Folks who experience my retreats, workshops and talks often ask me how I am able to create and lead events where participants feel so present, so vulnerable, so connected to me and each other, and so deeply transformed.
My answer is always the same: MASTERY.
You need to master your coaching and facilitation skills in order to go from leading a “nice” event to leading a “WOW” event.
You need to master your coaching and facilitation skills to create experiences that your audiences will never forget.
And you also need to become a MASTER OF ENERGY in the room to create long-lasting transformation for your participants.
Without mastering the energy in the room, your teaching falls flat, you become out of sync with your participants, and you miss an opportunity to create immediate healing, shifts and results for your clients.
So what does this all mean?
Well, first of all – whether you’re “woo woo” or not, energy is real.
If someone brings sadness to a room, that energy is palpable.
If someone brings joy to a room, that energy is palpable.
If someone brings confusion to a room, that energy is palpable.
And groups of people in a room together “entrain” – this means they share energy. The strongest & sturdiest energy will co-opt every other energy in the room.
For example, if the individual who brings grief to the room is the strongest, the entire room will feel or have a response/reaction to the grief. If the individual who brings disconnection to the room is the strongest, the entire room will feel or have a response/reaction to the disconnection.
So, your job as facilitator is to understand that energy is real, and to be able to sense and tap into the energy of the room….to feel that this person in the back has disconnected or this woman to the right is in grief or that woman to the left has just had an opening.
The more you can sense into the energy of the room, then the more you can leverage it for learning – i.e., make facilitation decisions that help you support your participants in learning from and moving through the energy they are experiencing.
But you want to go even beyond sensing and responding to the energy – in order to truly master energy as the facilitator, you want to be able to step into the room grounded in whatever energy YOU choose to bring in and use for transformation.
For example, sometimes I purposefully bring grief into a room so that my participants can have a meaningful release. Other times I purposefully bring lightheartedness into the room so participants can put down their armor and defenses. And yet, other times, I bring the energy of sacredness into the room so that participants can connect deeply to the most sacred parts of themselves.
Mastering the energy in the room also helps you to put the kaibosh on any negative energy that could potentially get sparked and entrained from one misaligned person in the room.
You can start practicing mastering the energy in a room before you facilitate your next event:
Next time you’re in a room with a group of people, begin to tap into the energy. See if you can sense where each person in the room is at. Then notice how one person’s energy can affect everyone in the room. And begin to ground down into your Leadership energy to see if you can influence and transform the group.
Hope this little (really not so little!) tip has been useful.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on it, and if you want more tools and skills like this one, head on over to our Facilitation and Coaching Mastery Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/coachingfacilitationmastery/
With love,
Joanna
