How To Use Boundaries For High Impact Group Calls
There is an artform to facilitating and holding space for a group container. And part of being in a leadership role is knowing how to uphold boundaries and expectations for the group's learning experience.
Especially on live group calls, because you don't want your people to feel bored while waiting for their time in line, whether that’s for hot seat coaching, or answering specific questions, etc.,
Part of stepping into scalability is really recognizing and honouring the autonomy of your people and knowing that if they want to they can choose to find meaning in everyone’s hot seat coaching.
It’s not necessarily always 100% on you as the facilitator to bring it full circle back to the group, since your power is in focusing on and diving into each person’s time of hot seat coaching one by one.
And part of that space holding might include placing or framing a boundary at the beginning of the call.
For example:
You could say, “ Here's how I’m going to structure this call, we're going to go one by one and do hot seat coaching and when you're in the hot seat…and when you're not in the hot seat, here's what I recommend that you do… (ie., don't look at the chat until we've reached a pause point because I want you to be fully present and ask for what you need, etc.,”
You can also remind those who aren't in the hot seat how they can be supportive, engaging, emoting, or reflecting on how this is relative to their experience and what gems of wisdom can be found there.
Sometimes there's also a power in just naming what's in the room. By saying, “Like hey - I know sometimes when we’re waiting for a hot seat we can think we can do something else while we wait - but here's how you can be present and know that even though someone might be in a totally different circumstance than you there can still be so many little gems of wisdom that you can find from it.”
Setting that boundary or reminder up front also serves as a reminder to you as the facilitator, to also take some pressure off yourself so you don’t feel like you need to make those connections and patterns apparent for everyone.
Because ultimately, you’re working with adults, and they are responsible for getting the most out of the program they've signed up for; if they choose to check out when they're not in the hot seat - then that's on them.
HOW WE CREATE SAFETY IN A CONTAINER AND HOW WE CREATE SPACE FOR PEOPLE TO REALLY GET THE MOST OUT OF THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE IS BY BEING VERY, VERY CONSISTENT WITH OUR BOUNDARIES.
So instead of just letting things go because you don't want to come off as a wet blanket about upholding a specific boundary you can soften the ‘tough love’ with humour.
For example:
I might say, “I'm going to be a bit of a wet blanket about _____ if I see this happening, and here’s how I’ll respond ___ ,“
Or, “I’m noticing were slipping into advice-land, etc.,”
Or make a game out of it like, “If I notice we're getting into a little bit of advice giving I’m going to give a certain reaction or emoji on zoom. “
Give it a cute name so it feels less scary, and to soften the tough love with humour.
Because your job, your priority, is to hold the container so that your people can get the transformation and results they came to your program for.
Even if that means you need to speak up and co
nsistently enforce the boundaries of that container, because those boundaries ultimately create safety for everyone involved.
Want to set your people up for success right away in your program?
Another great way to initiate and uphold boundaries within a learning experience, is starting off with a great program orientation. Check out my Free Orientation Masterclass to help set your program and your people up for success right from the start.
