Facilitation
I use Creativity and Curiosity to Help People Collaborate Better.
I create reflective spaces where I help teams explore and learn from the tangled knots of their collaborative work.
I specialise in helping people delve into the messy process of Co-Production, using effective facilitation practices and an interactive tool called The Co-Production Oracle that I created with the University of Exeter.
The Co-Production Oracle is a deck of cards designed to help you open up new perspectives on issues, problems or areas of stuck-ness in collaborative situations.
I worked with the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute (GSI) to develop this deck of cards, which feature 30 co-production ‘archetypes’ based on interviews with members of the GSI - climate scientists, academics, nutritionists, artists, sociologists, and more - and informed by their diverse experiences of co-production. Each archetypal card has a corresponding prompt which provokes the reader to ask new questions about the issues they are exploring. The cards can be used by individuals, pairs and groups.
What is Co-Production?
“Co-production is an uncomfortable process. Co-production is losing control. Co-production is contamination and cross-pollination of different worldviews, seeking to break the monopoly of any one perspective to tackle the challenges we are facing as a collective. Co-production is not only putting yourself in the shoes of others, but allowing their voices, experiences and even their recalcitrant views to shape your own beloved projects, and ideas.
Since we thought that the processes of co-production in all its open-endedness was not amenable for a handbook, set of recipes, or imperatives, we decided to allow for a playful way — the Co-production Oracle — to disrupt the prescriptive thinking that characterises research projects, policy agendas and techno-fixes seeking to solve pressing problems such as the climate emergency. We provide this ‘Oracle’ with the hope it will help you make space for different voices and perspectives to shape your own practice of world making.”
- Dr Ernesto Schwartz, University of Exeter
Recent Examples:
“We have loved collaborating with Hannah as part of our recent project on co-production for food systems transformation. Hannah is an incredible arts-based practitioner who puts creativity at the heart of everything she does, and she brought a unique and innovative slant to our project delivery and outputs. This involved the design and facilitation of fun and thought-provoking workshops, tailored perfectly to our needs for this project including a diverse range of activities ensuring all participants could contribute to discussions. Hannah also produced some beautiful illustrations for the online resources we developed from our project, which ensured these key outputs were truly unique and eye-catching. Having someone like Hannah on the team meant that we were able to reflect more deeply (using her amazing ‘co-production oracle’ cards as tools) and this resulted in us considering some complex issues in a very different way. She really gets it! I think every academic should be working with someone like Hannah, to shed traditional fixed ways of thinking and bring a spark of playfulness to fully embrace authentic social impact.
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Co-Produced Tipping Points Research - University of Exeter
“Working with Hannah was a delight. She facilitated a collaborative workshop on co-design with skill and care, carefully guiding the group through complex concepts and questions, ensuring that all voices were heard. After the workshop, she sifted through copious notes and produced a series of beautiful images that captured some of the foundational ideas that were raised by the group. We are still using these images to communicate the vision of the group, and to help foster our sense of shared identity and purpose.
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Brigstow Institute (University of Bristol) - Co-Produced Research Projects
“Working with Hannah has been a fantastic experience. She has introduced us to the Oracle cards which are a brilliant resource for challenging mixed research teams about their values and principles in a playful and engaging way. We have used the cards as a team in various different contexts and they never cease to delight us! Hannah has also facilitated a couple of workshops for us - both with researchers, artists and community members before they apply to us for funding and for teams that are funded. She explains co-production in accessible and interesting ways and has a wealth of participatory experience which she brings to workshops. Her approach is engaging, fun, thoughtful and gently provocative in ways that make participants feel challenged but carefully held - which is incredibly skilful. We have ongoing work planned with Hannah and would not hesitate in recommending her to new clients.
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University of Exeter Critical Friends Network
“Hannah is my favourite kind of artist – highly original in her thinking, brilliant skilled in her making, and a reassuringly confident and considerate facilitator. I first met Hannah when she was selected to create a new resource for the Global Systems Institute. Her work with Dr Ernesto Schwartz, resulting in The Co-Production Oracle, is inspired and inspiring. Having attended the launch event, which included a workshop led by Hannah to familiarise staff with how to use the Oracle, I wanted to help get word out and promote the resource further. I programmed a Co-Production Oracle session as part of my termly Critical Friends Network that brings together staff from across the University who are interested in creativity and creative processes. We ran the session twice – once in Exeter and once in Penryn. Again, the responses from participants showed the resource to be a powerful experience, really opening up those deeper and richer conversations around co-production that are so important. I recommend Hannah very highly; her professionalism and expertise make her a joy to collaborate with.
- Associate Director for Arts and Culture, University of Exeter
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Curious about working together?
Contact Me