Category: experiential learning

Visual Goal Canvas

experiential learning, learning, workshop

A chance meeting with Clinical Psychologist, Dr. David Pearson sparked an idea. He explained the approach behind the design of an assessment tool (DLSAS) he had co-authored – 5 questions to help teachers assess students’ core life skills. Impressed with the simple approach, it inspired the design of a learning tool. I was looking for a creative way to introduce my students to some visual thinking concepts. After many iterations, I came up with the Visual Goal Canvas. 

There are at least 7 components to consider when setting any goal:

What, Why, Who, Where, How, How Much and When.

It’s not sufficient to focus on only one of the components. Mapping all components on a pre-structured canvas offers a quick overview of the entire journey of your goal.

This is the Visual Goal Canvas – a tool to help visually map a goal across 7 components in a single image.

Let’s take a closer look at each of the 7 components: 

  • WHAT is your goal? What do you hope to achieve? What are you aiming for? What is your one hope?
  • WHY do you wish to achieve your goal? What is the purpose? Why is it worth your time and energy? Why do this one thing and not something else?
  • WHO do you need to achieve your goal? Who manages the journey? Who else might you need on board?
  • WHERE will you start? What resources/skills/network/partnerships do you have in place? 
  • HOW will you reach your goal? What are some of the activities/tasks that will help you get there? How will you stay on track?
  • HOW MUCH: What is the size of your goal? How many parts is your goal made up of? How might you prioritise these parts?
  • WHEN do you hope to achieve your goal? What is your time-frame? What might be some of the important checkpoints along your journey?

By exercising visual thinking with storytelling strategies and tools the Visual Goal Canvas can be used to help motivate and guide you or a group towards a goal. 

I can easily feel overwhelmed when I try to get new projects off the ground. I get lots of ideas but I can easily lose sight of the big picture. The Visual Goal Canvas helps me organise my ideas and map out the steps to meet my goals. It helped me launch my newsletter. And now I am using it to plan out my next steps for a book!”

Gwyn Wansbrough

Breakthrough Facilitation

 

Some questions to ask when developing your Visual Goal Canvas for personal use or for a group:

  • What challenges might we come across on our journey?
  • What might we need to support our journey?
  • What is missing in our journey?
  • What habits might we need to create/adjust/let go of?
  • How do we make sure we are learning along our journey?
  • How might you celebrate your wins?

 

Click on the image to download the VISUAL GOAL CANVAS

 

5 Ways to Stay Balanced during Online Sessions

experiential learning, online session

“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others.  Unfold your own myth.” —Rumi

I found out the hard way that it is no easy task to run an online session. The COVID19 crisis has challenged us in many ways while shifting all our conversations and interactions online. How do I keep it together? Will participants get bored and leave my session? What if I mess up? I gathered together my top 5 key learnings from the various online sessions I’ve experienced lately. I hope they answer some questions you might have about running your online sessions and helps you stay balanced and present during these challenging times.

#1 Be Fully Present

Being fully present is a tough one for me. Before a session it helps to do a bit of “grounding” work. I enjoy breathing exercises the most as it helps clear the mind. Deep inhales, then very long exhales. Taking a moment every now and then in a session to consciously breathe keeps me grounded too. Bonus if you incorporate body movement. Simple stretching, either seated or standing gets everyone feeling present. I find keeping a calm mind is vital. You’ll never know what might pop up. I had an unforeseen technical issue once. I designed a 90 minute session around 3 breakout rooms. Breakout rooms are useful for splitting a large group into smaller groups for deeper learning experiences. For some odd reason the breakout room option was not working so I had to continue without. Can’t keep over 350 participants waiting. I welcomed the technical glitch. Breathe. Calm. Focused. (To be honest, the session turned out better than I had imagined)

#2 Give Space

I try very hard to speak as little as possible. What is the minimum instructions that needs to be shared to get participants engaged? My online sessions tend to be action oriented full of fun activities but I notice I talk too much. (Chris, please shut up and let them get on with it!) During the last online session I ran, at some point participants had to take a moment to reflect on what they had created. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to take out my ukulele and strum a few calming chords to get them into a relaxed state. It helped me shut up and it helped them focus. Silence also works. It gives space to allow digesting and processing time. It’s a great tool that I always have to remind myself to use. Silence. Slow down.

#3 Small Celebrations

This is a new one for me and I find it so useful. Creating moments of mini celebrations keeps the spirits up. Keeps it light. Learning together is a lot of fun, so small celebrations creates a sense of “we’re in this together”. We’re all uplifting each other.  We get to see and hear each other. One of my favourite mini-celebration is inviting participants to wave their hands like a bird if they’re ready to “fly” to the next part of the activity. The typical one is “Give me a thumbs-up if you’re ready” but that’s so 1980s! Coming up with small novel ways (even for just a moment) to invite the imagination or even the body to move is a great way to keep everyone in the flow. It’s like small fun check-ins.

#4 Stay Curious

I’m always amazed with what participants share. I’m so inspired with their generosity and courage to share their thoughts and feedback. So yes, sometimes I do wish I was a participant instead. Most of my questions come from a place of curiosity. I’m so curious to see the participants perspective. What emotions are arising? What is it that they see? What are they finding challenging? I get caught in the performance mode, but then I have to remind myself to get into a learning mode too. For that I’ve got to stay genuinely curious about their learning as this will help my learning. It’s a learning party!

