Insights from OpenIDEO Gather 2019
I’ve been wanting to write this article for a week, now. It’s not that I don’t have the words.
It’s that I have too many. So here goes:
Gather 2019 was OpenIDEO’s inaugural summit of 28 Chapter organisers, prototypers & community leaders from across the world to collectively plot its future. What promised to be an opportunity for learning from experts and peers, taking that knowledge back to our communities turned out to be an experience far more transformative than we could have ever imagined.
That is the power of design.
Don’t confuse this with planning; boxes to tick. No, design is the intentional creation of a plan.
From the moment we got our acceptance letters from Scott, beloved lead at OpenIDEO, to the build up of the event via video call, assurance through many, many emails and what’s now become my favourite WhatsApp group: Gather!!!!(Unicorn)(PurpleHeart)(Leaf)(Tree)(Boom!)! to arriving in San Francisco it was clear we were being led through a designed experience of interaction.
We all know what an interaction is; when two or more things or people have an effect on one another, but do you ever think about the experience of that interaction? How it’s supposed to feel?
While being a Chapter organiser for Johannesburg, I’m also a designer by trade at BetterWork, an employee experience design firm in South Africa whose mission it is to activate creativity in everyone at work — it was my intention to return with new, tested catalysts to create lasting impact.
Here are a couple of interactions that were designed with the immediate group and community’s experience in mind, with the objective that over the course of four days we leave not only with a strategy for the year ahead, but with a sense of community so strong that a digital and continental divide no longer poses a barrier to our closeness and ability to ask for a helping hand.
Designed Interaction Experiences
Meeting at IDEO
IDEO is recognised the world over as a leading design and consulting firm and being part of OpenIDEO, we as organisers, prototypers and community leaders got a taste of what it’s like to work with this design innovation force.
Having travelled vast hours and distances to reach Pier 28, IDEO, OpenIDEO’s leaders no doubt knew we’d be excited to experience the famed firm in person.
Our wishes came true — a tour, explaining IDEO’s space, the way they work, their methods and experiments as well as the bathroom system (if you know, you know) was guided by Ashley, Lauren and Dani.
This set the scene and introduced a calibre of quality to strive for.
The Bus Trip
We had a 3 hour bus trip ahead of us, headed North towards Bell Valley Retreat, our temporary home, and none of us knew each other well, except for monthly video calls.
Cue a cultural myth exercise that encouraged us to think about and share myths from our different countries, which acted as an icebreaker and got us all talking without the word “icebreaker” even being mentioned once.
The subtlety of how this exercise was executed without us realising what was happening, impressed me tremendously.
Arriving at Bell Valley Retreat
For many of us, it was our first time in California, the USA or travelling abroad. It’s safe to say we felt worried, unsure and out of place.
However, on arriving at Bell Valley Retreat and retiring to our rooms each of us found a Gather pack which included a notepad, sticky notes, Sharpies, a chocolate bar, gloves and most importantly — a letter.
The letter read like this:
Liz,
So grateful you are here.
Welcome home. You have arrived!
From Joburg to this magical land.
May these gloves keep you warm.
This immediately rooted us in our new surroundings and gave us a home, a sense of belonging.
Peer-led Workshops & Talks
If you strive for community, you have to let your community get involved, right?
Various, fascinating peer-led workshops and talks exposed us to different perspectives and ways of doing things, an ode to our diverse origins and contexts.
Meals
A crucial building block of Gather was its careful consideration of nutrients we’d need in order to support agile design thinking in our workshops and sprints.
Not only was the food healthy, it was inclusive — meat, vegetarian and vegan options were available at all times, much to the delight and gratitude of the people often excluded by their dietary lifestyle.
What proved to be an effective means of connection and exposure to our varied cultures and backgrounds was the gifting of small tokens at dinner times with a little story for context.
Group Meditation
Meditating as a group, on our third day allowed us to be fully present and prepare ourselves for what was perceived as the most challenging part of the experience, talking about how we might prioritise diversity and inclusion.
An exercise after group meditation had us pair up, hold hands and stare deeply into one another’s eyes, visualising the thing that is blocking us from being our best selves, as well as our partner’s.
This is a great way to get up close and personal with a community or team member, exposing courage through vulnerability, radically forming lasting connections.
Final Workshop at the Yurt
Two things led up to our emotional experience at the yurt; firstly, we’d had a gruelling day of delving into prioritising diversity and inclusion and we’d just taken invigorating, bonding group photos at twilight, a particularly beautiful time of day in California.
Inside the yurt, we concluded our workshops by writing down an ask related to our goals, or dreams.
These asks turned into a thank you for Scott.
#ThatManScott is #WhyWeGather
Talent Show
Having fostered a close sense of community by day three (unbelievable, but true), we felt comfortable enough to perform in a talent show on our final evening at the ranch in Boonville.
What took place in the barn that night can only be described as a bunch of friends goofing off.
Closing time was called by Scott and Naman, taking us home with touching beat poetry.
Letters from Home
This last interaction before we left Bell Valley Retreat was the most poetic; perfect even.
Before getting on the bus back to San Francisco, we were seated in the dining room a final time — the dining room, by this time had become synonymous with gift sharing, but this was one we weren’t expecting: letters from home.
We opened our letters, I remember a few people exclaiming “What?!” in disbelief and we cried.
The dream was over, we had to wake up, but awaiting us in reality was better than a dream — our friends, our families, our homes.
“Heaven is here. We just have to build it.” — Juan Pablo Forno, Guatemala Chapter Organiser
Farewell at IDEO
As our Gather experience was drawing to a close, we travelled from Boonville to Pier 28, IDEO, a final time. Here, we were met with snacks, friendly, welcoming faces and two panel discussions rooting our mission determined at Gather in reality.
Conditions for Success
A Safe Space
The key to this whole experience and the genius, magic and humanness it brought out in every one of us is the intentional, yet unspoken safe space crafted by all involved.
A safe space isn’t a code of conduct, it’s a feeling.
New, Tranquil Surroundings
We instinctively get excited by new surroundings and allow ourselves to dream a little bit. Pair this with tranquility, nature in its glory, and you’ve got a recipe for suspension of reality.
A Suspension of Reality
To believe in this experience we had to forget about what was going on back home and accept our mission and new community for the next few days. We had to be fully present and able to bring our whole self to conversations.
Somehow, this automatically happened.
The Same Purpose
While a safe, tranquil space may be conducive towards a willing suspension of reality, a shared purpose is also a powerful driver.
Our shared purpose, our raison d’être — social impact powered by design thinking — gave us an instant sense of belonging and turned 28 strangers into friends and even family in only four days.
So those are the conditions that need to be in place in order for an event like Gather to be a success. These conditions also act as steps to follow, in succession.
Once you have safe, tranquil space you can suspend your reality; you can let go, which allows you to be vulnerable and deeply connect with those around you, even finding a shared purpose.
I bet the How Might We went something like this:
How might we gather OpenIDEO Chapter organisers, prototypers and community leaders from all over the globe to build a strong, close community radically and quickly from within?
;)
For more information on the OpenIDEO Johannesburg Chapter and how you can get involved, join our Slack group.
