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A Master Facilitator

Many years ago, Saru (as she is known) was my Master coach for all of one session. I can never forget how she handled her 'coachee'. And how meeting her left me thinking that I have miles (prefixed with thousands of) to go.

And a few days ago when I learnt that she was running a session, I did everything I could attend the session. It was touch and go. With all the Bangalore bandh and all that, I somehow managed to get a seat on the session quite at the last minute. And was it worth it!

She is, what I might call as a master facilitator. Gentle. Jovial. Stern. Knowledgeable. Even paced. Never hurried. No gimmicks - just sticking to the subject and taking people along. No comedy track. Very simple slides and material. Her knowledge did most of the talking.

Slowly pulling people into the centre. Gently nudging them to think. Teasing thoughts out of them. Pushing them to think a bit more. Disagreeing at times. Rarely definitive, but when she spoke in definitives, she made her point clearly. If you fall back and ask a question, she is there to answer. If you go awry thinking of unrelated stuff, she is there to rein you back in. And the slides are just the tip of the iceberg, the real knowledge is with the facilitator. And what you learn. As you reflect. Think. And get an insight.

And at the end of two days, one feels like a door has opened in our brain. Now that is some session!

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