Discover How to Get Participants to Think Deeper at the Summer Learning Springboard

As practitioners of dialogue, deliberation, and public engagement, it is important that we continue to improve our facilitation practice by learning new skills, understandings, and considerations for designing and facilitating conversations.

In the below sessions at this year's Summer Learning Springboard, participants will learn how to be self-reflective and intuitive. Register today to widen your skillset. 

Register Now

Silence in Dialogue: Capturing Possibilities in the Pause
Tuesday July 26
1:30-3:30 PM Eastern/10:30 AM-12:30 PM Pacific
Hosts: Hoa Nguyen - Valdosta State University & Ashmi Desai - San Francisco State University
In this session, we will focus on the role of silence, pause, solitude, and contemplation in dialogue. For instance, what purpose can silence serve in dialogue and what can silence communicate? What can we draw from silence? Participants are engaged in an interactive dialogue format that will encourage them to notice what is happening within the in-between spaces of pause and examine how Western-centric frames have defined and portrayed silence in conversations. 

Taming Trolls, Troublemakers, and Tyrants
Wednesday July 27
​12:00-2:00 PM Eastern/9:00-11:00 AM Pacific
Host: Karin Tamerius - Smart Politics
This session is about how to set boundaries in online and offline dialogue so you can keep a conversation going and make it productive even when others behave badly. Introduces a four-step, graded process that begins with humanization and ends with termination of dialogue only in cases of abusive behavior. Learn what motivates most bad behavior in dialogue and discover steps that will empower you to turn conversations around. Designed for non-facilitators, but will cover concepts useful to facilitators as well.

Somatic Practices to Embody Facilitator Growth
Wednesday July 27
3:00-4:30 PM Eastern/12:00-1:30 PM Pacific
Hosts: Daniel Little - Co-founder, Round Sky Solutions & Rebecca Fisher-McGinty - Worker owner, Round Sky Solutions
In facilitation, we tend to focus on structures and processes to guide us in collaboration and conversation. That is helpful! But, there’s an essential missing ingredient to facilitating and participating in these spaces: somatic practices. Our participatory spaces benefit from giving attention to what’s happening somatically (in your body) that builds the collective and the individual. In this session, participants will explore the facilitator’s personal development and capacities through somatic practices.

Intro to Analyzing Power: Building Equitable Futures Together
Thursday July 28
12:00-1:30 PM Eastern/9:00-10:30 AM Pacific
Hosts: Nicole Hewitt-Cabral - Director of Public Engagement, Public Agenda & Dhara Shah - ​Senior Public Engagement Associate, Public Agenda
This session will provide an overview on power analysis by asking people to interrogate their own power in the context of thinking about how we, as citizens and community members, can shift power towards historically dis-invested communities to build equitable futures together.

Hearing, Seeing, and Understanding
Tuesday July 26
3:00-5:00 PM Eastern/12:00-2:00 PM Pacific
Host: Selena Kohel - Cottey College
Indirect and direct. High context and low context. Affective and neutral. These are just some of the cultural norms that may hinder or facilitate dialogue where cultural diversity exists. Explore important cultural differences and similarities and how you might navigate these given different situations.