The University of Maine at Presque Isle will present Meg Bolger, expert facilitator and co-founder and head of the company Facilitator Cards, as a 2024-2025 Libra Distinguished Lecture Series speaker on Thursday, Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. via Zoom. Bolger will deliver a talk titled Holding Space: Navigating Conflict with a Generous Approach. This event is free and the public is encouraged to attend.
During her talk, Bolger will share her insights on facilitating challenging conversations and problematic comments and staying in the driver’s seat in moments of bias and divisiveness. Bolger’s talk will give audience members the actionable tools they need to navigate conflict, have hard but respectful conversations, and even transcend political disagreements. It offers strategies and time-tested ideas for the following questions:
What do you say when you fervently disagree with someone and yet need to stay in a relationship with them due to your role, job, or shared community?
How do you create opportunities for exploration where there is personal and political divisiveness?
How do we maintain each other’s humanity in the moments we find hardest to do so?
Bolger’s talk is designed to build awareness of pervasive cultural mindsets that keep people trapped in “us vs. them” and other divisive thinking and help individuals better recognize their needs and how they shape the ability to show up for others. Bolger will explain how, by first understanding the mindsets that help or hinder people in tough moments, individuals can unpack ways of “showing up” with integrity using a three-step framework for generous conflict.
Bolger has done professional facilitation for nearly 15 years; in addition to her work leading Facilitator Cards, she also helms POP Facilitation. She has co-founded numerous projects and businesses focused on facilitation including The Safe Zone Project, FacilitatingXYZ, Unlocking the Magic of Facilitation, and spent much of the last decade training trainers from around the country, and world, on the art of facilitation. Her mission is to help people learn how to “human better together” in order to create a more loving and generous world.
The University’s Libra Distinguished Lecture Series was established in 1999. Each year, the LDLS Committee sponsors four to six speakers who come from Maine and beyond, representing a range of disciplines and viewpoints. While the emphasis tends to be on featuring visiting academics, it is not exclusively so. The speakers typically spend two days at the University meeting with classes and presenting a community lecture. This event is supported by the UMPI DEI Council.
UMPI welcomes the campus and community to hear Bolger speak on Feb. 6. For more information about Bolger, see the Facilitator Cards website. For more information about this event or to get the Zoom link, contact Kayli Malenfant at (207) 768- 9426 or email kayli.malenfant@maine.edu.