SYLLABUS OF THE COURSE HEN572
FACILITATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION PROCESSES
Ir. Jan Haverkamp is a free-lance facilitator and a member of the International Association of Facilitators.
He studied biochemistry and nuclear physics at the University of Leiden, and has an academic engineering
degree (MSc level) in environmental sciences, social and environmental psychology and communication
psychology from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He worked 10 years in the development of
environmental NGOs in Eastern Germany, Czecho-Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine, Albania and Croatia before
he emigrated to the Czech Republic in 1997. He was co-founder of the ZHABA facilitators collective and was
one of those who introduced the art of facilitation in Central Europe in the early 1990s. He combines
facilitation with his work as expert consultant nuclear energy and energy policy for Greenpeace. He now lives
with his wife Agata in Gdańsk, Poland. He is 56 years old, has a 21 year old daughter in the Czech Republic
and a 24 year old son in the Netherlands.
Facilitation of Environmental Communication Processes
Goals of the seminar
● Participants know what facilitation is
● Participants understand the complexity of communication process dynamics
● Participants can programme simple environmental communication processes
○ including knowledge of basic principles
○ including knowledge of several more advanced processes
○ including knowledge of energy flows during meetings
● Participants know basic technical tools in facilitation
○ including the pros and cons of presentation tools
○ including basic working techniques
● Participants can facilitate in simple communication settings
○ Participants know the basics of Roger Schwarz's Skilled Facilitator Approach
○ Participants can use these basics in real facilitation settings
Times
Thursday 29 September: 10:00 – 17:00, place: Aula
Friday 30 September: 10:00 – 17:00, place: Aula
Thursday 13 October: 10:00 – 17:00, place: Aula
Friday 14 October: 10:00 – 17:00, place: Aula
Exam: Thursday 24 November or Friday 25 November
Students are expected to attend all full seminar days, as facilitation is not something can be learned from
books, but only by interaction. The methods used will be highly interactive and participative. The seminar
blocks will not exist of lectures, but interactive group work. The complete seminar will take place in English.
The course will be examined orally on the basis of the work done during the blocks and background literature.
Literature
Literature is provided on the Information System (IS) of the Masaryk University on:
https://is.muni.cz/auth/el/1423/podzim2016/HEN572/64713545/?lang=en.
The books from which abstracts can be found in the reader are available in the library of the Masaryk
University, as is some additional literature on facilitation.
Contact
In case of questions, you can always contact me:
e-mail: jan.haverkamp@ecn.cz
telephone: +420 603 569 243
skype: jan_haverkamp
PROGRAMME
Thursday 29 September – Introduction and basis
● Introduction in the way this seminar will be run
● communication processes, environmental communication processes, facilitation
READ & STUDY: Education for a Change Chapter 1 (Educating Strategically) and Chapter 2, part 1 (pp 33
– 41) (taking ourselves seriously) [04. Education for a Change, 05. Worksheet Workshop Spiral]
ACTION: groups of three: make the set-up of a programme for a stakeholders meeting in the case of 200
3MW wind turbines in the Ore Mountains near Chomutov”. Write the programme on FLIP CHART
Friday 30 September – Programming environmental communication processes
● elements of a good programme
● programming formats and ideas
○ Future Search
○ Open Space
○ Appreciative Inquiry
○ Dynamic Facilitation
○ World Café
READ & STUDY: Articles on Future Search, Open Space, Appreciative Inquiry, Dynamic Facilitation and
World Café [10. Change Handbook, Chapter 2; 11. Change Handbook, Chapter 14; 12. Change Handbook,
Chapter 15; 13. Change Handbook, Chapter 18; 14. The World Café (CafeToGo)]
ACTION: Adapt your programme from yesterday based on Appreciative Inquiry / World Café & story telling
HOMEWORK
READ & STUDY: Schwarz – chapter 4 and Ground Rules text [15. Schwarz: Skilled Facilitator Chapter 4]
READ & STUDY: Schwarz – Ground Rules for Effective Groups [16. SchwarzGroundRules.pdf]
READ if you like: Argyris text [Background: 200501_infed_argyris.pdf]
Thursday 13 October – Role of the facilitator and facilitation skills I
● World Café live – exchanging our experiences with different formats
● How to facilitate such programmes
● Facilitation roles
● You as facilitator
– how to deal with your facilitator’s nightmares
● The Skilled Facilitator I – the theory: Espoused theory / Theory in use, Unilateral Control
Model / Mutual Learning Model; The Ground Rules
ACTION: Role-play in your team different cases in your programme
Friday 14 October – Role of the facilitator and facilitation skills II
● Skilled Facilitator II – facilitating the more difficult moments – the role of Ground Rules
● Analysis of an environmental communication processes
● The facilitator and neutrality
● Wrap-up
READ: Power Point is Evil [22. Power Point is Evil]
READ & STUDY: Mobility Stakeholders Workshop WBCSD [23. 2001_WBCSD_fac_prog]
Exam 24 OR 25 November
The exam will test facilitation skills and programming an environmental communication process case
OPTION 1 – case discussion in a group with turning facilitation roles – debrief
OPTION 2 – programme development of a case (in a team of 3 people)