Deepening under the surface of the iceberg - Facilitating LEF Faciliation Team - 16th December 2008

Inspiring, variation, let go, ah hah, authenticity, challenging, deepening, the future of our LEF facilitation team! These were some of the comments of the 18 LEF Facilitators, who are part of the facilitation team of LEF and participated in their third team exchange meeting. The meeting was facilitated by Jet Proost, Hannie Vonk and Simon Koolwijk.
LEF is one of the centres and departments of Rijkswaterstaat. Rijkswaterstaat is an organisation of the Dutch Government which ensures the mobility and safety of the roads, water ways and air in The Netherlands. The LEF Future Centre assists the Dutch government in dealing with complex issues in the area of water-, road and air infrastructure. For example how to deal with the rising sea level? How to deal with the traffic jams? In order to find solutions for these difficult problems creativity and imagination is a must. LEF Future Centre plays an assisting role in dealing with these issues.


Unique Value Points of LEF are the combination of using different pre-sets (room set-ups) and creative facilitation approaches to deal with difficult problems. For example one of the goals of the third team meeting of facilitators was to get a more deeper understanding about its own successes and failures. Four groups were divided into 4 different pre-settings, such as the kitchen, picknick, room fire and sport hall set up. These different settings created an informal and relaxed atmosphere to look at the facilitation process from a different perspective. Finally, lessons were shared through creative presentations. One highlight for me was that I was confronted with a shock effect from my colleagues. "How to deal with a group, when they are not happy with a rigid time schedule?" I learned it was helpful to express and show my own feelings about this to create a safe environment for discussion.
Another highlight was the Quiz. The goal was to get acquainted with the rules and procedures of the LEF Future Centre. Colleague facilitators could mention a rule and procedure, and two managers from the LEF Centre could respond if these were right or wrong. Finally the group came up with 34 rules & procedures, and only 5 were guessed wrong.
Finally the participants shared about the cultural values of the LEF Future Centre. Through this, the facilitators Simon Koolwijk and Jet Proost used the Ice Berg method. Participants identified the visible elements of LEF, and the underlying cultural elements such as Norms & Values, Rituals, Identity and Certainties. The paradox question: "How can we get rid of LEF"?was a very stimulating question in getting out the real cultural values of LEF. Authencity, Being Futuristic, Warm Atmosphere, Being a Frontrunner and Open for Changes were some of the key elements which were mentioned as some of the cultural elements which are typically LEF.
The session was closed with a one-word evaluation. For each letter of the word Evaluation, participants could express their feeling in one word. Energy, Variation, Authenticity, Laughing, Unique exchange, At the Table, Teams, Inspiring, Eer to Jet, Simon & Hannie.
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