It’s good to remember what it’s like to be a participant in a breakout room.
There’s a journey that starts the moment a facilitator says, you’re going into breakouts soon. At that point, I enter a liminal, anxious space. Who will I be with? How will we get along? Will the task be too challenging for us? Should I back out now? How will it look if I back out now?
I join the room and meet the rest of the group. Some of us have cameras and are using mics. Others have neither and type in the chat. The rest of us have to be very intentional to include them in the conversation, looking out for their messages. It would be easy for their voice to get lost or receive less attention. Gradually, we unpack the task and make it our own. My anxiety is left behind. We are in a new place now. It’s comfortable, friendly and ours.
A facilitator drops in to visit and leaves again. I wonder what they make of that snippet of conversation. I don’t think it was the most interesting part.
Our time is running out, but we have made some progress with our task. More than that, we have got to know each other a little. I feel sad to say goodbye.
Back in the plenary, we struggle to relay our feedback, conscious that our experiences were individual, unique and precious. Something is lost.
This is very well framed, like the arc of a MyFest breakout, Kathy. I mingle between awkwardness and curiosity when we land in the room. I relish the chance to meet and talk to other people. I do find the time available is usually an order of magnitude less than what would be comfortable. The whole. clock thing creates pressure.
Yes, they have provided the quiet room option, which I admire.
I so admire the deftness with which Maha does these in her session, but I always feel that pressure of time. Which is silly because there is no cost to not doing the task.
But frankly, it’s been a highlight just to talk to people who are usually just faces and names on a grid
Kathy,
I love this “perspective frame”. Yes, the moment of “suspension” before you land in a random breakout room is real, and then the time it takes to acclimate with each other is real. And just when the momentum of impactful insights is rising to the shared surface, …the old “hook” back to the main room, where there is little time for representing what was meaningful there.
I think just the reality of this somewhat universal experience is an important one to keep in mind. Small adjustments made to honor and support these social transitions seems a good place to start…
Sometimes in the beginning of zoom workshops I send people to the breakout room with no other task than to just say hi and connect with each other. This can be misunderstood as “a waste of precious facilitation time” but I have found it is one of many small moves that add up to a more trusting (and therefore more powerful) learning environment in the end.
Thanks for bringing all of this to the surface.
xo
Mia