onsdag 1 juni 2016

New experiences with The Human Element


After organizing three trainings of The Human Element®: Cornerstone for Changemakers (well, two of those and one ”step 2” called Organizational Solutions) in Magdalena’s and Marcus’ apartment in Malmö over the course of 9 months of 2014 and 2015, in early 2016 we decided to take a leap and try something new. Actually we went all in, trying multiple new things in the next version of the trainings. It was a challenge that we were all curious about, and after our first real organizing Skype call about it, we felt convinced that we should dare and that it would be fantastic. 
The hosting team, joined in Bern, evening before training. (Left to right: Osi, Magdalena, Ola)

Firstly, collaboration. Instead of us two as trainers also being the hosts and organizers of the training, like with the first ones, we decided that we would collaborate with the organization that had shown the most interest and already sent the most participants to the trainings in Malmö. That partner was euforia! in Switzerland. Magdalena had long ties and trust with them, so it made a lot of sense. The win-win-spins were quite apparent - they would be able to offer the training to a lot of their volunteers and staff, and we would be getting help with all the organizing aspects and be able to focus on holding the space and the content of the training as facilitators.  

Secondly, location. Having the collaboration with euforia! meant that we also re-located the training to be in Bern, Switzerland, where they have their head office. Just the proximity enabled a lot of the participants to attend without the constraints of time and costs of travel. It was also an opportunity for us to step out of the comfort zone of quite literally keeping it close to home (well, even in Magdalena’s home), and instead learning from working in unknown spaces that could bring new dynamics. It turned out really well, with a great combination of two locations in Bern - one beautifully overlooking the river, and the other in the creative space of the Kaospilots Switzerland - in the same building as the euforia! office. 

Thirdly, participation. So, having done trainings in Sweden with a maximum of 15 participants, we wanted to step it up and open it up to a maximum of 24 people - stretching the limits of what we would consider possible for these trainings. They are often held as rather intimate and/or exclusive courses of 8-12 participants. We sent out the invitations in our networks (and of course in the euforia! network), and the course filled up really quickly. We immediately started a waitlist. By different twists of circumstance, we ended up being able to offer all wait list’ers a spot due to cancellations, and finally welcomed all to a full training with 24 people.  

We held on to our pay-what-you-want model as always - making the content and valuable opportunities to life- and self-learning open to all who want to invest in their personal development, self-awareness and leadership. The learnings from this training were really valuable, for either way that we choose to organize our future trainings. If you are interested in joining upcoming trainings, please don’t hesitate to get in touch or visit http://thecornerstone4change.strikingly.com/ for the next updates and registration.