FACTS meta-model for sustainable co-operative processes
Dale Hunter
The meta-model described in this paper was part of a doctoral research project which explored sustainable facilitated co-operative processes within organisations. The evaluative model may be used to monitor the sustainability of any co-operative processes involving people and in conjunction with any group development model. Click here to download in PDF format (132 KB).

Online Facilitation
Stephen Thorpe
Facilitation online is an evolving area and presents an expanding opportunity of empowering groups to work collaboratively across time and distance through technology. This paper discusses known factors impacting online facilitation and provides some practical suggestions for facilitating online groups. Click here to download in PDF format (93 KB).

The use of storytelling in online groups
Stephen Thorpe
Throughout history story has been a powerful and effective way to build relationships within groups of people. Professional group facilitators know the power that story can bring to the workshops and group sessions they lead. This chapter presents some of the findings from a cooperative inquiry investigating the use of storytelling using a variety of online media, including: email, audio, telephone, video and web conferencing, instant messaging, chat, blogging and online surveys. Click here to download in PDF format (407 KB).

Gil Brenson's Workshop Resources - From Justice to Justness
Justice to Justness Powerpoint Slides (1356 KB)
Conflict Resolution Powerpoint Slides (267 KB)
Winning Ways of Alinksy and Gandhi (doc 33 KB)
Constructive Conversations about Challenging Times:
A guide to community dialogue (pdf 145 KB)
Constructive Conversations about Challenging Times:
A guide to family dialogue (pdf 134 KB)
Linguistic Empowerment (pdf 148 KB)
Beyond Conflict to Consensus: An Introductory Learning Manual (html 266 KB)

Gil Brenson's Workshop Resources - Disaster/Crisis Intervention Facilitation
Facilitating Disaster Intervention Powerpoint Slides (97 KB)
Crisis Intervention Powerpoint Slides (981 KB)
A Light In This Dark Valley: A Manual for Disaster and Trauma Victims (pdf 295 KB)
And now what? A Helping Hand for Children that have Suffered a Loss (pdf 1078 KB)
Facilitating Psychological Reconstruction: Manual for Disaster Intervention (pdf 606 KB)
Crisis Recovery Model (pdf 491 KB)
Five Principles of Crisis Intervention:Reducing the Risk of Premature Crisis Intervention
(pdf 21 KB)
Crisis Intervention and Critical Incident Stress Management: A defense of the field (pdf 159 KB)
Creating a Common Communications Culture: Interoperability in Crisis Management
(html 162 KB)
Personal Transtion (pdf 38 KB)
Advanced Techniques for Crisis Intervention (doc 64KB)
Ladder of Participation (pdf 19 KB)
Who Moved My Cheese (doc 123 KB)

Gil Brenson's Workshop Resources - Caring for the Caregivers
Debriefing by Numbers (doc 38 KB)
Caring for the Caregivers Powerpoint Slides (35 KB) (Created by Tom Schwarz)

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