Simon Koolwijk

Green Balloons with 60 wishes were flying into the air! It was one of the highlights of the Final Evaluation Seminar of Green Agenda on the Balkans. From 22 - 24 October 2010 60 representatives coming from NGO's, MilieuKontakt , trainers from Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro met to evaluate the 3-year project Green Agenda on the Balkan. The event was facilitated by Suzanne Bakker from MilieuKontakt and Simon Koolwijk . Green Agenda is a participatory method for developing and implementing local sustainable development strategies and plans with active involvement of the different sectors in the local community where the process is conducted. The method (developed by MilieuKontakt ) is special, compared to other processes with similar aims, in at least 3 main aspects: the process starts out by identifying local values rather than problems; participation in the process is not limited to experts or certain stakeholder groups but is wide and open to

You are facilitating a lunch meeting in a big consultancy company. One of the key questions is "How to stimulate entrepreneurship in the organisation". One of your participants is showing a big resistance, because he was requested by the director to attend the meeting. He shows a non-verbal non interested attitude and is eager to sabotage the meeting. You as a facilitator are worried and are doing your ultimate best to involve this person. What to do? Involving resistant people and making them feel responsible for the group proces is one of the biggest challenges while facilitating a meeting. "Checking people's expectations" is one measure. Another is the temparature method. Just check people's feeling about their presence, while you are starting a meeting. Address and check people's behaviour is a risky one, but if you recognize people's emotions, it can be an effective one. "Is it right that you are angry? " This statement provides r