NSRF--Trying Protocols

Our seminar group spent the bulk of the morning doing two protocols that we don’t use very often—the charette and the descriptive review of a child. One thing that impressed me about this particular seminar group was the way we really pushed each other to try new protocols and had explicit conversations about facilitation decisions involved with choosing protocols and leading a group through the process. I think I will be a more skilled facilitator because of the experiences I had with this group.

Our experience with the Descriptive Review of a Child really resonated with me. I was impressed by the presenter’s preparation and amazed at the issues that bubbled up out of the questioning phase. I even learned something about myself and the biases or blind spots that I’m seldom called on. When I asked if the male student had a girlfriend, another participant later asked about the student’s sexual orientation. That was totally off my radar screen.