“Serious results don’t require serious behaviour” is the motto of Mischief Makers – the international facilitation and training company. I’ve just completed an 8-week block of training with them on leading groups, with a particular focus on hybrid settings – where you have some delegates in person and some joining online. It’s been my biggest expense since I started freelancing (after tax, NI and pension) – so what was it and was it worth the investment?

Foundation Checking

I’ve done lots of different facilitating in different roles – from training delivery to business improvement session but it’s something I’ve never had formal training in. I’ve always loved doing it and it’s an area I want to focus on more in my work, so it felt right to sense check the foundations I’d built. There was a lot of content that felt really comfortable and known, which was massively reassuring. There was also a whole load of new and stretching content which was great for development – from learning arches to timeboxing and hybrid juggling to development tools. There was a whole treasure trove of gems and I feel I’m only scratching the surface of what’s to learn.

Asynchronous Learning

One of my favourite things about the course was the way it ran asynchronous learning – that we met weekly for 2.5 hours but came away with a learning kit each week full of videos, additional reading, theory, exercises and reflective work. It could easily be a day a week if you delved deeply into the content and at times that was really tough to balance with a busy working week. But they did a great job of balancing heavier content with exercises and lighter reading, as well as reinforcing the slide deck and Miro content of the live sessions. It set the bar a lot higher than a most of training I’ve done before and I’ll take a lot of lessons forward for training I deliver in the future.

International Network

My cohort was 15 strong with delegates from Germany, France, Netherlands and Spain to name a few countries. Mischief Makers is based in Amsterdam so a number were local and able to attend some sessions onsite and the rest of us were scattered across Europe and joining online. What I loved about this was the different insights and approaches – a favourite phrase was “let me know if I’m being too Dutch” as one delegate explained she thought Dutch people were known for a very direct approach in international relations! With a host of different careers, we all brought different perspectives – and that was really powerful as we learnt to work together and when we did feedback to each other.

Unserious Behaviour

Mischief Maker’s philosophy really resonated. It’s something I’m appreciating more and more – that I enjoy work more with an element of fun, and fun is a great aid to building relationships and cementing learning. When I come to do that professional strategy work, fun is definitely going to make the list. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t important times for serious, or even formal, work but that fun and play at work are hugely underestimated for the value they provide at work.

Key Takeaways

The course was jam-packed with content (and arguably could have run for a lot longer), but the key takeaways from me were:

  • Asynchronous learning is where it’s at to suit the widest range of needs
  • What goes up must come down – landings are as important as the exercises themselves
  • Movement equals energy, whether it’s your whole body in an energiser exercise, or keeping your hands busy as you think, there’s something about generating and maintaining energy as you move
  • There’s an absolute treasure trove of generously shared resources built by wonderful souls that you can delve into from across the world to come at ideas, issues and problems from a whole host of angles
  • I’m more British than I appreciated – my self-deprecating humour was picked up more than once by my European colleagues!
  • I’ve barely scratched the surface of what Miro offers
  • Reflective practice is crucial to reinforce your work and your learning
  • Language matters – whether it’s the sensitivity of creating a social contract, not naming an energiser as an energiser or simply reading the room to reflect the mood
  • Designing and delivering a hybrid workshop for our final exercise with 5 leads who were across at least 3 countries and 2 time zones all with busy day jobs is as stressful and time-consuming as it sounds.
  • Feedback is vital – it can be brilliant, surprisingly, frustrating, humbling and lots of things in between but embracing it is the only way to progress
  • Hybrid event design and delivery is a brilliant invention but it is phenomenally tricky to deliver well, and needs at least two people, about 14 screens and a semi-hysterical live WhatsApp conversation

Overall, I laughed a lot and I leant a lot. There’s still loads more to keep learning but it feels like time well spent. It’s reinforced my love of facilitation and learning is always best when you’re laughing.

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