The Embercombe Effect

How can you describe an experience like Embercombe? I imagine I’m not the only one who’s struggled when explaining to friends and family. Therefore, I decided to approach this blog with less explaining and more scientific rigour — because it’s harder to argue with science. Given my first placement at Avenues Group involves designing a set of social impact measures, here I evaluate my “distance travelled”*

* That’s an impact thing, not actual distance in miles. Although for this weekend, that would also be quite a lot

AimOutcomeBe less afraid of staying in a yurtReduced fear levels from ‘walking by myself through a dodgy park late at night’ to ‘small spider in the bedroom’

Before we left, Anna G tried to convince me that yurts were beautiful, magical structures. She then confessed to never having seen one. The verdict…? Waking up in a comfy, wooden room to silence broken only by animal noises and the wind? Brushing your teeth in the great outdoors? A couple of minutes stroll to go swimming in a lake? Pretty awesome. Though it may have felt rather less romantic in mid-February.

Develop my survival skills to Bear Grylls levelsBased on number of episodes I’d survive if I was a character on Lost, an increase of 2 (from within the first 5 minutes to a tragic end in episode 3)

I confess, a part of me imagined that Embercombe might involve slumming it in the wilderness, bonding over extreme hardship and coming back, Rambo-esque, prepared for the inevitable apocalypse. Or at the very least, hunting & foraging for our own dinner. The reality had rather a lot more tea & biscuits, a friendly offer to sleep under the stars in incredibly warm bivvy bags and some casual digging for potatoes. Nevertheless, I believe the mere prolonged exposure to the countryside has left me more survival skilled.

Build something useful from scratch (without the aid of superglue)I think there may have been other people involved, but mainly down to me that we succeeded in making a functional, stylish object

When I was 14, I had to make a loo-roll holder in DT class. I was supposed to use a jigsaw and box joints and what not. I brought in a tube of superglue from home and pretty efficiently solved the problem. I’m glad that here, I was made to do things the proper way and was proud (in a way I haven’t been in a while) that I had done a satisfying day’s work. It made me think of what Graham Alcott had said to us about productivity; it’s easier if you’re in the business of making tangible things to get the joy of a job well done. What can be done to bring that back to the office?

Get to know my cohort betterGoing from winning £60,000 to £400,000 on the On P April 2013 cohort edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

On the first night when we discussed our hopes for the next few days, everyone agreed that we wanted to become closer as a group (and also to relax — aha-ha). In Johari’s Window terms, I think we all made a conscious effort to bring more into the public space — even through small gestures of openness, through paying more attention to each other. What I think will always stay with me from this trip will be sitting together round an open fire, the stories that were shared, the trust & honesty. A sense of coming together to do inspiring things we can’t achieve on our own.

As tends to happen, some unexpected things came up which made me add to my list of impacts.

• Have fun: forgot about that one. But I reckon fun was certainly had. There was a giant swing. Vijaya’s celebrated her birthday (& Lani her recent engagement) next to a roaring flame, with champagne classily poured into tumblers and a home baked courgette & chocolate cake. I, unexpectedly, lost a game of Scrabble. And who knows what caused all the merriment in the boys yurt….
• Something about leadership: my conclusion on this is, it would be much better on the Apprentice if tasks were managed by Catherine You.
• Explore the concept of sexuality: I actually thought I had a pretty good idea of what sexuality meant but following a few days of debate, have concluded that I possibly don’t. It’s alright though, Tom mentioned there may be an Evening Series.

All that’s left is to think about what I’ve learnt and how I want to use that learning. I enjoy physical activity and creativity, so I’ll be renewing my membership to dance classes as well as seeing what else I can explore. I need to think about what being more emotional or spiritual would mean to me and work out what changes I would like to see in myself & why. And lastly, I am left with Johannes’ advice to take a question with me into the night:

‘What would I like to see us achieve as a group? What would I like for & from each person in my cohort? How can I help build our community?’

I’m looking forward to finding some answers.