#5 Authentic Voice

This is going to sound cheesy. Tone of voice is super important when you run an online session. Speaking in a digital space is very different to speaking in a physical space. In a digital space we’re missing the room acoustics and ambient sounds. It doesn’t feel “real”. I get it, we’re trying our best to mimic reality. Sherry Turkle said it best in her book ‘Reclaiming conversation: the power of talk in a digital age’, 

Digital promotes a transactional language

The closest we’re going to having an authentic connection is if we speak with an authentic voice. A voice that connects. (Here comes the cheesy bit) I like to speak to participants as-if they were all my brothers and sisters. I find that it activates a friendly voice. And most importantly it invites a sense of care in my voice. I guess what I’m trying to say is that when I’m speaking to my family I’m actually speaking from my heart. I’m trying my best to be as authentic as possible. (Cheesy bit over)

Conclusion

One of the hardest things to let go is our inner perfectionist. We all want to deliver the best online experience and have participants leave the session with a smile on their faces.   I like to test my sessions with trusted and supportive friends who would give me constructive feedback. It would also give me the opportunity to shed any fears I may have. And there are plenty of fears. I had to learn to trust the process and trust my participants to make the best decisions for themselves. They own their learnings and not me. And above all, we’ve got to learn to be kinder to our self. After all this is all a learning experience and we’re all in it together.

What strategies do you use to stay balanced during online sessions?

Creativity Lab

creativity lab, experiential learning, networking, team building, team building

I created the Brussels Creativity Lab in beginning of 2020 because like any skill, creativity needs practice too. The monthly meetup is open to anyone interested in exploring new possibilities, questioning assumptions and discovering their creativity.

It is very important to establish a safe and supportive environment to foster learning in a collaborative way. To be able to encounter one another and learn from our varied expertise. Creativity thrives on diversity.

The first edition of the meetup (29.1.2020) was titled, “Seven Deadly Sins of Creativity” – through a series of collaborative activities we explored various barriers preventing us from connecting to our creativity and how might we overcome them. By moving beyond barriers of our creativity we enable unimaginable possibilities to emerge.

At the start of the session participants were invited to activate their explorer’s mindset:

  • to invite curiosity
  • to expect resistance and push forward
  • make connections
  • be flexible and open to possibilities
  • share stories of our understanding of the world

The Approach

Drawing inspiration from Logotherapy by Victor Frankl , participants were encouraged to approach all activities with “paradoxical intention” which is to demonstrate the opposite of what you are aiming to achieve.

So instead of trying to find a “way out” which typically suppresses a barrier, with a paradoxical intention approach, we exaggerate the barrier to a point of irony making it look seem ridiculous thus reducing it’s “power” over us. Using humour helps reverse our attitude towards it. Therefore resistance is reduced or disappears.

Activities

I created a deck of 39 cards with a single barrier on each card such as ego, fear of rejection, impatience, distraction, conformity, complacency, and over thinking, to name a few. Before each activity participants received a single card, then were invited to take part in a creative activity such as:

  • Generate 5 tips to promote the barrier
  • Create a personification of the barrier
  • In your group create a human sculpture representing the barrier
  • Create a unique dance move of your barrier. Everyone replicates the move

The meetup continues to nurture and grow creative behaviour within ourselves and with others. Join in the fun, tap into your creativity and meet some awesome folks. 

We are creative beings, our lives become our work of art
– Julia Cameron

Creative experiential session

experiential learning

I had the privilege of designing and delivering a session which took place on the 11th of November 2019 in Rome, Italy for ICCROM, The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property –  an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the perseveration for cultural heritage worldwide through training, information, research, cooperation and advocacy programmes.

The session was part of their 4 week training program “First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Time of Crisis”. The training is based on a field-tested three-step framework for cultural heritage first aid, which can be adapted to any emergency context, whether conflict or disaster.

The title of my 90 minute session was “Transformation of values and significance associated with cultural heritage in crises”. Participants were invited to explore and understand the importance of community values for cultural first aiders when assessing the situation during heritage recovery. I used a highly creative and collaborative experiential learning approach to help them tackled questions such as:

  • How will your community care/value/enjoy cultural heritage?
  • How will it benefit future generations?
  • What approaches could your community take to recover damaged cultural heritage after a crisis?

Summary of Session

Values we attribute to cultural heritage are not fixed. They are constantly changing, sometimes distorted and in some cases ignored. To consider all the values we must recognise the importance of including all stakeholders in the process of value assessment. The understanding of community values is essential for cultural first aiders when assessing the situation during heritage recovery. This interactive session puts participants in the shoes of a community to explore the importance of value assessment.

Training goals

  • Understand the role cultural first aid plays in recovering heritage
  • Explore and understand value assessment before disaster and during post-crisis recovery
  • Learn typical approaches communities take to heritage recovery

21 international professionals working in the fields of humanitarian assistance, civil protection, military and disaster risk management, and those working in the field of cultural heritage attended the session.