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.

"Vad gör vi nu?" - en nordisk sammankomst för dialog och handling efter terrordåden

"Ska vi hedra de alltför många döda efter vårt lands stora katastrof, ska vi hylla den anständighet vi som folk har visat denna onda vecka, måste vi vara villiga att gå in i de allra svåraste frågorna: Vad kunde vi ha gjort annorlunda? Och vad gör vi nu? " /Anne Holt på DN Kulturdebatt 27/7

Till alla berörda,

Vi är väldigt många som bär på de svåra frågorna som ett eko inom oss just nu. Kanske mer än någonsin behöver vi skapa utrymme för att besvara de frågorna tillsammans. Därför vill vi arrangera ett Nordiskt Open Space för att diskutera frågeställningarna "Vad kunde vi ha gjort annorlunda? Och vad gör vi nu?" Det hat och förakt som utmynnade i terror och massaker kan bara bemötas med en oövervinnelig kraftsamling för det positiva i vårt samhälle - demokrati, tolerans, humanitet och respekt för de mänskliga rättigheterna.

I oktober månad - tre månader efter de fruktansvärda terrordåden i Norge - vill vi samla mellan 200-500 personer från hela Norden, med en bred representation från olika sektorer - från civilsamhället, partipolitiken, skolan, kommuner och allmänt intresserade och engagerade personer - för att, trots den färska chocken, sorgen och förskräckelsen, börja bemöta och tillsammans skapa konkreta vägar framåt efter händelserna. Vi vill kanalisera den frustration och det engagemang som väldigt många känner just nu, till att bli oslagbart konstruktivt genom dialog och samverkan.

Många är redan i full färd med jättebra initiativ för att bemöta främlingsfientliga krafter och sprida värderingar kring tolerans, mångfald, demokrati, antirasism, öppenhet, humanitet och respekt för de mänskliga rättigheterna. Det är vår fulla övertygelse att vi kan växa, koppla ihop, sprida och skala upp dessa initiativ till sällan skådade proportioner genom dialog och samverkan över fler organisationsgränser, landsgränser och sektorer.

När vi samlar hundratals personer från flera nordiska länder i en tredagars dialog och handlingsverkstad så kommer vi att gå därifrån med nya allianser, konkreta samarbeten, nya projekt, faktiska ansökningar, finansieringslösningar och många fler resultat som vi inte kan föreställa oss idag.

Vilka personer känner du som skulle vara viktiga att ha med i denna sammankomsten? Varje person som anmäler sig får rekommendera ytterligare 3 personer som de vill bjuda in till dialogen - de får i sin tur utse ytterligare 3, osv, tills vi (troligen väldigt snabbt) fyller de 200 platserna och utökar till 500.

Gör såhär: Fyll i anmälan här: http://bit.ly/o6mI6R . Kopiera denna informationen eller skriv ett eget mail till de tre personer du vill bjuda och be dem att göra detsamma.

Preliminärt planerar vi att sammankomsten ska äga rum i Göteborg, på grund av närheten till Oslo, Köpenhamn och Stockholm (och generellt bra transporter från olika delar av norden). Preliminärt datum är 21-23 oktober - tre månader efter de fruktansvärda terrordåden och med tillräcklig tid för att folk ska få in datumet i sin övriga planering och att all logistik ska hinna ordnas. Mer information kommer så snart vi bekräftat plats, lokaler och exakta datum.

Med varma hälsningar,

Ola Nilsson

(Anne Holt, författare, jurist, politiker och före detta justitieminister i Norge, skrev på DN Kulturdebatt "En gång var han en annan" (27/7))

More creative meetings - workshop for young leaders

I was asked by my friend Cina Staron to do a workshop on creative meetings, as part of a leadership training for the National Association of Young Musicians (RUM). It was a beautiful, sunny saturday morning out at Kärsögården - a perfect setting for young leaders to grow! Walking the last bit from the bus stop to the facilities there were a LOT of little snails taking their morning walk as well, along the edge of the damp grass.

The group was intimate and attentive, they'd been together for the past two days so they were rather well familiarized and comfortable in the group, with some internal jokes developed as well, that spread giggles across the room a couple of times throughout the workshop - nice to see the signs of early team building (it was something about getting into a circle).

We transfered in to the workshop by each grabbing a little stone (I had picked a dozen on the path to the center, washed them off in the cold lake, and laid them to dry in the sun), feeling it, looking at it, then describing it, and finally drawing free associations to what the stone could tell us about creative meetings. The stone-exercise was a bit of an "Aha!-moment" for some, as a complete break from the ordinary and expected - so it had a good effect as a transfer in.

The rest of the workshop we used a bunch of different methods and exercises, drawing partially from the book Mer kreativa möten (which I project managed at LSU), to go through stages of planning and preparing for creative meetings. I essentially guided them through a needs-based approach to project planning, using the NAOMMIE-method (which I have been inspired by from Magdalena Musiala - every day arts).

So we brainstormed, collaborated, drew, antithesized, dart board evaluated, went out in the sun, and feedbacked. All in all, it was a creative atmosphere, lots of laughter, funny connections, ants in the pants, grass under feet, sun on skin and positive spirits!

The spontaneous feedback round from the group was really positive and included getting helpful tools, new ideas and liking the way I explained things clearly :) In return, I liked the group too, appreciated everyones interaction and participation and had a good laugh at some of the crazier ideas in the drawing exercise!

Oh, and another funny detail was that one of the training participants couldn't be there for this workshop because he was in town playing in an orchestra for the Swedish Crown princess' wedding...

Good fun!

/Ola Nilsson

Quelle Différence

- facilitating change, making a difference

Young Leadership Academy... work in progress

Honeymoon is over
So, I've worked for over a month at LSU. It's kinda crazy - feels so natural and yet it's still kinda new. My job is to coordinate and develop the area of leadership and organizational development within our 82 members of youth organizations in Sweden - amounting to a total membership of around 650,000 young people nation-wide. It is a great challenge and an amazing opportunity!

Making a difference
What I really want to do in this position is to inspire young people to make a difference, and to develop themselves and others in making a difference in society. I think that LSU as an umbrella organization has every opportunity to contribute to this process for a lot of young people. The youth organizations themselves are doing great things - from running their every day activities to starting new projects and organizing campaigns. I see LSU as contributing to their development by providing a network platform where they can look beyond their own contexts, be inspired by each other and get equiped with new tools for their leadership, activism and organizing.

Drawing synergies
This week I pulled together a couple of the colleagues to throw around ideas and put all the different ongoing processes out on the table to get a better view of what is being planned, how these things relate to each other and how we can create synergies.

After a month at the job, I have a picture of what has been done, what are the strengths and what can be improved.

Let's do it!
Now it's time to go to action big time! For a week, before I take a couple of weeks off, I will be focusing on action steps for early 2009. I am looking forward to the months ahead, and I can't wait to see the change over the coming year!

So let's get on with it - let's do it!